“THE GOLDEN BED”
By WALLACE IRWIN.
Produced as a Paramount Picture by Cecile B. DeMille From a Screen
Adaptation by Jeanie Macpherson.
CCopyrlaht. l#24)
V._____
(Continued from Yesterday.)
There was considerable worldly
pride in this. "I been in the trade
a coupla years now, workin' between
here and Indianapolis. Too bad you
didn't get hold o’ some o’ my Grade
A. Remember that sauterne you
bought for your big party at the Ham
ilton'* That was mine."
"What have you done with my
clothes?" Full consciousness had
tome upon Admah and with it panic.
"Sent 'em over to the pants presser
across the street. I'll say they need
ed it. Say—"
"What time is It?"
Very deliberately Mr. Hemingway
drew back a blue cuff.
"It's jest eventeen minutes of five
—I'm hoot four minutes fast, so that
makes it—"
"Five? Five in the afternoon?'
Admah had swung his legs out of
bed and sat open-mouthed, horror
stricken.
"Sure. You been hittin' the hav
since four this mornln' when 1
brought you home in a taxi. Look
here. Ad! What’s eatin’ you now?”
What was rating him? Furies, per
haps, who overtake and gnaw the
sluggard who sleeps and leaves his
one poor hope to float away upon
the ebbing tide. He threw himself
hack on the creaking springs and
covered his head.
* "Sav, I guess I'd better go git a
doctor," decided Elmer "Sometimes
that Class B hootch hits 'em, pretty
hard."
“For God's sake let me alone,
groaned the stricken man. "Don't
talk any more. Let me he." Elmer
had taken a step toward the door
when Admah called after him:
. "Evening paper—get me one!
Quick!”
He heard Elmer's footsteps rlatter
lng down the stairs, and during a
timeless interval lav there, cold and
- movfless as some Colossus who, hav
ing fallen, can do nothing to knit to
gether the broken stoims that once
composed his giant statm-e. His eyes,
his heart, his limbs were broken
stones. Stone thoughts were in his
head. Then again footsteps were on
the earpetless stairs.
"Show it to me!" he commanded
.hollowly when his friend returned.
Elmer uncreased the Evening Demo
crat at the front page and held It
up to he read. The news was con
spicuously spread and Illustrated by
a portrait.
HOLTZ OUSTED
FROM PRESIDENCY
OF T. & P
NEWTON B. CANFIELD
TO SUCCEED HIM.
Colon M Attei-h rv's Secretary
Chosen A Per Stormy
Session.
Admah lay a long time studying
»hn handsome picture of Newton 13.
\anfield. Then he smiled a quiet
uir.ile, for he could afford his Joke,
---------"\
| New York
J - Jay by Day
By O. O. MTNTYRE.
New York. Feb. 9.—Wives who hop
jm tearoom to tearoom and hus
mds who are nervous wrecks. This
the stamp of successful New
orkers. Most husbands are slaving
->r the Big Getaway when they can
•etlre to ease and plenty. Then they
Ko In the harness.
In the evenings the wives drag 4he
husbands to cafes and theaters.
There you see them In listless man
ner trying to be entertained and
wishing all the while they were home
In bed. Their boredom is complete.
Their heads are full of figures.
The only time they brighten up Is
when the talk veers to some se
cluded place or the villa in the south
of France. Their goal Is to be far
from director's meetings, telephone
calls and conferences. But It Is the
old. old story—the lure of gold.
One often wonders Just exactly
what the higji-powered money getter
is really getting out of life. Very few
seem genuinely happy. You never
hear them laugh with that abandon
that Is so characteristic of the real
happy person.
Instead there Is a quick smile—
and a return to mental figuring. If
they go away for a rest they worry
•bout how things are getting along
at the office and rarely do they stay
away as long as they had Intended.
The wives do not seem harrassed
by the climb upward. Wealth brings
to them a desire for social recog
nltlon and social recognition means
asking a lot of people to do things
they do not want to do. And beauty
parlor* must not be neglected.
' *• It seems to me every New Yorker
who Is successful Is discontented.
Franklin said that discontents arise
from our desires oftener than from
our wants. Nothing Is so tragic ss
discontent. Still I suppose If Colum
hus had been a contented man I
would not be writing this.
The precocious daughter of a suc
cessful New Y'ork wife rather cramp
ed her style at a little afternoon
gathering where she accompanied
her mother. A gentleman was mak
Ing her mother laugh rather uproar
iously. The child ran up to him with:
"Don’t make mother laugh too much.
She Is not used to her false teeth."
Now successful women who have
made their own way strike me as
being vastly different from men.
There is, for Instance, Maybelle Man
tling, a young girl who came from
Texas make her own way. In a
short time she opened one of th*
most exclusive dressmaking salons
In town. In a full page Interview In
a New York newspaper she savs: "I
do not believe anyone ran be success
ful nnless thev sre happy. If money
making or achievement destroy hap
piness I want to return to the ging
ham wrapper and rocking chair on
the front porch of a small Texas
, town—at least there they are hap
py.”
"What would you do," asks a New
York editorial writer, "If someone
dropped $f,n,000 In your lap and
said, ‘This Is youA<?' " If he's asking
me. I'll say I would Just keep on
Whittling and wall for the keeper to
eopio around and take him back
home.
Sudden wealth Is very dangerous.
A woman I know cam* into a huge
and quick fortune. She bobbed her
hair, shortened her skirt* and went
In for a face lifting operation that
disfigured her for Ilf*. —
C (Cnjftt If hip »fl.l ,
4
since the T. & P. was no longer any
affair of his. So that had been their
game. General Bentley had been
merely a smoke screen to hide the
real enemy, who was Sim Canfield's
nephew.
"I wonder if a little drink wouldn't
do you good?” Elmer was asking, his
head to one side.
"I reckon not," sighed ^dmah.
"I’ve tried it."
No city quite outgrows the village
gossip; at least London and New York
and Paris never have. And Admah's
city, which in his lifetime had bar
tered charm for size, still retained
its whispering galleries where ancient
Indies could sit with heads together.
For in the Day of the Cave and Hein
deer it was written that the old men
of the tribe should make the laws
and the old women make the mis
chief. Quite naturally, then, the old
women sat on the case of Admah
Holtz and Flora Lee Peake, drawing
the rainbow threads of romance back
and forth, in and out, weaving a
series of handsome tapestries which,
like many other objects of art, were
remarkable for their color and design
rather than their historical accuracy
Satsuma disapproved of Flora Lee,
but few condemned her; Satsuma is
staunch in Its caste feeling. Admah
Holtz, who had been received under
protest, was rejected with a savage
joy. Miss Sunshine Buckner held to
the theory that he beat Flora Lee—
not that she didn't richly deserve it,
but the Holtz.es were dreadful people
from somewhere across the River.
Mrs. Eustone made the valuable dis
covery that Admah’s mother had died
in the Home of the Feeble Minded
and that Admah had been bartender
in a roadhouse. Mrs. Atterbury re
mained contemptuously aloof. She
thought as her husband did; to him
Admah Holtz represented an In vest
ment which he h id found dangerous
and sold out, fortunately, in time.
Not long after the T. & P. had
changed its presidency the Evening
Democrat published a fair-seeming
article which did not meet the appro
val of Satsuma; and the Evening
Democrat had been taken over re
cently by a Yankee publisher who
bought newspapers as he once had
bought chain groceries. His heart's
desire was Standardization. Only In
local news did he permit variety, and
that he chose to make frivolous, sen
sational, pictorial. If the old Eve
ning Democrat had been dull and
stately the new Evening Democrat
was bright and restless. It was. In
fact, no gentleman.
"Tut-tut!" moaned Miss Sunshine
Buckner one afternoon over her glass
of stierrv, which she drank alone
since .Timmy Wilder had moved to
Chicago. "What can people be think
ing of to allow such a paper?"
But the item, on its surface, was
innocent enough. They had repub
lished the portrait printed at the
time of Flora Lee’s engagement to
San Pilar. An adjacent headline in
formed the reader that Mrs. Holtz
Failed to Admit Rumor, and below
there ran a somewhat idle account of
the beautiful Mrs. Holtz's pleasant
stay at French Lick Springs. It was
a ragged-edged. short-lined, ecstatic
article, suggestive of vers libre. Her
costumes were especially poetic. She
entertained many charming people,
mostly unknown to her home town.
And what were her plans? She had
none. Was it true that she had been
separated from her husband, Admah
R Holtz, so suddenly ousted from
the T. & P? After her reply, the
reporter had retained sufficient cour
age to Inquire why Mr. Holtz's house
on the River Boulevard had been
offered for sale. She was unable to
satisfy his curiosity.
Through some carelessness in the
composing room, no doubt, another
Item was given undue prominence on
the same page. Mr. Hunter O'Neill
had failed to qualify for a golf tourna
ment at French Lick Springs.
He might have gone out in search
of Flora Lee or. as an animal im
pulse had once urged him in the days
when he had still an animal’s vigor,
for revenge upon Hunter O'Nell!. But
the days and weeks dragged on with
nothing more definite than in his
mind a promise to do something abon'
it sometime. At present he wanted
to be left alone, to leave other peo
ple alone. Into the details of set
tling his debts and Flora Lee’s he
put all the energy he could summon.
Before he decided to sell his remain
ing stocks T. & P common had taken
another drop. He paid In full for
the boathouse which he had promised
the sycamore Club, then he resigned,
as he did from his other clubs. He
settled with Cummins for the brace
let and sent checks to several Eastern
dressmakers, a landscape-gardener
and a Chicago firm which sold Italian
reproductions. The sale of his house
he entrusted to a real estate broker.
Arthur de Long, who was making a
great success of Hersinger's, drove
rather a close bargain for the place,
lie agreed to take over the mortgages
and lo furnish a watchman until the
New Year when the transfer would
be made.
Such details as these were Involved
In ringing down the curtain on his
pretentious drama. Admah Holtz,
whose mother had taught him to hate
debt, hated it to the end. He closed
his books with a pitiful little balance
in the bank and a pitiful little belief
in the destiny which he had once
thought so tine. A man past forty,
having tasted luxury and success and
the possession of a beautiful woman,
he was poorly fitted for a beginning
at the small end of the town. For a
time he lived in the cheapest room
it> the Hamilton, dodging in and our
for fear people would slop him and
want to talk.
Shortly after his failure he had re
reived a note from Margaret, and the
very character of her writing paper
had proclaimed her advancement in
the world. "The Woman's Syndicate"
ber handsome stationery was en
graved and there was mention of her
offices in the Principality Building.
"There must be something I can do,"
she had written, "and. I siia’i fee)
dreadfully if you don't ask me. What
ever has happened, I know It isn’t
your fault. Won’t you come to me
or let come to you? Biease let’s see
what we can make of it all. I’m nl
the Westmore Apartments now, if
you can come in the evening. I do
so want to see you, Admah!"
Feeling that he should have been
glad of her success, he fought In vain
:nst a new sensitiveness. She was
going up In the world. The Peakes
were coming back. . . . Margaret war
again proving the character that had
made the Peakes great; poor Flora
Lee was just what greatness had
made (f the Peakes.
His note to Margaret was short,
kindly and Impersonal. • He had
thought of her often he said, hut
there had been so much to do that he
hadn't had time to see anybody. Put
he'd surely come and see her just as
soon as he pot bark.
fiot hack from what? He couldn’t
say because he didn't know.
Finally he decided to accept Uncle
Lafc's invitation and go to the hog
farm for an indefinite stay Cap
tain Holtz, in his own rough lan
guage. convinced him that the coun
try air would do him good; he was
welcome to stay*as long as he cared
to. When this offer came Admnh
w-.-is little richer than he had been
the day he left the workhouse and
planned to buy a discarded lunch
wagon. In life-force lie was much
poorer, for his dream was spent, hfs
pride was broken and success had
lnsr its magic. He rode out in Uncle
Lnfe's Ford, and all the way pic
tured himself as a hop farmer, grow
ing very fat among his swine, eat
ing and drinking more than he
should, chewing tobacco and never
coming to town. That would be a
logical end of Admah Holtz, less dra
niatic than sulciite, but more comfort
able.
The hog farm Idea held him for
onlv a lit'le. Like everything else
,n life Uncle l.afe anil Aunt Brownie
seemed to have flattened to the taste
Captain Holtz's thunderous stories
and philosophizings, which had onct
amused his nephew by the hour, now
bored hint with their garrulity and
repetitiousness. Lute was showing
h’s age. and' tiie death of his son—
the one who had gone east to fall
in the button business—had dulled the
old man's wit. Gout, which had
nipped. Aunt Brownie's joints for
many years, now began to gnaw in
earnest. She kept her chair a great
deal of the time, and like her hus
band site seemed to be droning for
ever about things that mattered not
at all.
Adtnah had come in Hell's Handing
planning to live the life of a farmer,
up with the lark, to bed with the
chickens. But the city habit had
grown on hint to punish his early ris
ing with sick headaches. If he went
to bed before midnight it was to twist
and turn until dawn, plagued by his
horrid thoughts. The Captain must
have seen his mistake in inviting his
nephew to the farm, for one morn
ing he came waddling down the path
with an armful of fresh corn fodder
and talked to Adtnah as man to man.
''Son,” he concluded gently, ‘I
guess you’d do a lot better in town
This place must took pretty slow' to
a young fella. Why don’t you go
round and look up Jo? He’s stopped
jest about where you dropped him.
and you and him ought to he able to
do something with that store o’ his.’
When her nephew left, an hour
later. Aunt Brownie kissed him and
cried a Utile—-dm-e Bert's death she
had become rather lachrymose—and
then old Hate took hint in his Ford
as far as the Jnterurban. Adniah
came into the Red Store just as Jo
and Myrtle and Henry, their oldest
boy. were preparing for the noon
trade. The window looked flyspecked
and cluttered. From behind the
counter where Jo was leaning over an
ice cream container and Myrtle was
serving a solitary customer, there
came a smell of sourness and of
mildew.
"Hello, Ad," Jo greeted him, look
ing up with a smile that seemed to
share the sourness and the mildew.
The customer, who was young and
gaudy, never raised her eyes from
the straw she was sucking. Admali
Holtz had ceased to be news to the
common people. Hut from Myrtle
and young Henry the reaction was
sprightly enough.
Henry dropned a spoon into thf
ice bln' and mentioned that famous
amour, the love ot Mike. Myrtle
hounded round the counter and em
braced her wandering brother-in-law
Admali hail an Impression of a
hlowsy middle-aged woman with n
floppy person. Her hands were still
wet with the soapy water in which
she had been washing soda glasses.
"Well.” drawled Admah with a
sickly humor when he had been led
to the upstairs apartment, where the
Jo Holtzes now lived in Intimate con
tact with their business. "I've stayed
with Uncle Lafe as long as he d stand
me."
Both .Jo and Myrtle proved surpris
Ingly kind. Myrtle's kindness, he
felt, was founded on the luxurious joy
of patronizing a relative whom she
had long en\ied for his greatness in
the world. But .lo betrayed a gen
erosity quite unsuspected In his nar
o\v heart and mind,
"J^ook yuh. Ad." he said bashfully
when Myrtle had left the raoom, "part
o' this here busines* always ha* been
vours. It didn't seem much to you
once. 1 reckon. But if we get to
gether the way we ust to we couM
shore make things hum."
"That's righ’ nice of you," drawled
A dm ah wearily. "Jtut 1 don't know
Do you suppose Myrtle would want
me to have a room here and eat with
you folks?"
Myrtle's consent obtained. Jo's
offer was left In a state of suspemle
animation. Adniah was allotted a
room next to an alley; he was sup
po ci! to make his own bed, taut he
never dhl. Sometimes he crept unde;
rhe blankets through the same fold
that he had left open when he go)
oat In the morning. Sometinn
Myrtle would relent and "straightf
up" when lie was away on one of
h)s Interminable walks. once he
caught her scolding to heisel? anti
calling him "shiftless." The artjec
tive, applied by Myrtle to Admah.
amused hint rather wickedly.
He walked a great deal, choosing
obscure streets where he would be
!e :et ll|.-e|y to encounter people whom
he had known. In the few crowded
blocks which he must traverse on
his way to esctfpe he would go rap
idly, his eyes on the sidewalk. This
was his ostrich fashion of hiding
from tho world; and few pcopi .
nlzed him. The gossips had fed on
him and thrown the scraps aside. —
After his first month over the Red
Front Store his sister-in-law took to
bullying. At first she tested him by
timid jabs and pinches, then finding
that the family giant was broken site
sneered in his face and mocked him
of his fall.
He slept and ate and smoked and
walked and read; dull business for a
dulled man. flood books bored him.
so he borrowed trash from a circu
lating library on the border of Dark
town, Now am! then lie would ex
change with Henry, whose year In a
freshwater rolleie had given him V*
tlp save an abominable taste in cig
irets and ration. Admah looked on
1 |oprv wl<h an easy tolerance, but
voided him because the boy was in
line' t.. p --oniae his parents.
(To It*- t'ent'niu-d Tomorrow.1
We kri w not win the av’rage man
Doth si "IT hi.- oi"maeh all he can;
Then puff and blow and grunt and
wherze
And ch.-i -.-e it off m Bright's disease.
Said old Doctor Pew.
It's my observation,”
“That hmilth conservation
Is practiced lay few."
i- ' , * y
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