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COVGHT 1916
CHAPTER VII.
; Waiting for Newt,
John's mother, his weetheart and
1 all saw him off at Glasgow. The
fear was in all our hearts, and I think
it must have been in all our eyes as
well the fear that every father and
mother and sweetheart in Britain
shared with us in these days when
ever they saw a boy off for France
and the trenches. Was it for the last
time? Were we seeing him now so
strong and hale and hearty, only to
have to go the rest of our lives with
no more than a memory of him to
Aweel, we could not be telling thatl
W could only hope and pray! And
we had learned again to pray long
since, I have wondered often, and
Mrs. Lauder has wondered with me,
what the fathers and mothers of
Britain would do in these black days
without prayer to ' guide them' and
sustain them. So we could but stand
there, keeping back our tears and our
feara and hoping for the best. One
thin was sure: we might not let the
laddie aee how close we were to
greeting. It was for us to be so
brave as God would let us be. It
was hard for him. He was no boy,
you ken, going blindly and gaylv to
a great adventure; he had need of the
finest courage and devotion a man
could muster that day.
For he knew fully now what it was
that he was going back to. He knew
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tne neu xne xiuns nu uut ui
which had been bad enough, in all
rftn science, before thev did their part
to make it worse. And he was higb-
strung. tit conia live over, ana i
make no doubt he did, in those days
after he had his orders to go back,
every grim and dreadful thing that
was waiting for him out there. He
had been through it all. and he was
going back. He had come out of the
valley of the shadow and now he was
to ride down into it again.
And it was with a smile he lett usi
I shall never forget that. His thought
was all for us, lest we should worry
too greatly and think too much of
him. .... . , ,
"I'll be all right," he told us.
"You're, not to fret about me, any of
you. A man does take his chances
out there but they're the chances
every man must take these days if
he's a man at alt I'd rather be tak
ing them than be safe at home."
We did our best to match the lad
die's spirit and be worthy of him. But
it was cruelly hard. We had lost him
atd found him again, and now he was
being taken from ua for the second
time. It wai harder, much harder,
to see him go this aecond time than
it had beeo at first, and it had been
hard enough then.- and bad enough.
But there wai nothing else for it So
much we knew. It was a thing or
dered and inevitable, .
And it was not many days before
f ' we had slipped back Into the way
r ' valided at home. It it a arrange thing
BDOUl JlIC, 11 JO WJ IU. VMH vm ww
2 come used to thing, do it was wun
r' us. ? Strange things, terrible things.
outrageous things, that in time of
d peace we would never have dared to
I much as to think possible, came to be
the mattert of every day for ut. , It
3 wai so with John, We came to think
of it at natural that he should be
t away from us, and in peril of hit life
i every minute of every hour. It was
. not easier for ut. Indeed. It was
harder than it had been before, just
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Britain. But I carried on and did
the best I could.
That winter I was in the big review
at the Shaftesbury theater, in Lon
don, that was called 'Three Cheers."
It was one of the gay shows that
London liked because it gave some
relief from the war and made the
Zeppelin raids that the Huns were
beginning to make so often now a
little easier to bear. And it was a
great place for the men who were
back from France. It was partly be
cause of them that I could go on as
I did. We owed them all we could
give them. And when they came
back from the mud and the grime and
the dreariness of the trenches they
needed something to cheer them up
needed the sort of production we
gave them. A man who has two
days' leave in London does not want
to see a serious play or a problem
drama, as a rule. He wants some
thing light, with lots of pretty girls
and jolly tunes and people to make
him laugh. And we gave him that.
The house was full of officers and
men, night after night. '
Soon word came from John that he
was to have leave, just after Christ
mas, that would bring him home for
the New Year's holidays. His mother
went home to make things ready, for
John was to be married when he got
is leave. I had my plans all made.
I meant to build a wee hoose for the
two of them, near our own hoose at
Dunoon, so that we might be all to
gether, even though my laddie was
in a home of his own. And I counted
the hours and the day against the
time when John would be home again.
While we were playing at the
Shaftesbury I lived at a hotel in
Southampton Row called the Bon
nington. But it was lonely for me
there. On New Year's eve it fell on
a Sunday Tom Vallance, my brother-in-law.
asked me to tea with him
and his family in Claphara, where he
lived. That is a pleasant place, a
suburb of London on the southwest,
and I was glad to go. And so I
drove out wiht a friend of mine in a
taxicab and was glad to get out of
the crowded part of the city for a
time.
I did not feel right that day. Hol
iday timet were bad. hard times for
me then. We had always made so
much of Christmas, and here was the
third Christmas that our boy had been
away. And so I wat depressed. And
then, there had been no word for me
from John for a day or two. I was
not worried, for I thought it likely
that hit mother or his tweetheart had
heard and had not time yet to let me
know. But. whatever the reason. I
wat depressed and blue and I could
not enter into the festive spirit that
folk were trying to keep alive despite
the war.
I must have been poor company
during that ride to Clapham In the
taxicab. We acarcely exchanged a
word, my friend and I. I did not
feel like talking, and he respected my
mood and kept quiet himself. I felt
et last that I ought to apologize to
him.
"I don't know what't the matter
with me," I told him. "I limply don't
want to talk. I feel tad and lonely.
I wonder if my boy it all right?"
"Of courae he isl" my friend told
me. "Cheer up, Htrry. Thit is a
'-" '-hrn no news it good news. If
anything were wrong with him they'd
let yoo know."
Well. I knew that. too. And I
tried to cheer up and feel better so
I
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the others at Tom Vallance't house.
I tried to picture John at I thought
he must be well and happy and
smiling the old, familiar boyish tmile
knew so well. I had tent him a
box of cinars only a few days ucioi.
and he would be handing it around
among his fellow officers. I knew
thatl But it wat no use. i coma
think of John, but it was only with
sorrow and longing. And I wondered
f this same time in a year would see
him still out there in the trenches.
Would this war ever end? And to
the-shadows still hung about me
when' we reached John's house.
' They made me very welcome, did
Tom and all hit family. They tried
to cheer me, and Tom did all he
could to make me feel better and to
reassure me. But I was still de
pressed when we left the house, and
began the drive back to London.
It's the holiday I'm out of gear
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at it had been harder for ua to say t woum not anoil the nleasure of
gooaoy tne second urns. o wt
thought lest often of the ttrangeness
of it. We were really growing used
to the war, and it wat lest the mon
trout, ttrange thing than it had been
in our daily lives. War had become
our daily life and portion in Britain.
All who were not alackert were do
ing their part every one. Man and
woman and child were in it, making
sacrifices. Those happy dayt of
peace lay far behind us, and we had
lost Our touch with 1 them and our
memory of them was growing dim.
We were all in it We had all to
auffer alike; we we're all in the tame
boat, we mothers and fathera and
weethearts of Britain. And to it
wii eiaier for ua not to think too
much and too often of our own griefs
. and caret and anxieties.
John's letters began to come again
in a ateady stream. He was as care
ful at ever about writing. There was
scarcely a day that did not bring its
lttr to one of the three of us. And
what bonnie, brave letters they weret
They were at cheerful and at bright
as hit first letters had been If John
had bad hours and bad dayt out there
he would not let us know it He told
u what news there was, and he was
always cheerful and bright when he
wrote. He let.no hint of discourage
ment creep into anything he wrote to
us. He thought o! others nrst, ai
wava and all the time; of his men and
Of ua at home. He was quite cured
and well he told us, and going back
had done him good instead of harm.
. He wrote to ua that he felt at if he
had come home. He felt, you ken,
that it wat there, in France and in
, the trenchea, that men should feel at
home in those days, and not safe in
Britain bv their ain firesides.
It was not easy for me to be cheer
ful and comfortable about him,
thoueh. I had my work to do,
tried to do it as well as I could, for I
knew that that would please him. My
band still went up and down the coun
trv. setting recruits, and I was speak
insr. too. and ursins: men myself to go
out and join the lads who were fight
inn and dvinar for them in France.
' They told me I was doing good workf
that I was a great force in the war.
And I did. indeed, get many a word
and many a handshake from men who
told me I had induced them to enlist
, "I'm elad I heard you. Harry, man
after man said to me. "You ahowed
me what I should be doing and I've
been easier in my mind ever' since I
nut on the khakil"
t . I knew they'd never regret it, no
matter what came to them. No man
will that's done his duty. ' Iff the
slackers; who couldn't or wouldn't
see their duty men should feel sorry
for. If s not the lads who gave every
thine and made the final sacrifice.
It wat hard for me to go on with
my work of making folks laugh,
It
had been growing harder steadily
ever since 1 had come home from
America and that long voyage of
mine to Australia, and had teen what
fu .wu and whet it wat, doing to
with that, I'm thinking," I told my
friend.
He was going to join two other
friends, and, with them, to see the
New Year in in an old-fashioned
way, and he wanted me to join
thm. But I did not feel up to it; I
was not in the mood for anything of
the sort.
"No, no, 111 go home and turn in,"
I told him. "I'm too dull tonight to
be good company."
He hoped, as we all did, that this
New Year that was coming would
bring victory and peace. Peace
could not come without victory; we
were all agreed on that. But we all
hoped that the New Year would
bring both the ntr year of 1917.
And so I left him at the corner of
Southampton Row and went back to
my hotel alone. It was about mid
night, a little before. I think, when
I got in, and one of the porters had
a message for me.
"Sir Thomas Lipton rang you up,"
he said, "and wants you to speak
with him when you come in."
I rang him up at home directly.
"Happy New Year, when it comes,
Harry 1 he said. He spoke in the
same bluff, hearty way he always did.
He fairly shouted in my ear ."When
did you hear from the boy? Are you
and Mrs. Lauder well?"
"Aye, fine," I told him. And I told
him my last news of John.
"Splendid I" he said. "Well, it was
just to talk to you a minute that I
rang you up, Harry. Goodnight
Happy New Year again."
I went to bed then. But I did not
go to sleep for a long time. It was
New Year's, and I lay thinking of my
boy and wondering what this year
would bring him. It was early in
the morning before I slept. And it
seemed to me that I had scarce been
asleep at all, when there came a
pounding at the door, loud enough to
rouse the heaviest' sleeper there ever
was.
My heart almost stopped. There
must be something serious indeed
for them to be rousing me so early.
I rushed to the door, and there was
a porter, holding out a telegram. I
took it and tore it open. And I
knew why I had felt as I had the day
before. I shall never forget what I
read:
"Captain John Lauder killed in ac
tion, December 28. Official. War
Office."
It had gone to Mrs. Lauder at
Dunoon first, and she had sent it on
to me. That was all it said. I knew
nothing of how my boy had died, or
where save that it was for his coun
try. But later I learned that when Sir
Thomas Lipton had rung me up
he had intended to condole with me.
He had heard on Saturday of my
boy't death. But when he tpoke to
me and understood at once, from the
tone of my voice, that I did not
know, he had not been able to go
on. Hit heart was too tender to
make it possible for him to be the
one to give me that blow the heav
iest that ever befell me.
((Continued Tomorrow)
Peaceful IteroInUoo.
MftTte Prtioner, the evldeaee ehowe
that, after being a model hueband for 20
years, yon threw your wife out of the houie
and ran amuck, attempting- to murder
everybody you met.
Defendant (eheeplehly) It wee only a
peaoeful revolution at the start, your honor.
but after I had overthrown the autocracy I
lost my head. Puek.
Complains of Unsanitary
Condition Near School
E. G. McGilton of the Board of
Education states that he hopes the
new health commissioner will take
cognizance of what he complains is
an unsanitary condition east of the
Saratoga school, Twenty-fourth street
and Ami; avenue.
"For several years," he explained,
"a sanitary sewer has emptied into a
depression east of this school. There
is no outlet for the accumulation of
waste material which gathers in this
depression and sends forth a noxi
ous and menacing odor in warm
weather. The situation was brought
to the notice of the city officials sev
eral times and now I hope that the
new municipal broom will reach this
plague spot"
Burgess-Nash Choir Plans
Fort Omaha Entertainment
The Burgess-Nash choir will give
an entertainment Friday night in the
Young Men's Christian association
hut at Fort Omaha for the soldier
boys.
E. J. Berg will give a monologue,
Miss G. Olmstead will dance, and
Earl Johnson will stive a contortionist
act. Mrs. Fit will sins;. R. F. Kirk
will play a violin solo and F. E.
Thomas will give a soecial number on
the trombones.- The choir is com
posed of more than 30 voices. They
will sing a group of songs, including
"Over There," "My Wild Irish Rose,"
and "When Sammy Comes Marching
Home."
The program also will include
caricatures by W. R. Lipoold, and a
piano specialty by W. H. Jackson.
The choir gave a similar program
Wednesday night for the boys at
Fort Crook.
Changes Will Be Made in
Postoffice Next Monday
Next Monday the parcels post, "C.
0. D. " and insured letter departments
of the postoffice will be moved from
the south to the extreme north cor
ridor on the main floor of the federal
building. This was necessitated by
the increased amount of businesi
transacted in these departments, re
sulting in congestion near the stamR
windows.
taSJ. 'vfTHV -TtfB
Ml
5 Per Cen Federa
Farm Loan Bonds
The Federal Land Bank of Omaha
offers $109,000 of these bonds at the
new 1 Interest rate.
U. S. Government Supervision,
Unlimited tax exemption and the in
creased Interest rate eomblne to make
this a most attractive investment.
Denemlnstiens, $28, ISO, tlOO, 800,
$1,000.
Priced 101 and accrued Interest
from May 1.
Send subscriptions or write for fur.
the! information to
E. D. MORCUM, Treasurer,
The Federal Land Bank of Omaha,
130S W. O. W. Bldf.
Special Victrola
Oder
Gtn. Perthing'a Men Writoi
"Keep Up the Spirits of the
Folks at Home."
You can do your patriotic
bit by taking advantage of
this
For a Limited Period:
A large tize latest style XIA
Victrola with 20 selections of
10-inch double race 85c rec
ords of your own choosing for
i
$
50
si
on remarkably easy monthly
payments.
Burgess-Nash Company.
everybodyS stork"
FISTULA CURED
Rectal DUeaees Oared without a sever en.
tical operation. No Chloroform or Ether need.
Cure guaranteed PAY WHEN CURED. Write for
.llustrated book on Rectal Diseases, with names
end testimonials of more than 1,000 prominent
people who have been permanently cored.
DR. E. R. TARRY - 240 Bee Building, Omaha Neb
EVERYBODY STORE'
Friday, May 24, 1918-
-Store News for Sahirday-
-Phone Douglas 137
MEN:
Saturday on Our Main Floor is the Time
and Place to Get That New Straw Hat
EVERYTHING that is new and snappy is represented in the very newest blocks, sailors, fedoras, telescopes, in the
flat top with pencil curl or the turn down brim in the .Equatorians, South American' Panama, Bangkok, Leg-
norn. jyiacKinaw anu rurw ivicua, mui v""" vi puss i- i.., f , -r
.... .. v .11 AJVJ.- rtA
Sennets, split braids ana mnan straws, i.ou io o.w.
Men's Cloth Hats
We just received a shipment of
extra well made cloth hats, silk
lined. Good shapes, shepherd
plaids, khaki color and gray mix
tures. Suitable for street, motor
ing, golf or any sport wear. Spe
cially priced at $3.00.
Men's Spring Caps, $2.00 Odd Lots of Caps, 45c and $1.00
"Ari assortment of men's caps form Spear & Co., Other makes of men's caps, odd lots, and broken
recognized as the highest grade manufacturers of men's lines, at $1.00 and 45c.
caps, splendid new patterns all new. Saturday, $2,00. White or Khaki canvas hats, 50c
Burgess-Nub Co. Main Floor
dew .r v
We Doubt if You Find Better Suit Values
Than You Can Find at Burgess-Nash
SUITS that are in a variety of models and patterns that will appeal to the young
man as well as the more conservative dresser. There are all sizes for every one
stouts, slims, stubs and regulars and we know you will find the style and kind of
suit you have in mind. jj j
. Every garment is strictly tailored throughout by expert tailors and made accord
ing to our specifications, the
of quality, which means the best possible at the price.
The fabrics new in weave, in color, in texture. And
each is guaranteed unqualifiedly as to fastness and wear
(important just now, you know.) ,
We Feature for Saturday
Men's Suits $25.00
Featuring the best in fabrics, patterns, styles and color
ings, styles that appeal to the young men who give a great
deal of attention to their dress as well as the more con
servative. Men's Suits, Priced At
$18.00, $22.50 to $40
Suits that are designed and tailored by the best artists
possible to secure styles in a variety that will appeal to
you, no matter what your idea may be, correct in model,
best and most favored materials, all sizes for regulars,
stubs, slims and stouts.
Burgest'Nuh Co. Fourth Floor
Men's Banister
Oxfords
Special for Saturday
$7.50
PAIR
In a number of new
lasts and a generous sav
ing on every pair.
Brown Russian calf.
Tan Russian calf.
Black Russian calf,
Tan kid skin,
Black kid skin.
Choice of any Banister
oxford for Saturday, only
$7.50.
BurtessNash Co. Fourth Floor
A Complete Line of Beau
Brummel and Star Shirts
RECENT shipments in both celebrated lines gives us a most com
plete assortment of neckbands. Coat style, same with collars to
match. Made of extra fine percale, colored madras, ducetines and
many other materials. Suitable for summer shirts. Moderately
priced at $1.50 to $3.50, silks slightly higher. '
Athletic Union
Suits, $1.00
Men's athletic union suits
"Haberdasher" brand, well
made "Sport tops" and all
over garments. $1.00 per
suit and up.
Knitted Union Suits,
$1.50
Men's knitted onion suits
made of fine lisle yarn, ecru
or white color and long
sleeves and knee, and
ankle lengths. Most desirable
garments for this season, the
"Richmond Mesco" brand.
Specially priced at $1.50 per
suit
Wash Silk Neckwear, 55c
Men's wash silk neckwear, panel stripes, extra quality wash
silk, good colorings, French fold Four-in-hands. About Vi regular
price, 55c.
Sample Hose, 19c.
Special No. 1 black, tan, white and gray and black with split
sole, ecru color. Sample hose mostly double heel, toe and sole,
price 19c.
Silk Hose, 39c.
Men's thread silk hose, gun metal black, white and palm
beach, 39c.
Silk and Fibre, 50c.
Men's plain and fancy plaid silk and silk fibre Yt hose, samples,
50c the pair. '
Buriea.-Nash Co. Main Floor
Fit the Boy Out Saturday
With Everything He Needs
' Special values that will interest parents with
boys to clothe.
Boys' Suits $8.95 to $16.50
We are displaying a most complete line of Boys',
Suits. Trench models with belt and slash pockets;
Norfolk models, 3-piece and patch pockets. Prices
range from $8.95 to $16.50.
Boys' Wash Hats
White, tan, rose and khaki
colors, 65c, 75c and $1.00.
Boys' Straw Hats
Tan Madagascar straw hats
at 6Bc, 75c and $1.00.
White Milan straw hats, $1.50
to $5.00.
Black straw in all the new
shapes and sizes, $1.50 to $4.00.
Boys' Blouses
Splendid selection of pat
terns, guaranteed colors, at 75c
to $5.00.
Boys' Pants
Washable, good materials
and patterns, 75c to $2.50.
lit
4-
Boys' Wash Suits
Newest styles, guaranteed
colors, ages 2 to 8 years, for
$1.50 to $6.95.
Burfese-Naeh Co. Fourth Floor
