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Back to Broadway
By George Randolph Chester
(Copyright by the McClur
The mere fact that he was a many
tinea millionaire and owned or con
trolled enough railroads to string
Most twice across the continent did
ot help tho far-famed B. II. Cash one
It In tho pronent Juncture. Indeed,
hla illuitiioua name was much more
likely, If he yontured to ubo It, to got
him Into trouble than to aid him.
Impossible aa it may seem, tho illus
trious ringmaster of the financial cir
cus was without a cent, In a strange
city, a distressingly Immense distance
from New York, and with absolutely
bo prospect of getting money unless
he shonld earn It by manual labor, like
any other homeless and penniless wan
derer. Such an absurd condition was
hla own fault entirely, and duo to two
causes: his tremendous business en
ergy and hla equally notablo personal
carelessness.
Mr. Cash waa supposed to hare
started upon a summer cruise In
northern waters, and hod ostensibly
cut tho cables from all his business
affairs. At Quebec, howovor, somo
newspapers had been brought aboard,
and In ono of them ho found an ob
acuro four-line item which made him
chango hlB plans In a hurry.
"I am afraid I'll have to apply for
a woek's shoro loavo," he explained to
his guests, a "stag" crowd. "You fol
lows don't need any help In enter
tatntng yourselves, for you never get
away from the poker table anyhow
excopt to eat and sleep. You own the
Petrol till I get back. Just lazy around
wherever you like, and pick me up
here a week from Monday morning,
It you will."
Aa ho hastily throw some necessi
ties Into a traveling bag, he noted that
he needed a ehave, but there was no
time for It now. He bad almost lit
erally "Jumped" Into a plain traveling
suit, and did not oven stop to put on
his watch. Ho found that be bad
enough cash on hand to pay for his
transportation, berth and meals en
route, and beyond that he had no
worry, for his checkbook and papers
were In his traveling bag.
Ashore, ho caught his train with but
brief minutes to spare, and was so ab
sorbed In the deal ho meant to put
through that ho was a hundred miles
on his way bofore ho missed his lug
gage.-flndlng In placo of It only the
uncomfortable reflection that through
out his long 30-hour ride he would be
deprived of a shave and clean linen.
He waa not one given to worry,
however, and when he had his final
brushing up at his destination he me
chanically banded a dollar to the por-
"But, Really, I Can't Seem to Pleaaa You. Mies."
tar; but after he had left the train ho
found to his dismay that ho had only
ono solitary tan-cent piece In his
Five cents of that he used In car
fare to the office of the man he had
so hastily come all this distance to
see, and the other five cents he used
In riding back downtown. His man
, had been called from the city that
morning, and would not be back for a
week or more! Preoccupied with vex
ation, he walked Into the nearest big
hotel and scrawled his signature upon
the register.
The clerk hesitated a moment,
though merely out of habitual cour
tesy, .
"Your luggage not arrived yet, Mr.
er Cash?" ho stumbled, puzzling
over tho register.
Mawipaper SyndlcaU.)
Mr. Cash smiled grimly and rubbed
hla unshaven chin.
"Lost en route," he replied.
"Very unfortunate," commented the
clerk with rather a cold expression,
his eyes resting casually upon the un
shaven face and soiled linen. "The
rules of the houso, of course, require
payment in advance."
The prospective guest frowned a
bit haughtily.
"Cash is my name," he observed.
TD. H. Cash of New York."
"Quite so," agreed the clerk, sUll
more coldly. "Some relation of the
famous railroad operator, no doubt."
"I am that Cash," announced the
other with a trace of anger, resenting
the implied sneer.
"Wake up!" admonished the clerk,
throwing off all his suavity. "You are
asleep under the dock-awning of your
yacht, tho Petrel, Mr. Cash. You Just
steamed away from Quebeo yesterday
morning, bound for tho Labrador
coast, and are only dreaming that you
aro here." And before Mr. Cash's eyes
he thrust a foldod nowspaper that had
been lying at his elbow, pointing stern
ly to a paragraph.
"Yes, that waa to have been true,"
said Cash, recognizing the reasonable
nesa of the clerk's stand In the mat
ter. "The yacht left thore for a short
cruise yesterday morning, with my
friends aboard, but I took a run down
here. I can tell you every man that
I was on the Petrel. There's Billy Ed
wards"
"I know," the clerk Interrupted him.
"Here's the entire list of guests,
which anybody could read. Now, drop
It. In the first place, Cash has a mus
tache." "The papers and their cartoonists
are using the old photographs they
always do!" snapped Cash. "I have
been without a mustache for over a
year."
"Step out of the way!" snarled the
clerk, pounding savagely upon a bell.
"You're lucky I don't have you ar
rested." Cash turned. The two or three
men who had now come up behind
him to register glared back at htm In
ley contempt, noting the unshaven
face, the soiled collar and shirt front
For a moment he lost his poise, and
a wild Idea came to him of attempting
to explain to these men. Even as the
thought came, however, he realized
the futility of It and walked out of
the place, followed, too closely for
comfort, by a broad shouldered porter.
Dy the time he had gained the street
he was fuming, but a blue-and-whlte
sign a block away brought him back,
with a comfortable Jerk, to practical
affairs. The sign betokened the loca
tion of a telegraph office, and aa a
happy haven of refuge he hurried to
It
"Collect," he directed presently,
handing In his telegram at the receiv
ing window.
The girl In charge did not even
glance at tho telegram. She was look
ing at the man; at tho unshaven face
and the soiled collar.
"Are you located In tho city?'' eno
asked mechanically.
"No."
"Where aro you stopping ?"
"Nowhero aa yet," ho confessed,
angry with himself that he felt a. flush
rising under the skin of his cheeks.
"Wo can send no telegrams for you
collect without a deposit sufficient to
Insure payment," sho advised htm.
"Look at that telegram," he ex
postulated; "see to whom It Is ad
dressed, and by whom It Is signed t"
Still without looking at It she
shoved the yellow slip toward him.
"It don't make any difference who
It Is to or who It Is from," she In
sisted. "I've got my orders." And
she turned to the next customer.
He glared at her for a moment, but
she remained entirely unaware of hla
existence, and, crumbling the telegram
In his hand, he strode out with a set
of emotions too varied and too much
commingled to classify. An attempt
at a near-by bank to draw upon hla
New York house of exchange cam
more nearly resulting In hla arrest
than any of the other experiments,
and It was a very much stupefied man
who trudged aimlessly up the street,
as much a pauper In this city, where
he could not think of a soul who knew
him, as any tramp with whom he
might brush elbows!
He turned Into a dreary little park,
where a few discouraged-looking trees
fought Jo suck life from the stern
gravel In which they were rooted. It
waa a most unattractive place, and the
only thing that drew him unconsciously
Into It was the fact that hero were
benches upon which he might rest
without being expected to pay for any
thing. He was tired and hot, and, ap
palling fact! hungry; moreover, he
noted with aversion that every lounger
upon every bench bore1 the same atti
tude of hopeless dejection as himself.
He hod a bad quarter of an hour, In
which a great many of his Impressions
of tho corresponding relations of hu
man beings to each other underwent
a radical change. For one thing, he
began to estlmato his actual value,
considered merely as two hands and a
brain, If thrown upon the Immediate
market, for It looked as If tho great
railroad king would have to hunt a
Job at unskilled labor.
As he sat dejectedly humped over,
his elbows "upon his knees and his
hands clasped Idly together, he noticed
that a brown skirt with a draggled
bit of braldajftt the bottom that twice
had slowly passed htm, now stopped
directly In front of him. Naturally he
glanced up and found a very good
looking girl gazing fixedly down at
him. The moment she met his eyes
her face lighted with a smile of de
light, and she came toward him.
"I Just knew It was Mr. Cash," she
began vivaciously. "My! this 1b a loag
way from Broadway, Isn't It?"
No sound had ever rung more
agreeably In his ears than his own
name pronounced at this moment For
the last couple of hours that magio
word had completely lost Its power,
and he began to realize how few
peoplo knew him after all. It was
with a sense of positive gratitude that
he answered this girl, whom he could
not place, but whose face seemed
pleasingly familiar.
"Indeed It Is," he assented, rising
and removing hla hat "I expect I am
stupid, but really I cannot seem to
place you, Miss"
"Bessie Williams, but you don't
know the name," she returned. "I used
to manicure you In the Hotel Bel
velgh, don't you remember? You've
had your mustache shaved off, but,
goodness! I'd know those hands with
the mole on both little fingers If I
found you down In Africa stained with
walnut Juice. I guess you'll think
I've got a nervo for wedging In this
way, but honest, anybody that waa
ever nico to mo in little old New York
looks like a long-lost brother!"
He remembered her perfectly now,
and ho smiled with amusement aa he
recalled her vivid personality. She
was a girl who had struggled up from
tho moBt squalid section of the East
Bide, and was noted on Broadway, not
only for her own uncompromising rig
Idlty of conduct but for tho number
of other girls she had saved from
"making fools ot themselves." More
especially, however, sho was known
for tho picturesque slang which had
clung to her as the only mark of her
origin, and for the originality wjth
which she used It In the present Junc
ture ho was surprised to find her sud
denly hesitate and show a bit of em
barrassment "I feel somewhat In the cold my
self," ho admitted, to put her at ease.
"What brings you out here bo for?"
"I'm my own lemon," sho replied,
recovering her vivacity at onco and
rattling on with tho greatest sang
froid, onco she had plunged Into the
main topic. "Say, Mr. Cash, I'm go
ing to be real open-faced with you
about my troubles, becauBO I know you
don't make any mistakes In tho dark
and you don't keep the small change
glued down. Every time I ever saw
you there was a circle ot tips rolling
away from you in every direction, and
once when a bell-hop got his leg broke
I saw you peel off a fifty before any
body could ask if ho had a mother.
It's this way with me. I'm so stony
broke that a ten-cent piece would look
the size of the full moon coming up
out of the water at Rockaway beach,
and it you will Just ship me back
among the tall buildings I'll manicure
the whole Cash family for a year!"
"I wish I could," he said sincerely,
"but I haven't a penny upon which I
can lay my hands. I'm as hard up aa
any loafer In this park."
"I beg your pardon," said Miss Wil
liams with more dignity than he had
expected to find In her. "I am very
sorry that I made such a mistake."
And sho turned to go.
Ho could see that she was both hurt
nnd mortified; that she had Instantly
come to tho conclusion that he did
not euro to help her.
"Walt a minute," ho called after her,
Ills sympathies wonderfully quickened
by his own disagreeable experience.
"Come back here and sit down. I was
perfectly honest when I said that I
am in as much trouble as you are."
Sho was still Incredulous, but he
was so earnest In his Insistence that
she reluctantly came back and allowed
him to seat her upon tho bench beside
him. He explained to her In careful
detail precisely what had happened to
him, and his unshaven faco and soiled
collar were sufficient corroboration.
She laughed at his ombernoss when
he had finished.
"Lovely I" she exclaimed with spar
kling eyes. "For a minute I waa afraid
exchange had given me the wrong
number, but I couldn't figure out how
you'd Joined the T. Wad family so
quick. But now watch the blue trail
of our gasoline. Come with your
Aunt Beasle!"
She sprang to her feet and he arose
uncertainly.
"Where are you going?" he asked.
"To beat it before the banks close,"
he exultantly replied. "Before three
o'clock we'll be looking over an aa
8he Went Right on Talking
sorted collection of time-tables, and
I won't owe you a cent for my fare
to New York and a new outfit from
plume to patent leathers. Now, don't
ask me how I'm going to do it, or I'll
giggle myself to death over how easy
It la."
"If blind can lead blind I am very
willing to be led," he laughingly ob
served as he caught step with her.
"But you have not told me about your
own troubles."
"Me!" she said with Infinite disdain.
"I fell a victim to my own fatal beauty
and It gave me the brain storm all
right I dreamed I had a voice and
a figure, and that If I Just let the pub
lic know about them I'd have Pattl
forgotten and Melba retired on a pen
slon. So I tried It, and 'The Belle ot
Broadway Company' Number Forty
Two quit here. That's all. There's
only seven people, In this town with
pink nails and tbero'a 42 girls to look
after them. If I'd send to mother for
a cent sho'd have to borrow a Jimmy
and a dark lantern to get It; If I'd
send to tho boss barber at the Bel
velgh I'd get money so quick the edges
would bo scorched off when It got
here, but I'd havo to marry Jimmy
when I got back, and while starving
would be quicker, It wouldn't be so
painful. And that starvation turn's
no musical comedy, either. I've got
a dinky little two-by-two room' paid
for until tomorrow night, and then It
would have been little me to some
body's kitchen with a half-Nelson on
a gas range. And I can't boll eggs."
They had crossed tho little park by
this time, and had stopped In front of
ono of those dingy-looking houses that
have the perpetual smell of mlldow
In the front hall. Sho ushered blm
Into a dim parlor embellished with six
pieces of ragged plush furniture and a
collection of atrocious wax flowers
on the mantel under a glass globe,
and then she tripped upstairs to tho
third floor. In a moment sho hurried
back with her suit case and a bowl ot
water. She threw up a blind and
placed the bowl on a little table be
side the window.
"First of all, you've got to look the
part, so dip In 'your hand," she di
rected him as she opened the suit
case and produced her manicure set
She waa silent only until she sat
down. "When I get back to little old
Broadway tomorrow night," she rattled
on as she deftly and vigorously mani
cured him, "I'll promise never to get
farther than four blocks away from
the subway again as long as I live. I
used to kick because I'd get called up
to a room, as sure as death that the
Job would take an hour and a half,
and that there'd be no tip, to manicure
some waspy woman with her hair
on tho table and her complexion on
the dresser, and her figure hanging
up In a closet, and the rest of her
beauty scattered on four chairs and
the bed; but oven that would be Joy
to me now. I've seen all of the coun
try I want, and It's Bessle-Blt-by-the-fire
for mo from this on! "m willing
to live tho rest of my Hfo with tho 'L
trains rattling over my head; and
when I die, If they'll Just bury mo any
placo on the Great Whlto Way, I'll lie
happy and still In my grave forever.
Now you'ro dono." A sour-vlaaged
old lady had como to tho door and
glared at them, then walked away. "I
don't owo her a cent, and she don't
bite," observed tho girl; "so Just you
sit here and look sassy till I get back."
She dried her mankuro set and
packed it in its roll of chamois and
flannel and fine leather, put on her
hat, and left him alono. In ten min
utes she had returned, bearing a
heavy package and Jingling some coins
In her hand.
"I got two dollars, one for the tools
and one for my good looks," she Joy
ously announced, "which Is bright and
cheerful when you remember that the
tools only cost me 20 and the hand
some face waa a present I gave a
polite colored gentleman ten cents
for these bricks, right out of his hod,
Into the Transmitter.
so we've got a dollar-ninety to repre
sent our capital." '
"Bricks!" he repeated with a won
dering glance at the bundle. "What
on earth do you want with those?"
"To put In the suit case, so It won't
go straight up when a boll-hop grabs
It," she replied. "There's nothing In
there now but an old waist that I
couldn't get a cent on. Just think! I
was going to hock that nice, ready-money-looking
Huit case the minute I
got back to the room, If I hadn't met
you! Now, you take this dollar-ninety.
Right around the corner there's a ten
cent barber shop, and a gent's furnish
ing goods storo right next door. You
buy you one collar for 15 cents, one
pair of cuffs for a quarter, ono shavo
for ten centB, one shine for five cents,
and a real extravagant-looking IB-cent
cigar, but don't light the cigar. Have
you got a clean handkerchief?" For
tunately ho had. "Give It to me. Now,
you bring back the dollar-thirty to
spread around In tips; and hurry!"
When he returned, shaved and much
refreshed, she had run a white thread
through tho hem of his handkerchief,
and this Bhe slipped up under hla col
lar, tying It behind. So far as It was
visible it looked like an Immaculate
white negligee shirt. She had him cut
off his attached cuffs 'and don the
clean ones.
"You look the part," she announced
as she surveyed him with pride. "In
a few Jiffs I'll have a double extra
sirloin for mjno, please, but don't let
me think about It or I'll faint"
Fifteen minutes later, bis 15-cent
cigar In fragrant evidence, ho stood at
the register ot the best hotel in town
not tho ono to which ho had gone
before but ho did not sign himself
"B. H. Cash." Instead ho wrote:
O. H. Jones.
Miss Gertrude Jones.
"Tho two best suites you have," he
ordered.
"Yes, sir, Mr. Jones," said the clerk
deferentially, glancing at the respect
able, brick-laden suit-case. "Anything
you want sent up?"
"A boy with some telegraph blanks
and a waiter."
Presently there came down from
him a telegram marked "prepaid,"
and to be charged upon his bill. It
waa addressed to Henry Cruse of
Henry Cruse ft Co., bankers, New
York, and read like this:
"Here incog. Jiggers, larruped,
woolly. Wire $1,000 immediately to me
as O. H. Jones, care Hotel Grace. De
scribe me, but waive other Identifica
tion." Tho telegram was unsigned, but the
private code words in the body of the
telegram were better than a signature.
Having sent the wire, Mr. Cash
knocked at the door of Miss Williams'
reception room.
"Como In," cried a cheerful voice,
and he opened the door.
She was at the telephone, and her
eyes were sparkling as she nodded to
him, but sho went right on talking
into the transmitter.
"Yes, size 36; and I shall want a
brunette traveling gown and a bat to
match. Send over at least halt a doz
en for selection."
"Got a wholo outfit!" ho Interjected
as sho repeated her address and hung
up tho recolvor. "Get all tho dresses
you want. Wo take tho samo train
out of hero at seven o'clock this even
ing, and you shall havo all afternoon
to shop. Do you caro to have lunch
downstairs, or up here, until you get
better gowned?"
"Right here and right now," she re
plied. "You'd better havo It sent up
a little at a time, for fear I choke
at first but keep It coming for at
least two hours. I haven't had enough
to eat since I crossed to New Jersey."
"I'll see that you don't starve," he
laughed. "I owe you meals for a long
time, and a lot besides. I'm going to
set you up In business, for one thing.
Just pick out what you think you
want and I'll see that you get it."
"I don't want a thing," she said fer
vently, "but Just little old Broadway!"
NEW IDEA OF EARTH'S AGE
Radium Haa Caused Change In Sclen.
tlst'a Oponlona During the Past
Five Years.
If such an authority as Prof. Arthur
Holmes of the Imperial college, South
Kensington, London, has any weight
at all with peoplo, the discovery of
radium means that geologists must
chango their calculations materially
aa to tho age of tho earth if they
wish to be taken seriously. He sayB,
according to the New Press? it is a
well known fact that If tho propor
tion of radium in the interior of the
earth Is in any way equal to the
radium in tho rocks of tho earth's sur
face tho earth will not grow colder,
as has always been taught, but It
ought to bo growing hotter. Calcula
tions, however, show that the distri
bution of radium as It Is found would
be more than enough to keep tho tem
perature of the earth stationary.
Thorium and uranium aUo supply a
great amount of heat and must bo
taken into account.
In order that the earth should be
neither growing hotter nor cooling at
a rate allowed by the radio-active ele
ments as they disintegrate it is neces
sary, he says, to assume that the
earth's store ot radium bo concen
trated near the surface. The radio
active elements are found moat abun
dantly In acid rocks, and their more
basic associates are less rich. These
acid rocka are characteristic of only
the outermost zonos of the crust, nnd
there aro many reasons for believing
that with depth the nonacid rocks aro
predominant.
Earthquakes and similar terrestrial
events have provided facts from which
the condition of tho -jarth'n interior
may be deduced with confidence. FlrHt,
there 1b tho crust zone, which has
an approximate thickness of 30 nilleq.
Then comes the stone zone, something
under 100 miles thick, ana, .Inally, tho
central iron coro of tho earth, with a
density eight times greater than wa
ter. Moteorltea contain radium, nnd
Professors Strutt and. Holmes say
that these meteors contain the proof
that no radium Is found In tho stone
zone or inner core.
It Is supposed that tho earth begun,
of course, as a misty, nebulous matm
and that It has becomo tho great mass
It Is by tho capture of meteors nnd
greater masses floating In space dur
ing the ages. It Is very unlikely that
the earth was ever, as a whole, in a
molten condition. It is surmised by
several English savants that the In
ternal heat probably aroBo in a great
measure from tho condensation of the
mass as it grow.
Tho temperature would slowly rise
until tho fusion point of certain of
the earth's constituents was reached.
Then the pockets and tongues thus
formed would tend to movo away from
the center, and the loss heavy, stony
substances would bo squeezed out
ward relatively to a network ot tho
heavier, rigid metals,
Surrounding tho metallic core a
thick zone of sandy rocks woulc be
formed and the radioactive materials
would be concentrated in tho atony
layers. When the oceans and tho at
mospheres wero produced tho sedi
ment rocks appeared tor the first time,
and then camo the earth' crust with
tho rocks that contain moat of the
radium and other radioactive ele
ments. Before the advent of radium
geologists did not recognize tho dif
ficulties presented by tho peculiar
makeup of the earth's crust. Radium
did not create this difficulty, but It
certainly emphasized It In the atten
tion of scientists.
It can hardly bo said that radium
has given a blank check on tho bank
of time, for Its discovery not only de
stroyed all the old measurements of
the earth's heat, but It necessitated a
new method for getting at It. Every
kind of radio-active mineral, as well as
radium, may bo regarded as a self
contained hour glass; tho radio-active
emanations, such as helium, 'and
residues such as lead, slowly accumu
late at the expense ot their ultimate
parent uranium.
The geologist, who five years ago
was embarrassed by the brevity of the
time allowed to him for tho evolution
of tho earth's crust, is now still more
embarrassed by the overabundance of
tlmo that now confronts him. The
recognition of radium means difficul
ties for the geologist and the abso
lute overthrow ot every acknowledged
theory as to the earth's age and de
velopment The ago of the earth, ac
cording to what happens to be radium,
varies from 6,000,000,000 to 3,000,
000,000 years, but what matters a few
thousand million of years among ga
ologtsta?
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4.A.
