University of South Carolina Libraries
JOHN F PROMN By EMERSC AffTHOR pf (THE MISSISSIPPI ILLUSTRATIONS by Ra COPYRIGHT 1912 BY EMERSO) - , t - * f c: SYNQPSOk ) CHAPTER I?John B*wn U Wi to Texas. Early In life he shows signs tf masterfulness and inordinate aelfiohness. CHAPTER 33?He marrieft Laura JohtK smv He is a clerk In a St. Louis. .railway jKBoe when his daughter Gracc la bora. Tears later he hears Grace1* Jorer, a To?n* engineer named Oh arte? Halsey, 4Peak of a scheme to utiliie the lost cur2?tiof electricity. With his usual unUj/uk>u?neas he appropriates the idea M his own and Induces Halsey to perfect ^experimental machine. He forms a ( ompany, with himself as president, at a eiary of U00.0C0 a year, and Halsey as |TOMdent of the works at a salary j ^CHAPTER >.fl?Rawn takes chwrge of ?ie office in Chicago. Virginia Delaware, a beautiful, capable and ambitious young jjoman, is assigned as his stenographer, 8he assists in picking the furniture and decoration for the princely mansion Jtawn has erected. Mrs. Rawn feels out X place in t?e new surroundings, F CHAPTER IV?Halsey goes to New Tork with Rawn and Miss Delaware to eaplain delays In perfecting the new motor to th^ impatient directors. He gets a message that a deformed daughter has been bora to hts wife, Grace Rawn. He ***urns to uoicago. wiAy.jek V?Rawn bargains with Miss pelaware to war his jewelry and appear |n public with him, as * mean* to help bun In a business way. CHAPTER VI?Rawn fa fortunate ta Market speculations, pQes up wealth aad attains prominence. CHAPTER VII?He frets because his Mfe does not rise with him In a soda) way. He gives her a million dollars to leave him. wntrrD TV flwviwk m nrrroo to CrT"n.V 1UX\ XA.*??UVTV? nail, and Halsey continues to live In the cottage near'the works. CHAPTElR X?Halsey'8 machine proves a success, but he keeps the fact & secret. CHAPTE A XI?Virginia Delaware becomes more and more indispensible to Jtawn. He takes her to New York on a business trip. Idle talk prompts him to offer her marriage. CHAPTER XII?They are married. Through Virginia's tact and ability they ?*ke^a place for tbenuehres In the social ~ CHAPTER XIII?Halsey threatens to r f*t a divorce because his wife refuses to return to him. He tells Rawn that'.he has fcrnkan tin all the machines after proving the success of the- Invention. Rawn, In a I great rage, threatens to kill him. CHAPTER XIV?Halsey- declares he irffl never build another machine tot 3fcawn and slaps his face. Virginia Rawn intercepts Halsey as he Is leaving: the aouse and, with arms about hia neck, imv piores him to reconsider, because his decision will ruin them alL. CHAPTER XV?Halsey tells Virginia that he has abandoned his Invention because It would put a great power in the feands of a few to the detriment of the anany. CHAPTER XVT?At Rawn'a instigation Virginia agrees to try to bring Halsey to terms, po matter what It costs, CHAPTER XVTI?The directors plan to ifet the control of the company away mm Rawn. iCHAPTFTc XVm-Rawn goes to Ne* Jfork to attempt to avert impending: disaster, The wolves of finance are closing in on him. Halsey closes the factory and takes op his residence at Graystone hall, where his wife and daughter are seriously jjl. He admits to himself that he lovea Virginia. CHAPTER XIX?Rawn Is ruined financially. Halsey and Virginia confess their love for each other. She. says that was the reason she could not carry out Rawn'j orders. The butler overhears and telli ^Halsey's wife, CHAPTER XX-Grace kills herself and :the child. The first Mrs. Rawn returns j to be with her daughter. Virginia and Halsey tell Rawn of their love for each other, and that they intend to get married as soon as Virginia can get a divorce. 7<?BuF, "Mr. "RawnT Listen! You do not know! Surely you do not understand?" "Understand? What is there left to understand? Didn't I see you both just now? Didn't you?right now? .haven't you got to come across now? Hasn't she done what I told her to -do; what she said she'd do? I told her to bring you back to us again, and she's done it, hasnt she? nnma nn tiato " Via raanmoh flfl JL^UV WUi^ V/U, UVTT| uv A VUMWW) though reluctantly?"I suppose we've jfot to go up there?Grace?? Too bad. . . . But I wanted to see Jen1 nie first." "My God!" -whispered Virginia Sawn, shuddering. "Oh, my God!" "Rawn," said Halsey directly, abandoning even any pretense at courtesy; "the end of the world has come for you, for us all. My wife is dead? she's lucky! My child is dead, too, And that's lncky. It had no life to live, crippled as it was. She killed herself .and the baby. I don't seem to care as J ought to care. And now your wife "has told me that she loves me. It's true! She doesn't love you; she never lias. She has not taken me a prisoner Any more than I have her. We're both In this to-night We're both to blame. But, at the bottom, you are to blame? tor all of this." "Of course! Of course!" smiled John Rawn sardonically. "What would you expect? I am sorry. But 111 never tell any one about it, you Can depend on that!" "You'll never tell!" went on Charles $alsey slowly. .TouTl never need to bB. But here's what I want to tell you, once more. Whatever this is? 43d it's about bad enough?it's come r\f xrm VfW VfiTl VATA thl> Wi / vM? ? ,, ^ _ <Sause of this!" "Yon blame dm?why, what do yon mean!" burst oat John Rawn. "Where i fcave I been to blame, I'd like to know! What do you mean, young Uaan?" "Every word I have told yc% anJ ITor? than I tell ycir TT--"" & think?yQB 4on1 dare to face" the i' IAWN JENT CITIZEN )N HOUGH BUBBLE; 54-40JOR. FIGHT 11T a. iy Walters VgHOUGH truth; liuF there's the real troth. ~Tf you caa*t understand that, take what you can understand. Tour wife Isn't to blame?I'm to blame. Love is to blame. I love her. Pre done this." "You have done?what?" I've taken your wife away from j you, can't you understand, you fool? ; She's going to marry me as soon?" "Jennie!?what's tils fellow talking about?" The veins on Jofcn Rawn's forehead stood high and full. "He is only telling yon the truth," she saiC calmly, wearily. "I don't care one picayune whether or not you i know it! I'm tired! I'm done, with all this sort of thing! Yes, I'm going to marry him as soon as we can get away. As soon as it's decent, if anything's decent any morel" "And you love him, you'll rob me, you'll leave me?you'll?why, are you all crazy? What are you talking about? When I've given you everything you've got?when you were so much to me! Jennie!" "No, no!" she raised a hand. "Don*t talk about that! It's all over now." She tore at her throat, at her fingers, heaped up in his hands the gems she wore even then, the gems she had put upon her person to protect them from uncertain servants, gems which left her blazing like some waxen queen, in her tomb?white, dead, enjeweled; ' "Take them!" she cried. "I don't want them." She went on, piling his hands full of glittering, flashing things. He stood gazing at her, stupefied. Then, slowly, the burden of years, the burden of business failure, and lastly this?the burden of the worst of man's discomfiture, the worst of a man's possible losses?began to weigh down upon him. He shortened visibly; shriveled; drooped. They had ho pity for him. Youth has no pity for age, love no pity for a mate's inefficiency; but after all some sort of contempt, at least, seemed due him. "Rawn," said Halsey, "it'B pretty hard. We're all of us paying a hard. . heavy price for what we thought we had. But we can't evade it, any part of it. It was your fault that Grace left me. We were going to part You sent your wife after me, as you call it I suppose Grace found that out You know what she did then. I said I blame you, and so I do. But I was going to get a divorce?" "Divorce!?you divorce my daughter! John Rawn's daughter!" "Did you not divorce her mother? you, yourself?" "But I loY??h-my wife?I mean, this | woman?Jennie, here!" "So do I love her; more than you | do or ever will know how to do! What you have done well do. Is it worse] for us than it was for you? What's the difference?" "But she's my wife! Why, Jennie!" Hl held out a hand to heft "So was Lat.ra Rawn your wife, my wife's mother," went on Halsey. "What's the difference?" Virginia Rawn stepped between the two. "I'm as much to blame as any one of us all," she said quietly. "Ii sold out to you, didn't I, Mr. Rawn? rinrun tlipro in Np.w York? I married you, didn't I? Very well, what you did, I have done. No more, and not without equal cause. I love him. I'm going to marry him. You and I are going to be divorced?if we were not I'd go to him anyhow. I hate you, I loathe you! My God! how I detest and loathe the sight of you! Go away ?go away?go away from us! You're not any part of a man!" "It's true!" gasped John Rawn to himself; "My God, it's true! She said that?I heard her?to me ? What have I done to deserve this? ... I ought-to kill you," said he to Halsey rvnrlTT OIKJ TT 1J, "Of course you ought," said Halsey. "If you were any portion of a man you would. But you've tried that, and you know where you ended." I "But Halsey?Charley!?you don't stop to think!" began Rawn pitifully. "You will go back?you will go back to the factory, in the morning? You will help me pull it together, won't you?" "No, not one step back to the factory?never in the world! I'm done with that. I'm going away somewhere, and she's going with me, I don't know where. Let some one else work out what you thought we could do, and let some one else take the consequences ?it's not for me. You've got what you earned?I suppose 111 get what I've earned, too. I den't care about , that any more." Rawn could not answer the young | man as he went on slowly, dully, WtI terly. "If I've been traitor to a*y of my own creed I reckon God'll pitnish j me. Very well; I will take my punluVimtinf nn tot ehnnTrt^.Tn T,-rft no iQUIUVUk VM AH J v -w . apologies to make in a place like this. "Haven't you gone up?oughts't.w?? ' to go up now?up-stairs?" he added at last. He put down Virginia's arma from his shoulders; lor once more she ! had come to him. Rawn sighed. "1 suppose I most ' ro tVr*," "be s?fd vaguely. wp hrm^ *r?d talked a way, keary, ! bUtiliuiiUg. 1 CHAPTER XXI. The Means?and the End. Ealsey turned toward Virginia. They did not again embrace, but stood silent, almost apathetic now. Passion was far awav from them indeed had never fully seized them. The despair in human love was theirs; and love is half despair. She might have been some "beautiful statue in white marble, >fio cold was she; and as for the man who faced her, his anger gone, he himself might hav? been the imaga of hopelessness. Central figures of an irreparable ruin, ard seeing no avenue tr\ >iq nninocc fAF ffmA njifthov word for the dfner. At last Halsey raised hie head, as soma sound c?*ught his ear, "Whs*** thatr he sal im "I beard it," said sba. "I think It's some one coining up the walk.* "Yes," he answered. "Listen! Why, it sounds Hie a crowd. What can that mean^ ng>w? W?i$r* He left her smil hastened out to tM front door. He stood there, outlined folly by the hall light? behind him. Those who approached recognized him. He was greeted by a derisive shout, half-maudlin, scarce human in its quality. The solitary servant rushed up, excited. "What is it, Mr. H*lsey?" he quavered. "Is there going to be any trouble? Oh, I ought to have gone away with the others!" "Get out of the way," replied HalBey calmly. "Get back behind the door. I'll go out and meet them." - "Here, you men!" he called out in sudden anger to the visitors. "What do you mean, coming here this way?" He was advancing toward them now, down the steps, into the curving walk, almost to the rim of the circle of light cast by the house lights. "Don't you know any better than to come here at this time, you people? There's trouble in this house. There't death in here. Go on away, at once!" The leader of the scattered group of ill-dressed men stepped forward. "No, we'll not go away at once. We know who you are, all right, Mr. Halsey. Trouble! We're in trouble, too! j We're lookin' for some more trouble* now."' i ' "Well, I'm not to blame for that. What do you mean? Who are you? anyway?" "You ought to know us! We've done up some of your damned sneaks. You cut vour workmen down to the last copper in wages, and yoti didn't pay them that Then when the pinch came, you shut the doors and slunk off, like the coward you wasi Then they came over tb us, at last! , Your scabs is in the unions now." "I haven't done anything of the kind!" retorted Halsey hotly. "I haven't been to the factory for days. When I left there, every cent was paid up. That wasn't any of my business anyhow?I'was not cashier, but factory superintendent." "It's a lie, you know it's a lie! We've come to show you up. We've come to take old man Rawn and you out of this place. We ought to ride him on a rail, and you with him! That's what we ought to do! We want that money." The leader advanced toward him menacingly. "Why, men, I have not got your money?" expostulated Halsey. 'If I | had, this isn't the way to get it from I me? I've always used you fellows squaie! You've got to act that way with iae. I'm In trouble now, I tell you. My wife's dead, and my baby? to-day?in here. You are accusing the best frtenci you have got! Where's Jim SuliJvan? Where's Tim Carney? Where's any of you men that, used to work with me there in the factory? Any one of you ought to know better." "They ain't here; but don't talk that to us! We know what you was doing with them machines. We know -what you was up to. You wanted to take the bread out of our mouths! We seen It all in the papers, the whole thing, i x IX plain enougn. ino wonaer you jiepu iu all blind as you could?you wanted to put us off the earth." ""It's a lie!" cried Halsey sternly. "I broke them up. I threw up my job. I quit because I didn't want to see the bread taken out of your mouths. I stood between the company and just what you say. I wouldn't allow them to make it harder for you than it was. I never lost you a cent of wages?I stood for you all the time, I'm with you now. Why, men, I've been at your meetings, I'm one of you! Don't you know? Don't you remember? You've never asked a thine of me I haven't tried to do, that was in reason. Yon know me! What difference about the union if I'm your sort?" "Yes, ve do know you!" broke in a squat and pallid Jew, forcing himself throagh the thick to the front, and usurping the place of the wavering leader. "By Gott, ve do know you, Mister Halsey! You'fe lied to us, that's vat you'fe done! You'fe been to our meetings, yess, but you'fe betrayed us! I seen you there, yess!" "That's not true!" answered Halsey hotly. "There isn't a word of truth in it! I've lost everything in the world I've got just because that isn't true. My wife's lying dead in that house back there?just because of that! Ify ! child's dead there too?just because of i that?I've lost everything in tile world I have got?just because that isn't true!" The Jew shrieked aloud, half-Insane. | ~To hell Tith this country!" he saM. ! "To hell vitk the rieh that rot) us. If i your vife's dead, It iss Tat's right. My ife, ishell (fie too, she's starfing. To hell vith Rawn and all like Ma!" "Look here, my men, that's about enough of that!" rejoined Halsey. j "You're drunk or crazy, and we're not rolng to stand for t?at here. It's no j place for this -feted cr t trr%n i i Tre done_aIU couW ~*x --au I haven't I f.'' J I _ .. The Nev Capital St WT?h<? Ban i SOI Sim A Ra i V tig< vidua), is and places kets with rnKKprv n IAVMMV& f money in at will? We pa y and today and se est multiplies J sfded with Rawn. ii 1 had, I could be rich to-day." "You are rich!" criedHhe Jew; "and ye are poor. You eat fat, you sleep soft. You are rich! But vat do ve get? I'm hungry! My folks?they are starfing! Ve haf no money. Ve get nr\ -m nr\ av fr\y -rrrw V t'O fin Inns' Tt buys us nothing now. Meat is no more for us; breat, hardly. This is no country for the people. There is no land.vere laws are just. This is no republic of man. Jehovah, send Thy power! Smite and, spare not, this so wrong a land!" "You fanatic, shut up!" began Halsey savagely. "Get out of here. You don't know your own | J*-f -3 ? "TT7T. | IllPDQS? WIIU B LU uiciinc xur jkjulx troubles? Havent you cot heads of Cam* Httrryfnv Forward. | your own ? Haven w ^ou >?.>t rotet o* jo t own? C.ir.'. on rigut your o\yn -wrongs, fae *i .1 . .* you get ready to do it, I'd like to 'mow? I'm for you, do you understate; but you make it hard for any orr^-y hr'p you. , You've "had gin CrfTOT-p my mot) ail the time over tneie, <-.ia now you I Til A wit \ninni ruciijr tjavuij ock : That Always Has Tt JnJ) ADVJ 'I a rSSBiBSr ' ft flawr A/w . rt. UH1UV iiVU Copyrizfct 1909, by C. E. Zinuueinian C0.--N0. 45 nk Account le e to any busines convenient at 5. Why load 3 currency and ri vhen you can our bank and c 4 per cent on savin $1.00 starts an acc e how rapidly comp your money. % im9 -if' | come "ana wane us To pay you for that. You're over here to make trouble tonight, maybe slug me?perhaps that's what you are trying to do to m??and you want us to pay you for that You talk about monopolies nnri trusts?what vou're trying to do is to make the worst trust in the country?a monopoly in ignorance and savagery. Go on home and let me alone! I tell you, my wife is dead. I am going back to her!" "He's lying to us!" cried out a voice in the crowd. "He's trying to get us sorry for him!" "That's it!" screamed the Jew. who had edged to the front and who now' stood crouched, menacing, not far from Halsey's erect and irate frame. "That's vhat he iss. He'ss only trying to fool us. Kill him! Ve've vaited long enough. Gif it to him!" He sprang to one side, crouching. Those back of them, at the gallery, in the rear of the entry, heard some sort of scuffle, a snarling of voices, curses. There were sounds of blows. Then came a flash, a shocking report; after that, a half-instant of silence, and the sound of scattering and departing footsteps. There remained only one figure, ly? ing outstretched on the gravel. To render succor to this, to offer aid, there was now only one human being left in all that place?she who now came hurrying forward. Virginia Rawn half raised Halsey as he lay. "Charley!" she said quietly. "Can you talk?" He gasped and nodded. Through here!" He touched his chest "I guess TO not?be able?" She called out, to any back of her, for aid. The frightened servant came, and between them they got him somehow Into the house, dragging him to the tfold-room library which they had but lately left. They placed him there upon a couch. Virginia Rawn rose and waved the man airay. He hurried after help. "Charley she said, toning to him; "can you talk?" "A little. What Is It, Jennier "You're hurt bad?very bad." "Through here/', he said again, ?sm? touched his chest. His breath was j __Juu .garments were _jctk?4 nrn DamIt p ikmiv wj $50,000 * ie Monej^ irfii- / t, I r ; V )UNT. n ( i * nds pres. ,. : ?s or indiall times rour poc- i nn risk of i i put your ? naplr out i VUi ? * j \ gs deposits, ] ount. Do it tound inter ? I with, blood. His face was bluish-gray.j She looked into Mb semi the query of} her own. Perhaps there was something not wholly unworthy in the bond between them, since now it enabled them to talk, one soul with the other, almost without words. . . The great, secret, all-powerful, world! current, interstellar, not international, the one great power?of love, as she once said?was theirs. . . . Yes,; it was theirs, if only for a little while. "They've killed me," he began after a time?"I tried to do something for! them. He?Rawn?would have used j it for himself. I didn't want to. . . . I "Jennie," he said, after a time; "ll beg pardon, Mrs. Rawn?I forgot? would you take the doll, the little rubber one on the table there, up to thebaby? Poor little thing! Oh, well!" He sighed. She quietly laid him back upon the couch. She heard the j blood drip, drip, through and acrossf the brocaded couch, fulling at the elge j j of the silken rug, on the polished floor, eddying there; thickening there. (TO BE CONTINUED). f Coughs and Consumption. Coughs and colds, when neglected, always lead to serious trouble of the ' lungs. The wisest thing to do when' you have a cold that troubles you is to get a bottle of Dr. King's New Discovery. You will get relief from' the first dos>e, and finally the cougk will disappear. 0. H. Brown, of Mupcadine, Ala., Vrites: "My wife w*s down in bed with an obstinate eouffr and I honestly believe had It not for Dr. King's New Discovery, sle would not be living today." Knoira for forty-three years as the fcart ftmedy for coughs and colds, Prf&e? 50c and $1.00. Recommended fcy fclt druggists. JARBECU1 HOUCJ. We, the undersigned, will give a b#r* ?- * * T B Wf/?Vap% *0. Decile in iiuui ui ??. j. . nivov. i .... township, on the second Saturday ifc July. A JL-Wlete?. J. F, WIeker. 1