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About The Red Cloud chief. (Red Cloud, Webster Co., Neb.) 1873-1923 | View Entire Issue (Sept. 10, 1914)
wf-w T !V- . 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? M r i l H -oi-.V I fl t t iJAuAMtaL. tt. ' 4.A.