The Wapanucka Press (Wapanucka, Okla.), Vol. 13, No. 19, Ed. 1 Thursday, September 11, 1913 Page: 3 of 8
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WAPANUCKA, OKLA., PRESS
m
"Will—Will You Marry Me?" He Blurted.
QOP/JlKUfT 1*12
TiHe ooBBS-JttJuuiL camwy
CHAPTER I.
5WWOMAN
Terhune,
founded on
Wliam G de Milled Play
WAV Illustrated with Photo? fiwi tfoP/qy
and Drawings & WLfismcj
Five Years Before. •
The Woman looked up from her task
of fitting the trunk tray into exact po-
sition Standiah noted vaguely that
'the effort of packing had not made her
red or frowsy. Even as she sat there
on the floor beside the nearly-full
trunk, with a litter of garments about
Iher, her pose was not ungraceful. Yet
h6r face was oddly tense, and her
clenched hands spoke of self-control
ibard to maintain.
"No," she said patiently, as though
trying to teach a lesson to some rather
istupid child, "that isn't what I mean,
lat all. I mean, it's—over. Can't you
understand?"
"Why, yes,"; answered Standish, "of
course I understand. ,Why shouldn't
II? It's over. You will be safe at your
aunt's house by six o'clock this eve-
ning, and you will start for Europe to-
morrow, just as you arranged. And
our wonder-week is ended. And for
ithe next three months I'll be counting
«very—"
"Oh!" Interrupted the Woman, her
hard-worn patience going to pieces.
"Won't you understand? I said It was
lover. Over! Not for three months
■or tor any other time. But for always.
Why do you make me put it this
Jway? I tried to say it more—"
"You don't mean"—he began thick-
fly, his throat sanded and sore.
The Woman nodded.
"But," he protested lamely, "It—It
«an't be. Why, girl, you love me!"
"I thought I did. Oh, I was so sure
|I did! But little by little, for days,
I've begun to understand. Don't look
at me like that! Do you suppose I
enjoy talking so? It has to be said.
And you're not making It a bit easy
for me."
"Forgive me," he answered, a bitter
note creeping into his heavy voice.
"You are wrecking me. You are
smashing all I hold dear. You are
making my future as barren as a
rainy sea. Forgive me for not making
the process a bit easy for you."
"You have no right to say such
things!" she flared. "It Is cowardly.
It Is ungenerous."
"Why? Because you are a woman?
A woman may flay a man. She may
break his life to pieces for her own
.amusement If he dares to protest, he
Is cowardly and ungenerous. Becausa
she is a woman. A man's bands are
tied behind him by that asinine old
tradition. How about the woman who
pommels a man when she knows hta
' hands are so tied? Isn't she as 'cow-
ardly' and 'ungenerous' as I would
be If I thrashed a cripple? And yet
women clamor for their 'rights!'—
Rights'! With one-tenth of the 'rights'
that silly chivalry showers upon wom-
en, I could conquer the whole world!"
"But you could not conquer one
woman. If I begged you to avoid a
scene It was as much tor your own
sake a* for mine. Since you will have
one, let's get it over with as quickly
as we can. Here la the situation In a
handful of words: 1 met you. You
weren't like any other man I'd ever
fcnowa.
ship me at sight—or pretend to, which
comes to the same thing. It didn't
seem to Interest you that I had money
and that other men made fools of
themselves over me. And then ybur
Quixotic ideas about politics and gov-
ernment and all that sort of thing, ap-
pealed to me. These and other rea-
sons of the same kind made me think
I was in love with you."
■"You didn't think. You were!
And—"
"Perhaps. Perhaps not. Does it
matter—now? Isn't that also an ef-
fort to save the anchor after th^
wreck? But never mind. I thought
I loved you. With your impractical
hlgh-souled Ideas about political re-
form and the people's wrongs you
seemed to me a modern Galahad; in-
stead of just a —Don Quixote."
"Ah!"
"I'm sorry it makes you wince. But
it's the truth. And the truth is gen-
erally painful. When you wanted to
marry me. I felt as though a demigod
had stooped to earth. That isn't the
m
No Woman Ever Really Loved a Man
Because He Was Qood."
way to feel when one marries. I didn't
know It then. I do, now. And per-
haps the knowledge that 1 would not
be allowed to marry you just yet, or
even acknowledge our engagement,
helped strengthen the infatuation.
Then when I found I must go to Eu-
repe so soon, and you begged me to
give you Just this one 'perfect week.'
:t all seemed so natural—so right—so
beautiful—"
"1 was wrong!" he cried. "I was In-
sane. I had no right to suggest It 1
had no right to let you consent"
But, womanltke. she would not let
him blame himself.
"It waa not your fault," she cried.
"Or If there were fault at all It waa
You didn't fall down and wor-1 mine u touch as your*. I say yoa
"begged* me to come here. You did
not. At your first hint I was aa eager
as you. Perhaps," she added with a
return of her forced hardness, "It was
not quite the way one would expect a
Oalahad or a Quixote to spend a week.
But the blame Is as much mine as
yours. So don't let's talk of that
Can't we both forget It?"
"Forget it? Why, girl. It's my whole
life."
"It is an episode whose memory can
be sweet or bitter as we choose to
make It. We were clever enough to
leave no trace when we went away.
I'm supposed to be on a visit and
your worthy constituents were told
that their congressional representa-
tive was going away to recuperate,
somewhere in the mountains. You
will return from your vacation much
benefited—If a little vague as to its
details. And I will go back to my
aunt's tonight, prepared to start hap-
pily on my European trip tomorrow
mornihg. That is all."
"Oh, girl, 1 love you! You are
mad—insane—to talk this way—to
plan what you are planning. Can't
you see it? Won't you give me
a chance to get back your love? 1
had it once—1 can get it again if you
will give me the chance. I know I can
make you happy."
A smile that savored of the rack
twisted her set lips—and died before
it reached her eyes.
"No, dear," she contradicted gently,
"you can't make me happy. I doubt
if you can make any woman happy. A
woman—one who didn't know the un-
Qalahad side of you as I do—might
reBpect or even reverence you. But
you couldn't hold her love. No woman
ever really loved a man because he
was good; or because he fought
against political evils or slew dragons.
She might admire him for it. Hut ad-
miration and reverence are petty poor
every-day fare. When your wife want-
ed you to say crazy adoring things to
her, you would be thinking out a new
Insurgent plan by which you could
block the machine in congress. When
she hoped you'd buy her some candy
or a few flowers on your way home
from the Capitol, you'd be too busy
framing your next speech to think of
such trifles. Those same trifles and
hh wild extravagance of praise and
the quick noticing of anything she
puts on to please him, are the cords
that lash a woman's heart to a man's.
Not her pride in the way he is fighting
his country's political battles."
"Listen!" pleaded Standish. "I'll
give it all up: my seat in congress, my
fight for the people, my political hopes
—everything! I'll give it all up—all—
if you will marry me and give me a
chance to make you love me again."
"It's no use," she returned. "For the
moment you almost carried me off my
feet. 1 can understand now why your
speeches that read so stupidly, can
sway people. But it's only an im-
pulse. Inside of an hour you would
question it. inside of a day you would
regret it—"
"No! No!"
"And inside of a week you would
be secretly reading every scrap of con-
gressional newB and cursing your lot
at being out of the fight. It would be
like all sacrifices. In time one gets to
hating the person one made them for.
Oh, It would be misery for us both!
It would be even worse than this
week."
"Today there seems much I don't
understand," he retorted. "But one
thing is very clear to me: the course
you've chosen is an impossible one
for you. You must marry me. If not
for love, then because it is the right
thing to do. I do not ask you to care
for me or even to live in the same
house with me. But for your own sake
you must—"
"It is for my own sake that I must
do nothing of the sort. You get your
ideas of life from books. Too many
people do that I am not going to let
this one mistake ruin every bit of my
future. I won't let one moment of folly
blot all my life. Men don't. Why
should women? There is still much
In the world for me. And for you, too,
if you'll look at It sanely. Oh, I know
my kind of sanity shocks you. But
it Is sanity. You are held back by
centuries of traditions. Your father
began life as a millionaire's son. Mine
began it In an Irish orphange. Your
grandfather was a supreme court
judge. I don't know who mine was.
There must be something, after all, in
this talk of heredity. For instance.
I don't suppose there's a girl in all
your sisters' set who would have con-
sented to a 'honeymoon' like ours, is
there? Your sisters wouldn't have
done such a thing, would they?"
>"No!" he exclaimed in'Involuntary
disgust.
At hiB word and tone a faint red
showed across the Woman's face as If
he had struck her lightly with his
open hand. But at once she recovered
herself.
"Let's say goodby and part as
friends," she suggested. "No irremed-
iable harm is done. Except for myself,
you are the only person hurt You'll
have to stand that as part of the price
of—"
"You are mistaken," he broke in.
"Others, besides myself, are affected."
"Who?"
"1 don't know. But this I do know:
No one can live to himself or herself.
No one can say: 'My fault or folly
hurts me alone.' In this miserable old
world of ours, we are all tangled up in
one another's destinies. And when
one tea<s loose the cord that binds
him, the vibration of tbat wrench will
soon or late reach and affect people
whom he perhaps does not even
know."
"The cord you speak of," she
mocked, "Is that boly bond known as
Conventionality, Isn't It? The bugbear
that the weak and the prim have
raised to scare the strong and the
courageous."
"No. The beaten path that ten bil-
lion failures and tragedies since the
birth of Time have shown to be the
only safe one. Conventionality's path
may seem to the nearsighted to be
twisted foolishly, and unnecessarily
long. But each of those twists repre-
sents the place where the Man in
Front wisely stepped aside to avoid
the pitfall Into which the man
ahead of him had tumbled. And the
short cuts In the long tortuous road
are white with the bones of failures."
"I'm going to walk over those same
whitened bones in my short cut from
one point of Conventionality's twisted
path to another. I'm going to walk
back from a union that would mean
misery to me—back to the pleasant
home life and social life I love and
don't mean to lose. Don't worry. No
whitened bones will turn under me
and bring me a fall. I can defy the
bogy, Conventionality, and still live
h^PPf."
"Others have defied the bogy. You
are not the first nor the millionth. To
most of them it seemed as safe as it
seems to you."
"Yes? I should like to meet them
and compare notes."
"You will not meet them," he an-
swered grimly, "but you will tread on
their bones—In the short cut. Even
as some futu"<i challenger of Conven-
tionality shan one day tread on yours."
CHAPTER II.
The Girl and the Boy.
The Hotel Keswick telephone girl
was a character. Even the politicians
who made the big Washington cara-
vansary their headquarters recognized
that. Some of them had sought to un-
bend from their labors at law-building
and law-sapping long enough to try to
Improve their casual acquantance with
her. But they had one and ail aban-
doned the effoiTt.
Not that Miss Wanda Kelly was In
the very least shy. No, she had a re-
sponsive word for everybody. Only,
sometimes that word had a queer way
of searing instead of flattering.
"If Joan of Arc had been brought
up in the alleys," once observed the
Honorable Tim Neligan, "and if she's
been nursed on iron tonic and learned
her alphabet from George Ade's fables,
she'd have been a dead ringer for Wan-
da Kelly."
To which the more or less Honor-
able Jim Blake had made reply:
"Maybe that hello girl was all Wan-
da when she started out. But a Kes-
wick switchboard course has made
her all Kelly. I don't know why no
one reports her for being fresh. Ex-
cept, maybe, that he'd have to tell
what he said to her to bring out the
fresh come-back."
In any case, no one did report Wan-
da Kelly. There, In an alcove under
the great garish stairway, she sat day
after day manipulating her racks of
switches. To her left were the tele-
phone booths; to her right the corri-
dor where all the political world pass-
ed her in review. Behind her—and,
when voices chanced to be raised in
eagerness or dispute. In easy ear-shot
—was a spot where far more history
was made than in the Capitol ltBelf.
This historic place was a deep niche
known to local fame as "the amen
corner." It was ofT the beaten track
of the corridor, yet a vantage-point
whence everything was visible. Here
Jim Blake—long, lean, saturnine mas-
ter of the machine—had a way of sit-
ting, his eternal cigar in one corner
of hiB mouth, his slouch hat aslant on
his head or under his chair. And here,
like filings to the magnet, the men who
gleaned In Jim's wake, and whose po-
litical life hung on his curt nod, would
cluster.
One evening as the dinner crowd
was drifting Along the corridor toward
| th^ huge dining-rooms, Wanda noted
that the amen corner held but two
| men. Both of them she knew, and
both were very evidently awaiting Jim
Blake's return from the Capitol. More
than one passer-by along the corridor
nudged his companions and pointed
1 out the elder of the corner's two occu-
pants.
The object of these surreptitious
glances was a fine-looking, rather
portly man of early middle age—the
: Honorable Mark Robertson, former
. governor of New York, present repre-
sentative in congress from the same
state and—equally important—Jim
Blake's son-in-law. More—he was the
man whom the machine, at its master's
orders, had slated as next speaker of
the house. Yes, and perhaps if all
one beard were true, for a far higher
office later on.
Wanda Kelly knew this. And, thanks
to overheard scraps of amen-corner
talk, she knew much more. She had
often seen Robertson. Now and then
she had received a careless nod from
him or from his stately young wife,
Blake's only daughter, who so often
vhlle congress was In session ran
down from the Robertson house in
New York for a sojourn of a day or
two with her husband and father at
the capital.
Yet Wanda wasted fewer thoughts
just now on the celebrity than on the
much younger man with whom he was
talking. And perhaps her thoughts
had telepathic power. For, as Robert-
son strolled out into the foyer, his
companion crossed directly to the
switchboard rail and stood looking
down at the girl.
Wanda did not see him. Or, If she
"I Don't Love You."
did. it was not with her eyes. And
before he could speak, the telephone
buzzer rasped out.
"Wanda!" said the young man who
was leaning over the rail.
It was the third time he had broken
in. But, busy rattLng the switch pegs,
she did not hear.
"Wanda Kelly!" he exclaimed, ex-
asperated.
She looked up with a suddenness
that startled him.
"Well?" she asked sharply.
"Will—will you marry me?" he
blurted, her unexpected word and look
diivlag the speech from his lips as
though he had been struck between
the shoulders.
"What?" she queried in polite sur-
prise.
"I asked." he said, trying to cover
up his impetuosity with a weak show
of irony, "I asked If you are going to
marry me or not."
"No," she answered, unruffled. "I am
not. That's the answer. Same as
when you asked me before. And the
time before that. And so on back to
the beginning. And then some—until
you can learn to take 'No' for an an-
swer."
"I can't take It," he returned glumly,
"and I won't take It. Maybe you think
I get a lot of fun being thrown down
like this. It means more to me than
I you've got patience to hear. I'm going
I all to smash. Oh. you needn't laugh.
It isn't so funny to me."
(Tt> BE CONTINUED.)
IMMENSE' STORES OF COAL
Supplies for the Ships of All Coun-
tries Are to Be Kept Con-
stantly at Panama.
When the Panama canal Is opened
two years hence there will be coal
on hand for the ships of all the world
—a tremendous supply—which will
be added to as fast as it is taken
away to the seven seas.
There will be two great coal-rtorage
basins—one at Cristobal, for the At-
lantic entrance, and one at Balboa,
tor the Pacific. At the former place
290,090 tons will be keptfon hand; at
the latter 160,000. In each the stor-
age will be In huge basins of rein-
forced concrete, in which about half
the coal will be stored under water,
for use In time of war, and the
other half above the sea level, to be
taken from and added to continually
for the ordinary uses of commercial
and government vessels. An Im-
mense plant of cranes, cars, buckets
and other machinery will be Installed
to handle the coal as economically as
possible.
The cranes will unload coal from
ships; a conveying system will trans-
fer It to bridges spanning the storage
basin and duihp It at any place de-
| sired; and a system of buckets oper-
ating upon these bridges will make It
; possible to lift coal from the storage
t basin, and by mean.* of conveyors
; raise it to loading machines that will
1 drop It into collier? o- lighters. The
I Cristobal plant will b. capable of un-
loading 1,000 tons and loading 2.000
tons of coal eac.!i hour, and the Bal-
boa plant 500 and 1,000 tons.
Vessels requiring bunker coal will
not go alongside the wharves of the
plants, but will be coaled In mid-
stream from barges.
It Was a Pity.
They have a wise ten-year-old boy In
an east end family, and- some of his
sayings are really worth peddling. At
least, ^is father thinks they are, or he
wouldn't tell this one. v
The other day the younster ap-
proached .his father and stared at him
tor some time.
"Daddy," he finally said, "you think
mamma is the most beautiful person
you ever saw, don't you?"
"Of course," replied the father, with
great promptness.
Again the boy scrutinised his pa-
rent.
"Gee, daddy," he finally said, "It's
an awful pity she cant say the
thing about yoa, ain't It?"
BUND SPELLS
F0RU0N6 TIME
Mil. Linn Tells of Her Experisaca
and How She Finally Came
Oil All Right
Elkwood, Ala.—Mrs. Mattte. Largen,
of this town, writes the following
letter for publication: "My health
was very bad for a long time, oa
account of womanly trouble. 1 suf-
fered a great deal, at different times,
with headache, and pains in the bot-
tom of my stomach, and had blind
spells.
All of this made me so weak, I
could hardly sit up. I tried treat-
ment after treatment, but they did ma
no good.
Just as soon as I commenced tak-
ing Cardul, the woman's tonic, my
health got better, and now I can do
all my housework.
I will never be without Cardul In
the house, and will recommend It to
every lady that I can, for it has done
me so much good, and I know It will
do the same for others, If they will
give it a trial."
The reason Cardul has attained
Buch wonderful success in the treat-
ment of diseases peculiar to women,
is that It acts specifically on the
womanly organs. It contains purely
vegetable ingredients, of real medio
inal merit, and in a safe, gentle way,
helps build the womanly constitutioa
back to health and strength.
Cardul is being successfully used
by thousands of women every day.
You won't regret giving It a trial.
. 1; to.- Chattanooga Medicine Ca_
Ladies' Advisory Dept.. Chattanooga. Tenn . fo
ti'c,alInrtructions on your cue and 64-page book.
Home Treatment for Women." sent in
wrapper. Adv.
Banana Eaters.
Americans used to be called a natloa
of pie eaters. Today a more appro-
priate term would be a nation of bv
tana eaters. The United States takes
more than two-thirds of the bananas
shipped to the handlers in the world.
Part of this pre-eminence In banana
consumption is due to geography; the
source of supply on the Caribbean la
almost at our doors. Part is due to
accident; a Boston skipper introduced
the American public to this tropical
fruit while it waa still unknown in
Europe. Whatever reason one may
choose to give, the United States la
the world's chief banana m&rket, and
though the use of this fruit is Increas-
ing abroad, the American boy remalna
the Jamaica grower's best friend.
Had No Use for It
A little girl came down to dessert
at a dinner party, and sat next to her
mother. This lady was much occupied
In talking to her neighbors and omit-
ted to give the child anything to eat
After some time the little girl, unable
to bear it any longer, with sobs ris-
ing In her throat held up her plate
and said: "Does anybody want a cleaa
plate?"
Severe Rheumatism
Grove Hill, Ala.: Hunt's Lightning
Oil cured my wife of a severe case of
Rheumatism and my friend of tooth-
ache. I surely believe it is good tor
all you claim for It.—A. R. Stringer.
25 and 50c bottles. All dealers.—Adv.
In Some Demand.
"My brand of cigarettes Is selling
very well."
"Candor, however, compels me to
tell you that you could improve It,
old man."
"I don't want to improve it That
brand is so bad that people are using
it to break off on."—Louisville Cour-
ier-Journal.
Red Cross Ball Blue, all blue, best bluing
value in the world, outkes the laundress
•mile. Adv.
Evening Things Up.
"Mamma," said four-year-old Thel*
ma, "Harry wantB the biggest piece of
pie and I think I ought to have it"
"Why, dear?" queried the mother.
" 'Cause," replied Thelma, "he waa
eating pie two years before I waa
born."—National Food Magazine.
Proving It
"Men are worth much more
women."
"No such thing!"
"Yes, they are. Husbands are not
easy to get always, but brides are Just
given away."—Baltimore American.
The man who bides his light under
a bushel is apt to think the whole
world Is In darkness.
Backache Warns Yoa
Backache is one of Nature's warnings
of kidney weakness. Kidney disesse
kills thousands every year.
Don't neglect a bad back. If your back
is lame—if it hurts to stoop or lift—if
there is irregularity of the secretions-
suspect your kidneys. If you suffer head-
aches, dizziness and are tired, nervous
and worn-out, you have further proof.
Use Doan's Kidney Pills, a fine rem-
edy for bad backs and weak kidneys.
A Tina Cut
Mrs. B. F. Ben-
son. Anderson
Ave., Houeton,
Texas, says: "Two
operations failed
to reUeve my kid-
ney trouble. I
lad bemorrhafee
of the kidneys and
passed pure blood.
The pain and suf-
fering In my back
was terrtbls. 1
waa nothinc but
skin and bones
When I had flvea
S hope. Doan's
Idney Pills oame
.w ^ to my rescue and
1 cured ma. Today
^ I am la better
health thaa ever
before."
Cet Desnfls el Aw Slssa. S6e n lee
DOAN'S VMV
fQITWUIMN CO. BUFFALO, M.Y.
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Alexander, Frank C. The Wapanucka Press (Wapanucka, Okla.), Vol. 13, No. 19, Ed. 1 Thursday, September 11, 1913, newspaper, September 11, 1913; Wapanucka, Oklahoma. (https://gateway.okhistory.org/ark:/67531/metadc132489/m1/3/: accessed April 19, 2024), The Gateway to Oklahoma History, https://gateway.okhistory.org; crediting Oklahoma Historical Society.