The Cimarron News. (Boise City, Okla.), Vol. 25, No. 26, Ed. 1 Thursday, January 25, 1923 Page: 2 of 8
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THE CIMARRON NEWS, BOISE CITY, OKLAHOMA
Solved by Woman's
Curiosity
By FRANK H. WILLIAMS
<ndloAli
1(A). llttl, by McClur# Nawapspor
Su l« Cunningham hint hern Nick-
more vlck Ht In-art than anything ««1hi
—but no nick that she hadn't been
able to work for day*. Now she wiim
•lowly recovering, though there wiih
• nnd, wistful look In her eyes that
hudn't been there before her Illness
and a dull ache nt her heart that
seemed an though It would never leuve
her.
The trouble was that—young John
nanunond, the cashier In the office
where ahe had been employed and to
wbotn ahe hud been engaged, had
disappeared, bin aci-ounta had been
abort and there bad been but n brief
word of explanation to Susie for hla
conduct. It was tlila brief word which
hnd brought on Susie's Illness.
The only message from John since
hla disappearance had come to her on
m postal curd on the day after he
failed to come to work. It hud been
mailed from a nearby town und It
bore these words In John's unmistak-
able handwriting:
"Dear Susie: I've treated you pretty
roughly, l'leuse forgive me. I was
married here today. Forget mo. John."
Of course Susie hadn't believed that
John was a thief—she didn't yet, even
these many weeks after his disappear-
ance when the shortage still stood un-
explained against his record. It was
not because of the chargo of theft
against John that her Illness came, It
was because of those words on the
postcard. "1 was married here today."
She had loved him so deeply, de-
votedly, whole-heartedly. There had
never been any man In her life save
John. Everything hud looked so rosy
for them too. The little bungalow In
which they were to have lived wus
neurlng completion and they were Just
Id the midst of happily buying furni-
ture for it when the blow fell.
No wonder there was a wistful look
In Susie's eyes, and a droop to her
young lips, and an unfading ache in
her heart.
Small wonder, too, that now, two
weeks after John's disappearance, as
Susie was getting her normal strength
back, there should be a deep and abid-
ing curiosity In her soul.
Who was It that John had married?
It was because this curiosity de-
manded an Immediate answer that
Susie, as soon as she wns able, went to
the neighboring town of Brampton,
where the fatal postal curd had been
mailed, and bravely mounted the steps
In the courthouse to the olllce of the
county clerk.
"I want to look nt the mnrriage
license book, please," she suld to the
clefk.
The clerk, looking at her curiously,
Bhoved a big book across the counter
to her.
Susie covertly referred again to the
postal card to make sure she had the
right date when It was mailed In mind.
Then quickly she thumbed through the
pages until the proper date was found
and then went over the licenses Issued
on that day, one by one.
When, some moments later, Susie
left the courthouse there was a new
light In her eyes and new resolution In
her step. Her curiosity was satisfied,
but In satisfying her curiosity she hud
found something that she must do—a
task which she must put through as
Quickly as possible.
In furtherance of this task she did
some telephoning to several different
people at a public booth. Then, late
In the afternoon, she boarded the truln
for home.
In the train she examined her postal
card from John with new Interest. She
held It to the light; she viewed It from
different angles, all with a new pur-
pose In mind.
At last, as she caught the light on
the card from a new angle, she gave a
little gasp. She had discovered some-
thing—something very much worth
while.
Susie returned to work the next day.
Of course there were many expres-
sions of sympathy from fellow em-
ployees and from the executives, for
her story hnd become known In the
office on the day when she hnd re-
ceived the postal. (Susie hud promptly
fainted upon receiving It, und the card
hod then been read by the others in
the office.)
But now Susie showed little of the
effects of her Illness.
At the noon hour she ate lunch
with one of her Arm friends, Anna
Habecker.
"What's new at the office, Anna?"
Susie asked. "What are they doing
about John? Who's doing his work?"
"They've been trying to trace John
everywhere, but haven't got a single
hint where he Is." said Anna. "Otto
Duemling is doing his work."
Duemling had been John's assistant
before John's disappearance, and upon
returning to the office Susie viewed
Otto with grent Interest. Never before
had she paid much attention to him,
but now she looked at hlin carefully
and thoughtfully.
She saw In Deumllng a sleek young
man of not very prepossessing appear-
ance and no outstanding character-
istics. There was nothing about him
that marked his personality. He was
self-effacing, very evidently efficient,
and not very much Inclined to hob-
nob or chat with the other emplovees.
All the afternoon Susie was busily
thinking of the task she had set for
herself. There was a certain definite
something she must do that night, a
something which rather made h«r
shiver iin she contemplated It.
And It was to enuhle her to do this
definite something that Susie, before
leaving the olllce that afternoon, slyly
uiifustcned one of the ground lloof
windows.
It was 1 o'clock that night before
Huxle felt the time was propitious for
doing tlds thing she had decided mind
be done. At that hour the night was
pitch durk—there was no moon—und
the town was utmost wholly silent.
Through the night Susie stole to the
window sliu hud unfuslened. Softly
che raised this window and crept Into
the dark office, her heart beating furi-
ously Hnd only her determination to
go through with the tusk she had set
herself enabling her to push onward.
In the office she made her way past
the furniture to the desk which bud
been John's.
There was n certnln locked drawer
In this desk she wanted to Investigate.
A handy, heavy envelope opener
enabled her to pry the druwer open.
(Jrcedlly she caught up the papers In
the drawer und took them to an Inner
room, where ahe cautiously turned on
u light.
A tremulous sigh of sntlsfuctlon
came from her us she exumlned the
pupers.
"I thought so," she excluliued to
herself. "I thought so!"
But hark, what was that?
Some one wus stealthily opening the
side door Into the office.
Susie switched o(T the light. Fear
clutched lit her soul. Whut If she
should he discovered?
She heard the sound of voices nnd
finally mAtle out thut the Intruders
were a man and a woman.
She heard them move to the far end
of the room, where the vnult was lo-
cuted. l'eerlng through the door she
saw the (lush of a light, then heard
the sound of a clicking. The door
of the safe was being opened.
Susie, taking uil her determination
and courage in hund, crept from her
hiding place Into the larger room and
down the darkened aisles toward the
little partitioned space where the huge
vault was located.
As she came nearer she snw that the
door of the vault was open. She crept
to one side and looked Into the vnult.
By a candlelight held In the hand of
a man she saw that with his com-
panion, a woman, he was opening the
drawers nt the back of the vault
where the firm's money was kept.
She heard the two talking distinctly.
The woman spoke first.
"It sure wus lucky for you thnt
Hammond hnd to lenve so suddenly,"
suld the woman. • * . *^ ^
"Sure was," said the Digit "tt was
a grent chance—chance of n'lifetinie.
Trust me to grab It. I've been afraid
his old mother out West would croak
before this and lu'd Pome back before
I could get enough money In this vnult
to make It worth while to take It."
"Well," said the woman, with a
short laugh, "the stuff you've already
taken nnd charged up to Hammond
Isn't so bad, you know."
"Not so bad," said the man. "That
wns a hnppy thought—forging that
postal and sending it to Hammond's
girl—thnt put the final touch of truth
to the thing."
A wild rage surged In Susie. She
leaped nt the vault door, banged It
shut nnd whirled the combination!
Some days later Susie was safe In
John's arms.
"That was an outrageously clever
forgery," John cried, looking at the
postal which had caused Susie so
much pnln. "Otto intercepted the let-
ter I sent to you telling about my
mother's sickness and traced words
from that letter onto the postal. Later
he Inked them in. It wns Just his
luck that there were words In the
letter which enabled him to make the
message the postal carried."
"Yes and then he got all the other
letters you sent me nnd held them out.
I found them In his desk the night we
arrested him and that girl he was
with."
"But what I can't understand," said
John, "19 how you got started on find-
ing out the truth."
"Easy enough," Susie smiled. "My
woman's curiosity took me to Bramp-
ton to see whom you'd married. I
looked at the marriage licenses and I
called up the ministers. And I found
you hadn't been murrled ut all."
"And, oh, dearest," she cried, hold-
ing him tight In her urnis, "I was so
glad!"
Daddy's
Mvei\ii\g
Fairy Tale
^y/AARY GRAHAM BONNER,
Where Alleged Victims of Ku Klux Were Found
> (OTfl OM| |V VttlUM
VISIT TO ZOO
"I must tell you about my visit to
the coo," suld Bllllu Brownie to Witty
Witch.
He hnd gone to call on Witty Wltrh
In her cave and Witty wunted to know
ull about Ills latest trip.
You know Witty Witch was so
named because In the first place she
wus u witch und In the second pluce
she wus very funny and witty.
Then, too, she liked that nume be-
cause she said It wus the kind of u
name which would perhaps tell peo
pie thut she wusn't an awful creature
at nil, but some one who loved fuu and
Jokes.
Anil she wunted people to know thnt
she liked children and animals, too, und
wouldn't hurt unyone—evur!
"Yes, Blllle Brownie," suld' Witty
Witch, "I wuut to heur ubout your
trip."
"I snw so many creatures," said
Blllle Brownie," that It is hard to know
where to begin telling you ubout them
all.
"Let me see, let me see," and Blllle
Brownie leaned back and thought
about ull he hud seen.
"There were some lovely birds," he
begun. "Yes, there were beuutlful
birds.
"You should have seen the gor-
geous Birds of Paradise,, but what
funny sounds they did make I
"There were magnificent parrots
and puruquets and some with shoul
v..
Here nre the first photographs of scenes In the tense drama of real life ns It has developed recently down at
Mer Rouge, Louisiana. One photograph gives a general view of La.ke Lafourche where a mysterious dynamite
blast brought to the surface the long-hidden bodies of Watt Dunlels and T. F. Richards, two of a party of five
kidnaped by masked riders. It Is alleged they had fired from umbush on a former mayor of the town, who subse-
quently also disappeared and later was arrested at Baltimore, Md., and charged with murder. The other
photograph shows secret Bervlce men nnd a diver searching for the bodies In Lake Lafourche.
"Nice New Dingo Dog."
LIVES IN AMERICAN HISTORY
Rebecca Gratz, American Jewess, On*
of the Most Notable of Early.
Day Characters.
The most famous of American Jew-
esses was Rebecca Gratz, distin-
guished for her beauty and piety, and
for her friendships with eminent
Americans.
There is a tradition that Henry
Clay was an unsuccessful suitor, and
one of her moat distinguished frlehds
was Washington Irving. This later
association had Important literary
con sequences. Irving was likewise a
close friend of Sir Walter Scott, whom
he used frequently to visit at Abbots-
ford; It Is said that his description
of Miss Gratr, of her loveliness of
person, the fineness of her character,
her devotion to her religion and her
race— a devotion that had prevented i
her from marrying, most of the men
with whom she associated having been
Christians — so fired the romantic
imagination of Scott that he put her
In the novel that he was then writing.
In this way It happened that Scott's
most famous woman character, his Re-
becca of "Ivanhoe," was drawn from
Rebecca Graf* of Philadelphia, writes
Burton J. Kendrick In World's Work
Jers and necks which looked as though
they were gold and precious jewels, so
lovely was the coloring.
"Some of the birds and animals had
neen brought many, many miles and
how they had traveled, by camel, by
horseback, by motor cars, trains and
boats!
"Oh yes, some of those birds and an-
imals have traveled. They have come
from far-off places, and what stories
they could tell of other lands and oth-
er scenes and other customs and ways!
"I saw my old friend the Cassowary.
He told that story you know so well
of his grandfather, or his father, I've
forgotten which, and I didn't stop to
ask him, who swallowed a door knob
und a baseball aud felt just as well as
ever!
"I had so much to do and see that
I let him tell the story as quickly as
lie could, for 1 wanted to hurry on.
"Sometimes. Witty Witch, 1 like to
take hours and hours just looking at
some animal or a few animals. Then
I like to take a hurried look at a good
many of them—Just to say a polite
good-day to them all.
"The way I like to do best, of course
Is to stop for a cliat with one or two
of them for a long time, but now and
again I want to have a glimpse of as
many as I can.
"I saw the Kangaroo from Australia
and was told that the Oppossum Is
about our onl-y animal thut Is like so
many of these Australian animals, who
carry their babies iu fheir pouches.
"As I was there a great many new
animals came; there were fifty-four
kangaroos nnd wallabies, two leopards
and three wombftts, and a nice new
Dingo dog.
"That old Dingo dog is a fine, friend-
ly animal. But the keeper said to
some one that Dingo would be quite
wild If he were let loose in a forest
now, but that he was tame so long as
he was kept among people.
"He had been caught as a puppy, and
so he was tame and had never had a
chance to learn the wild ways of the
Dingo dogs, for the Dingo dogs are
wild dogs from Australia.
"The new Dingo dog was a dear, too.
I think, Witty Witch, that I am quite
fond of Dingo dogs."
"You seem to be," said Witty
Witch.
"He Is such a handson.e fellow and
he has that lovely dog look which Is
always attractive to ma
"Oh, the keeper said all the new an-
imals had eaten so much on the trip
to the *oo. They had not been ill, oh
no. but they had eaten and eaten.
"And there was a list of some of
the things the many new animals had
eaten,
"Apples and hay ano oananas and
raisins and crackers and quantities of j
other goodies had been enten by tbern
—and oh. in such quantity.
"Well, all the new animals and all j
the old animals looked very well, and
I can tell you. Witty Witch, the more
l see of animals the more wonderful
I think they nre!"
"I agree with you," sala Witty Witch.
Wally Has the Country's Sympathy
SOVIETS CALL THIS ART
Wallace Reld, tlie popular movie star, who is here shown with his family,
Is making a desperate fight for life after abandoning the drug habit, and his
Innumerable admirers are hoping and praying for his full recovery.
A collection of "Bolshevist art," com-
posed of subjects which have been ap-
proved by the Soviets as representing
the truly proletarian In art and abso-
lutely untouched by the blighting fin-
ger of capitalism is to be brmight to
America and shown in the principal
cities. The illustration shows "Con-
struction" by' Rodshenko, a disciple
of the "constructionist school" that
has sprung up In Russia since the rev-
olution.
Bible Used by Dope Smugglers
i
BEAUTY FROM OKLAHOMA
Dope smugglers devise many ways of getting drugs into the country. This
exclusive photograph, made In the office of tlie chief of the narcotic division of
the Treasury department, shows how even the Holy Bible has been used to con-
ceal quantities of the deadly drugs, a small container being Included.
Famous Old London Inn Is Doomed
Helen Heckman of Muskogee, Okla.,
Is discovering New York with her
mother and sister Mildred. The prize
winning Oklahoma beauty, In spite of
the fact that she is deaf, is talented
beyond most people. She sings, plays
piano and dances In a way that has
attracted the attention of theatrical
producers. She is taking In all con-
certs and shows, and being an expert
In "hearing" through sound vibrations
as well as lip reading, she gets the
import of everything that is going on.
Miss Heckman owes her unusual de-.
velopment to her mother who began
her training at the age of thirteen.
Reputed to be over 700 years old, and in past times a favorite halting
place for Dick Turpin, one of England's most Interesting highwaymen, the
King's Arms inn at Eltham has been closed down. It Is to be replaced with a
modern Inn.
Stainless Surface to Steel.
The discovery of a process for the
electrodeposltlon of chromium on any
metal article Is reported from Shef-
field, England. It hinges in part on
the discovery of stainless steel, but
unlike previous discoveries along thct
line, it deals with a surface treatment
of the article only. It not only makes
the surface stainless and permits a
high polish to be put on It. but It is
said to be cheaper than ordinary stain.
le«is steel In the production of large
articles. The surface of the treated
article Is very bard, and the deposit Is
not likely to wear off. One of the diffi-
culties, however. Is to prevent strip,
ping or peeling, which Is often see*
in silver-Dlated articles.
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The Cimarron News. (Boise City, Okla.), Vol. 25, No. 26, Ed. 1 Thursday, January 25, 1923, newspaper, January 25, 1923; Boise City, Oklahoma. (https://gateway.okhistory.org/ark:/67531/metadc233677/m1/2/: accessed April 19, 2024), The Gateway to Oklahoma History, https://gateway.okhistory.org; crediting Oklahoma Historical Society.