The Laurens advertiser. (Laurens, S.C.) 1885-1973, March 04, 1914, 12 PAGES. PART 2, PAGES 9 TO 12, Image 10
__- _ 'nr QLettiner.
12 PAGES. PART 2, PAGES 9 TO 12 -
R VOLUM XXIX. LAURENS, SOUTri CAROLINA, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 4, 1914. NUMBER 32
~7/ IALLIE LMI'
ILU3 TRATED fy
(W'rc x 172B aosaa-i'f/iu, cm
SYNOPSIS.
CI[AP'TgR I-JonI Valiant, a rich so
oloty favorite, suddenly discovers that the
Vatant , corporation, which his father
~OUnded ,and which was tho principal
ourcu of his wealth, has failed.
CHAPTER II-bo voluntarily turns
ver his private fortune to the receiver
L tecorporation.
CHAPTER III.
The Turn of the Page.
John Valiant stirred and laughed, a
ttle self-consciously, for there had
!een drops on his face.
Presently he took a check-book from
his pocket and began to figure on the
stub, looking up with a wry smile. "To
come down to brass tacks," he mut
tered, "when I've settled everything
(thank heaven, I don't owo my tailor!)
there will be a little matter of twenty
eight hundred odd dollars, a passe mo
$or and my clothes between me and
,he bread-line!"
EN erything else ho had disposed of
-everything but the four-footed com
Tade there at his feet. "But I'd not
sell you, old chap," he said, softly;
"not a single lick of your friendly
pink tongue; not for a beastly hun
dred thousand!"
He withdrew his caressing hand and
looked again at the check-stub. Twen
ty-eight hundred! He laughed bleakly.
hy, he had spent more than that a
yoonth ago on a ball at Sherry's! This
(morning he had been rich; tonight he
was poor!
What could he do? He could not
Temember a time when he had not had
all that he wanted. He had never bor
rowed from a friend or been dunned
by an importunate tradesman. And
be had never tried to earn a dollar in
his life; as to current methods of mak
Ing a living, he was as ignorant as a
Pueblo lhdian.
lie rose grimly and dragged his
chair facing the window. The night
was balmy and he looked down across
he darker sea of reefs, barred like a
gigantic checker-board by the shining
nes of streets, to where the flashing
electric signs of the theater district
id their wide swath of colored ra
diance. The manifold calls of the
treet and the buzz of trolleys mado a
ill tonal background, subdued and
r-away.
To be outs'de! All that light and
oolor and comfort and pleasure would
hum and sparkle on just the same,
though he was no longer within the
tircle of its effulgence-slaving per
baps, he thought with a twisted smile,
some tawdry occupation that called
for no experience, to pay for a meal
some second-rate restaurant and a
llet in some shabby-genteel, hall
room, till his clothes were replaced
ill-fitting "hand-me-downs"-till by
wretched gradations he arrived finally
st the status of the dime seat in the
gallery and five-cent cigars!
There was one way back. It lay
through the hackneyed gateway of
marriage. Youth, comeliness and fine
Unaen, in the world he knew, were a
fair exchange for wealth any day.
'Cutlet for cutlet"-the satiric phrase
an through his mind. Why not?
rhera did so, And as for himself, it
Ho Had Suddenlty Remembered That,
it Was Hift Twenty-fifth Birthday.
erhaps* heed be no question of plain
and spinstered millions-there was
tarine Fargo!
*In his heart John Valiant was aware,
by those subtle signs which men and
women alike distinguish, that while
:Katharine Fargo loved first and fore
.moot her own wonderful person, he
ad been an easy second in her re
AUREN $TOUT
gard.
John Valiant looked down at the
bulldog squatted on the floor, his eyes
shining in the dimness. A little hot
ripple had run over him. "Not on
your life, Chum!" he said. "No shame
less barter! There must be other
things besides money and social posi
tion in this doddering old world, after
all! \Ve're going to begin something
for ourselves, If it's only raising cab
bages! And we're going to stand it
without any baby-aching-the nurse
never held our noses when we took
our castor-oil!"
It was folded down, that old bright
page. Finis had been written to the
rose-colored. hapter. And even as he
,told himself, he was conscious of a
new rugged something that had been
slowly dawning within him, a sense of
courage, even of zest, and a furious
hatred of the self-pity that had
wrenched him even for a moment.
le turned from the window, picked
up his letters, and followed by the dog,
went slowly up another flight to his,
room.
* * M i " " t *
le tore open the letters abstracted
ly: the usual dinner-card or two, a:
tailor's spring announcement, a
chronic serial from an exclamatory
marble-quarrying company, a quarterly
statement of a club house-committee.
The last two missives bore a nonde
script look.
One was small, with the name of
a legal firm in its corner. The other
was largish, corpulent and heavy, of
stout Manila paper, and bore, down
one side, a gaudy procession of post
age stamps proclaiming that it had
been registered.
"What's in t'aat, I wonder?" he said
to himself, ard then, with a smile at
the unmasculine speculation, opened
the smaller envelope.
"Dear sir," began the letter, in the
most uncompromisingly conventional
of typewriting:
"Dear Sir:
"Enclosed please find, with title
deed, a memorandum opened in your
name by the late. John Valiant some
years before his death. It was his
desire that the services indieated in
connection with this estate should conl
tinue till this date. We hand you
herewith our check for $236.20 (two
hundred and thirty-nix dollars and
twenty cents), the balance in your fa
vor, for which please send receipt,
"And oblige,
"Yours very tru'y,
"Emerson and Ball."
"(Enclosure)
He turned to the memorandum. It
showed a sizable initial deposit against
which was entered a series of annual
tax payments with minor disburse
ments credited to "inspection and
care." The tax receipts were pinned
to the account.
The larger wrapper contained an un
sealed envelope, across which was
written in faded ink and in an unfa
miliar dashing, slanting handwriting,
his own name. The envelope con
tained a creased yellow puarchment,
from between whose folds there
clumped and fluttered down upon the
floor a long flattish object wrapped
in a paper, a newspaper clipping and
a letter.
Puzzled he unfolded the crackling
thing in his hands. "Why," he said
half aloud, "it's-it.'a a deed made over
{me." lie overran it swiftly. "Part
of an old Colony grant * * *a
plantation in Virginia, twelve hun
dired odd acres, giveni under the hand
of a vice-regal governor in the six
teenth century. I had no idea titles
in the United States wvent back so far
as that!" His eye fled to the end.
"It was my father:! What could ho
have wanted of an estate in Virginia?
It must have comec lnte his hanids in
the course of business."
lie picked up the newspaper clip
ping. It was worn and broken in the
folds as if it had been carried for
months in a pockketbook.
"It will interest readers of this sec
tlon of VIrginia (the paragraph be-,
gant) to learn, from a recent transfer
received for record at the County.
Clerk's ofice, that Damory Court haa,
passed to Mr. John Valiant, minor-"
He turned the paper over .and found
a date; it had been printed in the year
of the transfer to himself, when he
was six years old-the year his father
had died.
"--John Valiant, minor, the son of
the former owner.
"There are few inudeed who do not
recall the tragedy with which in the
public mind the estate is connectedl.
The fact, moreover, that this old home
stead has beeni left in its present state
(for, as is well known, the house hjas
remained with all its contents and fur
nishings untouched) to rest during
long a term of years unoccupied, could
not, of course, fail to be commented)
on, and this circumstance alone has,
perhaps tended to keep alive a melan-1
*holy story which may well be for.
gotten."
He read the elaborate, rather stilted
phraseology in the twenty-year-old pa-:
per with a wondering interest. "An
old house," he mused, "with a bad.
'name. Probably he couldn't sell it,,
and maybe nobody would ever live in'
it. That would explain why it re-,
mained so long unoccupied-why there
are no records of rentals. Probably
the land was starved and run down.
"It's an off-set to the hall-bedroom;
Idea, at any rate," ho said to himself)
humorously. "It holds out an escape
from the noble army of rent-payers.
When my twenty-eight hundred is
gone, I could live down there a landed!
proprietor, and by the same mark an
honorary colonel, and raise the cab
bages I was talking about-eh, Chum?
-while you stalk rabbits. How does
that strike you?"
He laughed whimsically, He, John)
Valiant, of New York, first-nighter at
tits theaters, hail-fellow-well-met in its.
club corridors and welcome diner at
any one of a hundred brilliant gl
and-silver-twinkling supper tables,, eni
.ombed en the wreck of a Virginia)
plantation, a would-be country gentle-;
man, on an automobile and next tot
.nothing a yearl
He bethought himself of the fallen'
letter and possessed himself of it,
quickly. It lay with the supersorip
tion side down. On it was written, i
the same hand which had addressed.
the other envelope:
For my son, John Valiant,
When he reaches the age of twenty.
five.
That, then, had been written by his,
father-and he had died nearly twentyi
years ago! He broke the seal with a
strange feeling as if, walking in some
familiar thoroughfare, he had stum
bled on a licheneri and sunken tomb
stone.
"When you read this, my son, you
will have come to man's estate. It is
curious to think that this black, black;
ink may be faded to gray and this:
white, white paper yellowed, just from
lying waiting so long. But strangest
of all is to think that you yourself'
whose brown head hardly tops this
desk, will be as tall (I hope) as I!
How I wonder what you will look like
then! And shall I-the real, real I, I,
mean-bo peering over your strong
broad shoulder as you read? Who
knows? Wise men have dreamed such
a thing possible-and I am not a bit
wise.
"John, you will not have forgotten,
that you are a Valiant. But you are
also a Virginian. \Vill you have dis-.
covered this for yourself? here is the
deed to the land where I and my
father, and his father, and many, many
more Valiants before them were born.
Sometime, perhaps, you will know why
you are John Valiant of New York in
stead of John Valiant of Damory
Court. I can not tell you myself, be
cause it is too true a story, and I have,
forgotten how to tell any but fairy
tales, where everything happens right,;
'where the Prince marries the beautiful:
Princess and they live happily to
gether ever after.
"You may never care to live at
Damory Court. Maybe the life youl
will know so well by the time youj
read this will have welded you to It
self. If so, well and good. Then leave:
the old place to your son. But there 1st
'such a thing as racial habit, and the'
call of blood, And I know there Is,
such a thing, too, as fate. 'Every
man carries his fate on a riI
band about his neck;' so tho
Moslem put it. It was my fate to
go away, and I know now-since dis
tance is not mado by miles alone-i
that I myself shall never see Damory!
Court again. Blut life is a strange
wheel that goes round and round and,
comes back to the same point again'
and again, And it may be your fate to!
go back. Then perhaps you will cry!
(but, oh, not on the old white bear's:
skin rug-naver- agat, with me holdingi
your small, small hand!)
"'Wishing-H-ouso! Wishing-Hlouse!
Where are you?'
"And this old parchnmnt deed wil
answer
"'Ilere I am, Master; here I am!'
"Ah, we are only children, after all,
playing out our plays. I have had,
many toys, but 0 John, John! The'
ones I treasure most are all in the'
INever-Never Land!"
CHAPTER IV.
A Valiant of Virginia.
For a long time John Valiant sat
motionless, the opened letter in his
hand, staring at nothing. lie had ,the
sensation, spiritually, of a traveler
awvakoned with a rude shock amfd,
wholly unfamiliar surroundilngs.
lie was trying to remember-to putj
two and two together. His father had!
been Southern-borni; yes, he had
known that. But he had known noth-,
ing whatever of his father's early days,,
or of his forebears; since he had been
old enough to wondeor about such
things, he had had1 no onaen toas
questions of.
Phrases of the letter ran through,
his mind: "Sometime, perhaps, you!
will know why you are John Valiant
of New York instead of John Valiant'
of Damory Court * * * I cannot
tell you myself." There was some
tragedy, then, that had blighted the
place, some "melancholy story," as the
clipping put it.
Ilo bent over the deed spread out
upon the table, following with his hlu
ger tho long line of transfers: "'To
John Valyante," ho muttered: "what
odd spelling! 'Robert Valyant'-with
out the 'e.' Here, in 1730, the 'y' be
gins to bo 'L'" There was something
strenuous and appealing in the long
line of dates. "Valiant. Always a Va
liant. flow they held on to it! There's
never a break."
A curious pride, now-born and self
conscious, was dawning In hIm. H11
was descended from ancestors who
had been no weaklings. A Valiant had
settled on those acres under a royal
governor, before the old frontier,
fighting was over and the Indiana
had sullenly retired to the westward.
The sons of those who had braved
sea and savages had bowed their
strong bodies and their stronger hearts.
to raze the forests and turn the,
primeval jungles into golden planta.
ions.
There stole Into his mood an eery
suggestion of intention. Why should
the date assigned for that deed's de
livery have been the very day on
which he had elected poverty? IHero
was a foreordination as pointed as the
index-linger of a guide-post. "'Every
man carries his fate,'" he repeated,
"'on a riband about his neck.' Chum,
do you believe in fate?"
For answer the bulldog, cocking an
alert eye on his master, discontinued
his occupation-a conscientious if un
successful mastication of the i ttish
packet that had fallen from the folded
deed-and with much solicitous tail
wagging, brought the sodden thing in
his mouth and put it into the out
stretched hand.
His master unrolled the pulpy wad
and extricated the object it had en
closed-an old-fashioned Iron door-key.
* * * * * * * *
After a time Valiant thrust the key
into his pocket, and rising, went to a'
trunk that lay against the wall.
Searching in a portfolio, he took out
a iarnall old-fashioned photograph;
much battered and soiled. It had been
cut from a larger group and the name
of the photographer had been erased.
from the back. 'e set it upright on
the desk, and bending forward, looked
long at the face it disclosed. It was
the only picture he had ever possessed
of his father.
lie turned and looked into the glass
above the dresser. The features were
the same, eyes, brow, lips, and strong
waving hair. But for its time-stains'
the photograph might have been one.
of himself, taken yesterday.
(Continuled Next Week.)
IETIR E) (EOROtI A PLA NTE'
ADVICE TO KIDNEY Sl!FFEREI(S
Ttegarding the wonderful curative
merits of your Swamp-Boot, I cannot
say too much. After suffering severe
ly for three years or more with severe
pains caused by weak kidneys, I was
finally induced to try Swamp-Root
through a testimonial I read in one of
the newspapers. I was in such a con
dlition that I was obliged to arise from
my b~ed six or eight times every nIght.
I purchasedi a tifty-cent bottle and he
fore it was uisedi I feit s0 mulchi relief
that I purehlased a one-dollar bottle
and i by the time tis was taken thle
01(1 pains1 had1( left my back angq I couild
sleep the whlole night through i. I am
aL retIred planter, 70 years df age, anid
owing to Drm. Kilme'r's Wvampl-Root,
I am1 Inl tihe best lof h1 Itlh and1 feel
lik e a bloy. T am in1w: s glad to ree
omm ienld Swamnp-i 5oo to those who
are Inl needl of it.
Sineer(t y yours,
hlowersville, GIa.
Pezrsonlally' a ppear1ed before me1(, this
Sth of Se'ptembher, 1909. C. 1'4 lI hery
who su bsciibed the above statenmen t
anld m ade oathI that the same is true inl
sumbstanmce and( 1in fact.
TI. Hi. MeI,ane,
Notary Pubillic.
teithr to Dr. H:~mier & Co., inghami
ton, N. 1.
Proi e Whait Svaimip-Iloot Will lDo For
You.
Fi.ndl tenl cets to iDr. Kilmer & Co.,
lHinghaI~ton, N. Y., for a sample sizie
bot tle. It willI conlvince any13ong. Youl
will also receive a booklet of valuable
information, tellIng about. the kidnleys
and1( bladd~er. Whben w ritinhg, he surme
and ment11(1Ion the I ,aulrens Weekly3 Adl
er1tisor. Itegularm fifty-cent and one
(d11ar- size bottles for sale at all dIrugt
stores.
WILLIAMS' ICIDNEY PILLS
ifave you overworlc'd1 your nervous. sys
temr an11( ca usedl trouble with your ki<d
neysm and bladdler? hanve you Jpa osin
loins. side, back and bl:aider? I l -vo
fh!ia i t npparnna r th le fnair ' -
for the eyes' A fir"e'iet de'ar.
'rine? If so, W iero: ' '
I.i1'!?l5'%': niTfr
HOMEMADE GOODS
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? 1 ii' 'iiip lnIet re-e., (oIn' a11(1 .i' horse iltIw he taxiii . bi Ijai t i
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? th.o the 41ol t(oip awav.y, wy-f-an ti is nat\\.
W. B. BRAMLETT'S SONS
* Wood Work and Blacksmithing
Horseshoeing a Specialty
EVERYBODY KNOWS
Planters Guano
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' TilE 1.EST". l (>.AD~ICt Ml' GUANO1N TO 11810, ON IyI~I(Nit-I
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For cot ton. if' yourII land is rerl amt (lay subsoil. use 10.:-2 t
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For Ii gray latal wit h elay subsoil. fo r cotion. 1u1s 8u 4-(, -4 or 8-: 3.
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W(e yo 1u I'\111\'1l ti ft-emIlll 11s1 you11( g o full value,(1 you1( 1.1. 1'11),v
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Shrewd auto owners compose our customers. Airnowg Ihemn are
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excellent teals frion the factories and now offer our pu.rIhasgs at
the following prices: dr
Among our tires arm Diuoufg, G loodyar, Quaker, Nassau, Em
During the peas dulfit thWintrutobil motsa e se cdsome
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ALL TIRES GUARANTI * D F'ULLY. NOT1I0 TPIfMSlC PRICESI
OA R 'PU TL
T.SIZE T REIGEY siI D 1TRJN'WER
0 28x3 $7.20 $1.65 11.90 $1.35
I 30x3 7.80 1.95 320 14
30x3%A 10.80 2.80 3.le ..9
31x3% 11.00 2.90 31.20 1.95
32x3l/% 110(a 2.95 32720
Q 34x3%A 12.40 :3.00 31.30 20
31x4 1:3.45 3.20 3.60 2.35
324 3.70 :1.35 3J0 2.40
'4 x 4 16.80 :3.60 4.0.026
35x4~ 17.25 3.75 4.20 2.70
36417.85 :3.90 4.25 2.80
314\x 4 18.00 41.80 5.10 3.40
35x'd4% 18.75 4.85 5.20 3.45
I 37x4 % 21.50 5.10 5.40 .70*
* 36x5 23.00 5.80 6.20 -4.00*
3 .7x6 241.40 5.90 6.35 4.20
WE~ CA~N FURNISHI ALL OTHIER SIZ'ES---ION-&KlD) 10 PE~R *
5Our suplply of these tires is lImited, so we adlvise early awdoring.
Rlemnember, they areo new, clean, fresh, fully gnauanted goods. All
TrUlIMS- PE '1R CBNTI DISCOUNT if1 full amiount accompvanles
or dr. C. 0. D. upon0 receit or 10 per cenit or cot. Prompit ithip
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order now.
Tire Factories Sales bompany
Davton. Ohio