| MISSISSIPPI INDUSTRY
The smith still plies his trade In Mississippi.
How Machinery Is Transforming
This Once Agricultural State
Prepared by National Geofraphlc Society,
Washington, D. C.-WNU Service.
MACHINES are com
ing to agricultural
Mississippi.
After a morning tour of in
dustrial Jackson you scrape
from your shoe soles layers
of cottonseed oil, pungent
creosote, and clayey benton
ite, all caked hard with
dried mud from a petroleum
well being dug by special ap
propriation of the state leg
islature.
Twice dally the red and silver
streamline Rebel train flashes
through the state—past ox teams
plodding along sunken roads, new
myriad-windowed garment fac
tories, Negroes driving ramshackle
buckboards—and glides beneath air
planes that are heading into the
capital's spacious, four-way airport.
Over in Natchez girls in lavender
hoop-skirt gowns trimmed with rare
old lace sidle into automobiles to
drive annual pilgrimage-week visi
tors to ante-bellum homes straight
from the pages of "So Red the
Rose.’*
Up the Delta a sprlghUy gentle
man of elghty-two years calls his
chauffeur to take you in his car to
a log cabin still standing on the
plantation of 6,000 acres of cotton,
corn, pecans, and hay. He and his
uncle built the cabin only 65 years
ago, after they had cleared the
land and floated the timbers in from
the surrounding forest and the chim
ney brick from the river dock 10
miles distant.
This epic from covered wagon to
limousine in one man’s lifetime is
a clue to why Mississippians call
their state ‘‘the last frontier.”
Jackson Is Spacious and Busy.
Busy, modern Jackson illustrates
the transformation. This city is no
upstart; it has been the state capital
since 1822. Stately homes with wis
teria growing over columned por
ticoes and with crape myrtle on
the lawns line wide avenues.
Barber shops still are spacious
forums of political argument where
a southern colonel may doff his
broad-brimmed hat in courtly salu
tation without toppling over a coat
rack. Rooms in hotels, office build
ings, and homes knew not the
builder who estimates costs in cubic
feet
From sidewalks beneath rusty tin
roofs you look across the street
toward shop fronts with onyxlike
tiles, burnished metal, and neon
lights.
One tall office building with cu
bistic floors and chromium elevator
doors rises knife-edged to carve an
otherwise gracious skyline just op
posite a colonial-type home now
painted green and occupied by the
Salvation Army.
As recently as 1920 century-old
Jackson still had only 22,817 people;
by 1930 it counted more than twice
that number; in 1937 a local census
estimated nearly 60,000, a rate of
growth rivaling that of Los Angeles.
The citizens disclaim any boom.
The increase, they assert with rea
son, is the normal result of several
obvious causes.
une impetus was the discovery
only seven years ago of natural
gas which now flows from nearly
100 wells in the city limits, much
of it into pipe lines that radiate
all over the state and reach even
into Louisiana and Florida.
Another change was putting
through high-power transmission
lines—the state had none until 1925
—and the consequent encourage
ment of factories in Jackson as well
as in many other places.
Roads and Cottonseed Oil.
Mo*1 important factor, perhaps,
la the road-building program which
gives centrally-situated Jackson an
ever-wider wingspread as a shop
ping point, and controverts the old
taunt that “Mississippi has three
big cities: Mobile, New Orleans,
and Memphis."
Early among Jackson's indus
tries, naturally enough, were cotton
seedoil mills.
In the musty archives of the squat
old state capitol are ante-bellum
laws which prohibited gin owners
from polluting streams with cotton
seed or dumping it inside town and
city limits.
No need for enforcing such laws
now, when for every 500-pound bale
of cotton the planter may sell an
average of 900 pounds of seed
for about $18.
All around Jackson's “hoop
skirts,” as someone aptly called the
outlying industrial belt, tall, circu
lar warehouses with conical metal
tops rise like the oasthouses of
Kent’s hop-growing districts.
Each seed house stores 5,000 tons
or so of cottonseed which awaits the
mechanical alchemy that will con
vert its parts into horse collars, salad
dressing, blotting paper, cheese
crackers, house roofing, and an
amazing variety of other products.
Should you be listening to a re
cording of Lawrence Tibbett’s voice
or Guy Lombardo’s orchestra, you
will be indebted to the velvety cot
tonseed for ingredients in the phono
graph record.
The seeds pour first Into huge
machines which whirl, shake,
screen, and pull out all the dirt and
foreign particles. The clean seed
goes to delinters where the lint fiber
is removed and collected to help
make felt, absorbent cotton, mat
tresses, and even underwear.
The kernels, or meats, emerge
from a steam-jacketed cooker into
hydraulic presses which squeeze out
the oil that will be used to pack
sardines, make butter substitutes,
soap, and cooking oils. The cakes
remaining in the powerful hydraulic
presses are removed and broken up
to feed cattle and rejuvenate the
soil.
“Hot Cakes” Wrapped in Hair.
Negroes, stripped to the waist,
deftly handle the literal “hot
cakes,” wrapping them for the
presses into mats made of human
hair from China, which best with
stands the high temperatures.
The odor from the presses is like
that of hot buttered toast. At lunch
time you see the workers dip their
bread into the dripping oil, and eat
the oil-spread slices with evident
relish.
Enter a bathroom of an ocean
liner and you encounter Mississip
pi composition board; stroll along
Atlantic City's boardwalk or go
aboard some British man-of-war
and your feet tread the state's yel
low-pine planks; contract a cold in
London, Australia or Argentina and
your prescription is apt to contain
pine oil extracted from Mississippi
stumps; buy gasoline as you tour
Italy or Japan and it may have been
bleached by a distinctive product,
bentonite, from the state some
people call provincial.
A plant at Jackson hauls in each
week some 800 tons of bentonite,
mined in SVnith county. The soft,
porous clay, sleek as an alligator's
belly, product of ash from volcanic
eruptions of bygone geologic times,
is dumped from car to conveyor
belt, mixed into a slurry, and treat
ed with acids.
You must climb a high platform
to see the giant drum, covered with
fine cloth, which draws the water
content through a screen as it re
volves. permitting the residue cake
to be scraped from the outside.
A glass-bottle works at Jackson
best illustrates Mississippi as a
customer of many states and for
eign lands.
New Bottles From Old Ones
Tons of old bottles from every
where are piled high in the yard to
be carried on moving belts to crush
ers. then to be mixed with sand
from Arkansas, salt cake from
Chile, lime from Ohio, barium from
Missouri, feldspar from Colorado,
arsenic from Montana, and sele
nium from Canada, to make enough
bottles every day to supply one for
each white family in the state.
You can look, but not too long,
through colored glasses into fur
naces where these products and
others from huge bins are melted
by natural-gas flames at 2,700 de
grees Fahrenheit.
Seventy tons of raw materials are
shoveled out of the bins for each
day s production of about a quarter
million bottles. Out they go, in car
load lots, toward their ultimate des
tinations on drugstore shelves, cos
metic counters, nocturnal milk wag
ons. liquor cabinets and beauty
parlor tables.
WHO’S
NEWS
THIS
WEEK
I- I
By LEMUEL F. PARTON
NEW YORK —The British lion
has been taking kicks from all
comers lately, but it stiffened up
and began looking a lot more her
_ aldic when the an
rarliament cient bin of right8
Shows Spunk seemed to be in
In Army Row fri"5ed- 11 was no
rubber-stamp par
liament which reacted angrily to
the army’s summary action against
young Duncan Sandys, conservative
member, who had revealed undue
knowledge of air defense secrets.
The government was embarrassed
and backed up considerably.
The swift parliamentary kick
back was an instance of the latent
staying power of the British demo
cratic tradition, as the representa
tive body rattled the bones of its
late and great libertarians in telling
the executive where it got off.
The row overflows into impor
tant political by-ways, as the
tall, handsome, loose-geared
Mr. Sandys Is both a son-in-law
and political ally of Winston
Churchill who is pot-shotting the
government just now in a po
litical no-man’s land.
There is a threat of conservative
defection to the side of the still am
bitious and powerful Mr. Churchill,
with labor and liberal recruits, and,
according to close observers of Brit
ish politics, some important new
alignments may result.
Mr. Sandys, thirty years old, is
still just a rookie in this league,
In Politics tended to start
anything in partic
ular. He is, however, an energetic
and capable young politician and
there are those who say he may be
another Anthony Eden in a few
years. Running for parliament in
1935, he was assailed by the come
ly young Mrs. John Bailey who
was leading the fight for the opposi
tion. She is a daughter of Winston
Churchill.
He won the election in s rock
and-sock battle and then, in the
chivalrous Eton and Oxford tra
dition which is his background,
he married Mrs. Bailey. She,
incidentally, Is a granddaughter
of the Jennie Jerome of New
York who became Mrs. Ran
dolph Churchill and the mother
of Winston Churchill. Jennie
Jerome’s father was one of the
fighting editors of the New York
Times In the 1860s.
Mr. Sandys, studious and some
what ministerial, was with the dip
lomatic service until 1933. He is a
second lieutenant in the London
anti-aircraft force, a son of the
late Capt. George Sandys.
• • »
/GREECE never had any luck in
trying tp get the Elgin marbles
back from England. Judging from
this precedent, American aviators
Wr'.rwUl PI_- have a lonK flght
vv right Plane ahead ^ ^mg tQ
Sought by bring back from
U. S. Flyers the Kensington
Science museum
in London the Wright brothers' air
plane of the historical Kitty Hawk
crow-hop of December 17, 1903. Such
will be the endeavor of the newly
formed association of men with
wings.
They will appeal to Orville
Wright, who let the plane go to Eng
land in 1928, after the Smithsonian
institution had tagged the Samuel
P. Langley plane as "the first ma
chine capable of flight carrying a
man." There is as yet no word from
Mr. Wright, who lives and works
somewhat aloofly in his office and
laboratory at Dayton, Ohio.
That twelve-second flight put
him in the history books,
brought him a string of honorary
degrees and gathered more
medals than his plane could lift,
but all this was marred by the
misunderstanding about who
flew first.
He had been trained In science
at Earlham college when he and
his brother made their plane in a
bicycle shop. He continued his
studies in aerodynamics and his lat
er contribution was the stabilizing
system which has made modern avi
ation possible. Wilbur Wright died
i of typhoid fever in 1912.
• • •
OTIFF-NECKED, hard-boiled Gen
^ eral Alexander von Falkenhaus
en, German sparring partner and
coach for the Chinese generals until
r. • u/-ii recently, stirs ex
Lhina Will citement in Shang
Win, Says hai by predicting
Strategist Chinese victory.
He says, "I feel
sure that China is gaining a final
victory and that Japan will fail in
both war and peace.”
The general and all others of the
German military mission to China
are homeward bound, suddenly re
called by their government, al
though their contract, with $12,000
a year for General von Falkenhaus
eu, was to have run until 1940.
O Consolidated News Features.
WNU Service.
♦
I
i H|_ _■
around the
NATIONAL
CAPITAL
By Carter Field ^
WASHINGTON.-There are likely
to be some more surprises as de
velopments mature in the “purge”
of Democratic senators and repre
sentatives who are not 100 per cent
supporters of the New Deal legisla
tive program. Indiana furnished the
first really big one, after Iowa had
furnished the first upset, but there
is just no telling what some of the
consequences are going to be.
For example, the old Alexandria
district in Virginia, represented by
Howard Worth Smith, who has vot
ed rather independently, sympathiz
ing with the economic and political
views of Senator Carter Glass and
Senator Harry Flood Byrd of his
state, rather than with those of
President Roosevelt. Moreover,
Smith is a banker, and hence al
most branded as “reactionary” in
New Deal eyes.
So the “Secret Six” picked young
William E. Dodd Jr., son of the man
Roosevelt appointed ambassador to
Germany, as a likely challenger to
carry the New Deal banner from
Alexandria down to Fauquier, and
around and about in the district.
But the surprise of this particular
fight came when the Young Demo
cratic clubs of the congressional
district had a meeting in Alexan
dria. No trouble was anticipated.
Joseph B. Keenan, assistant attor
ney general, and regarded as the
only really politically minded per
son in the Brain Trust, was to be
the orator of the occasion.
Some of the young enthusiasts in
the clubs did not bother to be tact
ful. In the first place they ignored
Mr. Dodd, who was waiting around
in case he should be called on for
a speech. Then some of them fig
ured they did not want Keenan
praising Dodd or hitting Smith at
their meeting, so they just met him,
as he was en route to the meeting,
and told him he needn’t come
’round. He went back to Washing
ton, but it was hardly a nice way
to treat him, to say the least, for
he had already written a speechl
They Liked Byrd
Senator Byrd, who is just as ob
jectionable, if not more so, to the
New Deal than Representative
Smith, appeared during the session
and was asked by reporters if he
were going to speak. He said not,
that he had merely come to award
a prize. This was to a lady who
had gotten more members for the
Young Democratic clubs than any
one else.
But with Keenan "mysteriously”
missing, there was a space on the
program, so Senator Byrd wound
up by talking. Apparently he did
not know that Keenan’s invitation
to speak had been cancelled, unof
ficially, at the eleventh hour, but he
spoke on "tolerance” in the primary
campaign, and the need for “har
mony ” The Young Democrats
seemed to enjoy it. In fact some
of them said afterwards that it was
one of the best speeches Senator
Byrd ever made.
Fortunately for “harmony” in the
rest of Virginia, Senator Byrd is not
up for re-election this year.
But there is no “harmony” where
Smith and Dodd are concerned. The
congressman refused to sit on the
same platform with his adversary
fit a recent meeting in Manassas,
and referred to him as an “up
start.”
Which rather surprised diplo
matic Washington. The frock-coated
gentry had not thought any one
would call the son of an ambassa
dor, and a very well-to-do ambassa
dor at that, an “upstart.”
But the Old Dominion has its own
rules about that sort of thing. At
any rate after the Young Democrats
had concluded with diplomacy, they
made plans for a steamboat excur
sion on the Potomac!
New Dealers Worry
Underneath the surface there is a
great deal of apprehension among
New Dealers about the question
of providing a refuge for German
and Austrian refugees. Nearly ev
erybody advising the White House,
as well as those waiting to see, will
admit privately that the whole ques
tion is dynamite. Anybody touch
ing it is likely to get hurt, no mat
ter which way he moves, and no
one can see any political profit in it,
on either side.
To start off with, there is the
whole immigration policy. The
country has been rather strongly
committed to holding immigration
down to as close a minimum as
possible. Naturally there are some
people interested, and important be
cause of their close touch with the
situation, especially in its earlier
I stages, who had an idea of keeping
up the American standards, so to
speak. They wanted to let in the
best, and have America absorb only
| the cream of the offerings.
Another important segment of the
majority of all the people which
undoubtedly favored immigration
restriction had an entirely different
viewpoint, though not differing nec
essarily with the first group named.
This second group wanted a period
of time, before any further immi
(ration, during which the foreign*'
born and second generation as well
could really be assimilated, and
turned into real Americans. They
wanted the melting pot to have a
chance to work before there was
any further foreign dilution.
But politically the group favoring
immigration restriction that was
the most important was organized
labor. Its object was purely selfish,
of course.
Our Latin Neighbors
Most of our Latin neighbors have
taken a position which seems to pre
clude their figuring in any big asy
lum project. Their attitude is that;
they will welcome immigrants with
capital, on the theory that they
would help develop the South and
Central American countries, and
would not threaten to become a
drain on the treasuries of the coun
tries offering asylum through fail
ure to earn a livelihood.
As in most international confer
ences, the function that involves
risk of financial loss and has no
chance of financial profit is always
cheerfully assigned by the other
nations to Uncle Sam. This case is
no exception.
On the other side, however, liter
ally hundreds of thousands of those
politically oppressed who are seek
ing to get out of Germany and
Austria—with every indication that
Italy is about to be added to the
list—have relatives in the United
States who would be willing to do a
great deal to help them.
Long before the oppression be
came so severe under Hitler, in
fact ever since the present immi
gration laws were put into effect,
the pressure on the state depart
ment, and the labor department,
which handles immigration, has
been terrific by very important and
frequently very wealthy persons in
this country who were willing to
spend a good deal of money to get
their European relatives into the
United States.
Will Press for Reform
Confident that the country as a
whole must now be convinced of
what he has always known—that his
program is not wrecking either the
capitalistic system or the economic
soundness of the country. President
Roosevelt will press on for reform.
The “proof’’ that his policies are
not hurting the expectation of prof
its—the heart of the capitalistic
system—is seen by the President in
the recent sharp advance in stock
prices on the New York exchange.
Surely, he reasons, people would
not be bidding up the prices of
stocks in the big corporations if
they were not sure the Roosevelt
policies were going to prevent those
corporations making any profits!
Not that the President is satisfied
with his present achievements.
Proud of them—yes. Content with
them—no. Only by a very large
measure of additional reform, he
believes, can real prosperity be at
tained. More particularly, only by
more reform can prosperity, as his
distinguished predecessor, Theodore
Roosevelt, said in his campaign
speeches of 1912, be “passed
around.”
Uplifting the downtrodden in the,
South is, Roosevelt insists. No. 1 on
the agenda. Raising of the pay of
WPA workers in the South was the
first step. Softening of any intended
wage differentials under the new
wages and hours regulation law is
the second. New chapters will fol
low soon in a movement on a broad
front to bring the whole wage
scale of the South up to northern
standards.
Roosevelt particularly abhors the
movement of plants in order to ex
ploit labor, and has the South in
mind as one of the worst examples
of this type of keeping down so
large a percentage of the people in
his famous one-third who are under
nourished, underclothed and poorly
housed.
End Discriminations
In this determination to lift up the
South the President is particularly
interested in ending discriminations,
especially economic discrimina
tions, against the Negro. Well-paid
Negro labor is just as essen-,
tial a part of the market for auto
mobiles, refrigerators and other in
dustrial products, he believes, as
any other type of consumer. To
just the extent that Negroes are'
held to the underprivileged class,
to just that extent will the common
prosperity of the entire country be
held back.
The President is determined, for
this continuance of his reform pro
gram, to have a “liberal’* congress.
Professions of not being informed
as to certain state situations in
volving senators and representa
tives who are regarded by the Co
hen-Corcoran group as reactionary
will deceive no one concerned. The
President is tremendously interest
ed and remarkably well informed
as to every one of these situations.
In New York the President will be
forced to accept Governor Herbert
H. Lehman for senator. There it
is a question of recognizing that
half a loaf is better than no bread.
The President found out there was
not a chance to defeat Lehman in
the Democratic convention, there
being no primaries for United States
senators or governor in New York.
But for outright “Tories,” such as
Millard E. Tydings, in Maryland,
and Walter George, in Georgia,
there will be no compromises, es
pecially as the President knows
there is no chance of a Republican
senator from Georgia, and does not
think there is much risk of a Repub
lican senator from Maryland.
C Bell Syndicate.—WNU Service.
Nervousness
And Ulcers
By
DR. JAMES W. BARTON
© Bell Syndicate.—WNU Service.
A BUSINESS MAN found
himself becoming very
irritable about the office—
nothing was right. When
driving his car, every other
driver was at fault. He no
ticed also that about two
hours after he ate a meal he>
had a pain in the stomach
which was relieved only
when he took some baking
soda, drank some milk or ate
some food.
When he consulted his physician
and gave him the above history the
physician toad him
he thought it was a
stomach ulcer,
which the X-ray
proved was correct.
The physician or
dered a soft diet and
prescribed alkaline
medicines, which
gave relief; he told
the patient, how
ever, mat mere
were likely two
Dr. Barton tilings causing the
ulcer, one of which
was his own high-strung, nervous
disposition and the other some in
fection—likely the teeth. An X-ray
of the teeth showed the roots of two
teeth so badly infected that they had
to be removed.
Causes Symptoms of Ulcer.
Rest, soft food, removal of in
fected teeth, brought about the cure
at this time, but his physician told
him that if he didn’t learn to con
trol himself, to take things a little
more easily, to relax more, any lit
tle infection in his system, added
to his tense disposition, would like
ly "grow” another ulcer.
However, this nervous, tense dis
position, even when no infection is
present, can cause symptoms close
ly resembling ulcer of the stomach.
I have spoken before of the patient
whose symptoms closely resembled
ulcer, but X-ray showed that, while
no ulcer was present, the rhythm
or regularity of the stomch move
ments (churning the food) was
greatly upset in that the move
ments would occur in rapid succes
sion for a few minutes, then stop al
together for a time, perhaps be
come regular and normal, and then
occur rapidly and irregularly again.
A straight questioning by the physi
cian revealed the fact that the pa
tient was trying to handle a diffi
cult domestic problem. When this
problem was solved or settled, the
symptoms disappeared entirely.
Pain in the Forehead.
When pain occurs in the forehead
there is always the question as to
its exact cause.
If the pain is anywhere near or
above the eye, it is naturally
blamed on the eye and many will
visit their oculist or optometrist
with a request to have their eyes
tested. And in a number of these
cases the trouble is really due to
eye strain. The pain in these cases
is usually directly above the eye
and even with or below the eye
brow.
However, indigestion and gas
pressure can cause pain just above
the eye but it is usually just above
the eyebrow.
Another common pain in the fore
head above and between the eyes
is due to inflammation of the sinus
(frontal), a cavity or hollow space
in the lower part of the forehead.
This hollow space is connected with
the nose and forms with the other
sinuses, the “sounding box” for the
voice. The lining of this hollow
space or cavity is covered with tiny
cells which manufacture a fluid
which flows down into the nose.
When these cells get inflamed they,
of course, manufacture much more
juice, just as do other cells when
they are irritated. It is the juice
from this frontal or the other si
nuses that we blow from the nose
when we have a "head cold.”
When this irritation or inflamma
tion becomes severe we speak of it
as sinusitis, among the symptoms of
which is this severe headache in the
forehead due to pressure of the fluid
in the bony space. This headache
is worse in the morning because
there is not as good “drainage”
when we are lying down as when
standing up. There is thus some
relief from this headache during the
day; whereas in headache'due to
eyestrain the pain is not so severe
in the morning after the night’s
rest, but becomes more severe as
the eyes are used or strained dur
ing the day.
First Mention of Sugar Cane
Perhaps the first authoritative
mention of sugar cane is in the rec
ords of the expedition of Alexander
the Great down the Indus river in
325 B. C. Nearchus, an admiral in
this expedition, mentions honey
bearing reeds and Dioscorides, who
lived during the time of Nero,
wrote: "There is a sort of hard
honey which is called saccharum
(sugar) found upon canes in India.
It is briny like salt and brittle be
tween the teeth, but of sweet taste
withaL"
The Red
Geranium
By DOROTHY PIPER
© McClure Newspaper Syndicate.
WNU Service.
r\FFICER BANGS had traced the
contraband goods as far as
Freetown. From there on he was
stumped. Without success he had
interviewed all sus
C LI A p T picious characters
^■ in the village and
^ U q v carefully searched
3 H 1C I their premises. Still,
_ _ __ Officer Bangs knew
9 T R | the "stuff” had been
landed in Freetown,
so he could not well give up the
chase.
"Get a soap-box, Tim,” he or
dered his deputy, jocosely but with
determination, “and when the mov
ies let out next Tuesday night,
stand out in the square and offer a
reward for any information that will
lead to the arrest and conviction of
these law-breakers. This rum-run
ning has got to be stopped!”
Most of the movie patrons who
listened to the deputy’s jerky little
speech regarded it as an amusing
incident—a humorous bit of comedy
from real life after the rather har
rowing melodrama they had just
witnessed on the screen. Among
those who took the offer of reward
seriously was the impoverished Wid
ow Ward.
Before retiring that night, Mrs.
Ward made a mental list of the
people of her acquaintance who
might be guilty of liquor smuggling.
Many of these folks she had known
for years, and there was not one
upon whom she could cast suspicion.
"If there is a guilty one in town, it
must be a newcomer,” she reflected
thoughtfully. "The folks in Free
town are all good, law-abiding citi
zens. I wonder if it could possibly
be that girl who moved in across
the street last month? She is such a
young and pretty creature, I hate
to think of her as being underhand
ed. But the papers say that lady
crooks are getting more common
every day, and the pretty ones are
the most daring.”
Then, one day, Mrs. Ward made
what she considered a startling dis
covery. Trembling with excitement,
she hastened to headquarters and
cautiously divulged her information
to Officer Bangs.
"I’ve found your rum-runner, Mr.
Bangs,” she announced breathless
ly. "It’s the girl who lives opposite
me! Every afternoon, at three
o’clock, she puts a red geranium in
the window to indicate that the coast
is clear. This afternoon three men
watched the window until they saw
the plant, then they went in, without
knocking, Mr. Bangs!”
Fifteen minutes later a delegation
composed of Mrs. Ward, Officer
Bangs and his deputy, and two of
the town idlers (who were looking
for excitement), burst unceremoni
ously into Marjorie Harland’s kitch
en. They found three young men
seated at a table and Marjorie was
serving them with sandwiches and
tea.
"Young lady, said Mr. Bangs,
displaying his badge,, "you are un
der arrest. Who are these men
you are entertaining?”
"Why, my husband and broth
ers,” answered the astonished girl.
"But I don’t understand you.”
"You will directly,” continued the
officer. "Is it true that you put a
plant in your window every after
noon—as a signal?”
Marjorie laughed, and glanced
nervously toward the front of the
house. "Yes, a red geranium,” she
said, lowering her voice. “You.see.
I live with my aunt, who is a man
hater and won’t allow a man in
the house. I have recently been
married, and am afraid that when
Auntie hears of it she will disin
herit me. I don’t care about losing
the money; it’s what will happen to
her when I leave that worries me.
She positively refuses to hire a com
panion. Auntie takes a nap every
afternoon at three, and then I signal
to my husband and brothers, and
we discuss her welfare and try to
make arrangements for my future.”
Suddenly, a winsome old lady, her
hungry eyes denoting a life of dis
illusion and sorrow, appeared in the
doorway. “Don’t you worry about
your old auntie, honey," she
chirped. “I’ve heard your conver
sation, and everything's going to be
all right—money and all! If there’s
one thing I admire in a person it’s
spunk, and you have it, Margie.”
“And now,” she added with con
siderable fire for one of her age.
"now, you busybodies, get out of my
house and give us a chance to at
tend to our own affairs in peace!”
Mrs. Ward managed to stay after
the others had gone. Her eyes were
misty and she was sorely ashamed.
“I am to blame for all that hap
pened,” she said brokenly. “I
needed the money so much, and I
was too hasty and thoughtless, I
guess, and I judged you too quick
ly. Won’t you please forgive me?
I am terribly sorry.”
It was Marjorie’s aunt who an
swered her. “You needn’t be sor
ry,” she said kindly, “because you
have really done us all a great serv
ice. You have brought Marjorie
and her husband together, and you
have also made a selfish, unreason
able old woman see things in a new
light! And, furthermore, I’ll need
someone to care for me after Mar
gie goes, and if you would like to
come over, you need never worry
about money again. Is it a bar
gain?"
