The Lampasas Daily Leader. (Lampasas, Tex.), Vol. 13, No. 54, Ed. 1 Monday, May 8, 1916 Page: 2 of 4
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THE LAMPASAS DAILY LEADER
“
EXPERIENCE
By VICTOR REDCLIFFE.
I was a window-washer—for one
day only. I am partner in the Mon-
arch Engine company, son-in-law to
a wealthy maji and the husband of the
dearest little woman in the world now.
How it all came about I will tell you,
and there will be a sinister shadow
of wicked scheming as well as a gla-
mour of rare romance to the narra-
tion.
Graduation from an engineering
school left me flat as to cash. I start-
ed out on my first business experience
doing some drafting for a large con-
cern. They removed to another city.
I sought another position, and was
unsuccessful and, getting desperate,
was ready to take up the meanest
manual occupation in order to keep
from suffering from hunger.
I stood looking speculatively at the
man in charge of an office building
one afternoon as he bustled around or-
dering some window awnings put up
the next day, when he caught my eye.
Perhaps there was an imploring ex-
pression in my glance, probably be-
ing of wise worldly experience he
traced my poverty and guessed at my
hunger. At all events he approached
me.
“You don’t look like the working
kind, but maybe you want a job?” he
suggested in a brusque, off-handed
way.
“You never saw a man who needed
one worse,” I replied promptly, and
with heartiness.
“Ever clean windows?” he pro-
pounded next, and his hand directed
a gesture taking in the towering ex-
panse of the structure.
“Way up, there?” I inquired, and my
/"’ tones must have faltered and I shud-
dered.
“Oh, don’t let the height trouble
you,” readily and cheerfully directed
the man. "You can’t fall. We provide
a harness and jacket and you lock
yourself into the Jamb slots so secure-
ly that horses couldn’t pull you off
your feet. See here, if you want a
three-day Job at the regular tariff,
one, whose shrewd eyes and foxy side-
long glance proclaimed the schemer.
It was the latter who spoke, sharply,
exactingly:
“Well, Mr. Bowen, your answer?”
“I have come to accept your terms,’
was the dreary reply. “It may mean
ruin to me, but I am at your mercy.
In that,” and he placed a packet on a
table in the middle of the room, is
the fifty thousand dollars in money
and salable securities.”
The other lunged down upon it,
opened it, clawed over its contents
with the eager talons of a true harpy.
He replaced it, went over to a desk
in a corm- of a room and took thence
a folded paper.
“Listen to me,” spoke the old man,
leaning heavily on the cane he car-
ried, as though weak and invalid.
“When you take from me that packet
If?
SWM
la^romd IsNow
attleground,
HE rising generation will know
more of geography than any
of its predecessors. Noth-
ing teaches geography like
war, more than any other, this war.
South Africa, the Cameroons, East
you~roVme of all my avaiiable'liquid I Africa, the Sinaitic peninsula, the Per-
capital Unless I can borrow to re- sian gulf, Armenia, the Dardanelles
finance my business I am a ruined and all central Europe have been the
man At least return me one-half of scenes of dramatic events in which
the $50,000. Loan it to me, and let me | everyone has been forced to take inter-
pay it later. My word is as good as
my bond.”
“Not much!” sneered the ether. “I
want my price and I want it now,.
Here is the paper through which I can
close your establishment tomorrow
and prevent you from sending out a
single engine built on the Levinson
patent.”
“But I bought the patent. I paid
for it fairly.”
“And I hold an earlier transfer in
this document.”
“A forgery!”
“Can you prove it?”
“Unfortunately, no!” groaned th*,
wretched John Bowen, “but you know
that it is. Levinson is dead. You
have made a clever transfer, previous-
ly dated.”
“Which will stahd in the law,” de-
clared the other triumphantly. “Do
you back out of the bargain?”
“No! no!” cried Mr. Bowen. “Give
me the document,” and he looked it
over. Then he took a match from his
pocket, ignited the paper, watched it |
nothingness and took
est. And those events have in every
case been conditioned by the forma-
tion and climate of the countries in
which they have occurred. The world
scene of warfare has become real to
us through the many detailed accounts
printed by the newspapers and the
memory of what has thus been im-
pressed upon us will not soon pass
away.
Nothing was further removed from
the minds of most peace-time tourists
in their wanderings than to look at the
countries through which they passed
as likely in their own day to be devas
tated by war. Occasionally one be-
comes conscious of the existence of
forts in recondite lofty positions, but
these he was not permitted to ap-
proach and seldom wanted to. If he
crossed the Brenner by railway from
Innsbruck to Italy he could scarcely
avoid noticing the fortifications of
Franzensfeste, but why they should be
there and what they were expected to
attain—as to all that the mere tourist
Bang! I Shot Through Space.
two seventy-five a day, come along
\with me and I’ll fit you out. There
aflp two hours to work in and that will
mean v supper, bed and breakfast. If
you’re close-pressed fpr funds. I’ll help
you out with a little advance cash."
It would be hard to describe my
sensations when, duly jacketed, pro-
vided with a scraper, brush and rags
and given explicit directions, I stood
on a narrow window ledge eight sto-
ries up from the ground, dizzily, tim-
orously beginning my work. The first
window made me a contortionist. 1
breathed more easily on the second
one. Becoming more habituated to it,
I covered a double row of windows
down to the fifth story quite creditably.
It was getting dusk by that time, and
I resolved to finish one more window
and then go for my little stipend.
Creak!—there was a snap. Bang!
I shot through space.
What happened was this: In my
clumsiness and baffled by the semi-
darkness I had caught the snaps of
the harness in a frail screen hoop,
instead of in the stanch holding
slots. One rope gave at once. The
other swung free for a moment, tore
out of the hook and I dropped.
That sway sideways saved my life,
for, one story descended, I landed flat
on * my back across the grated bal-
cony of a fire escape. .1 was bruised,
half-stunned. I lay still, wondering
If any bones were broken, and look-
ing through an open window into a
small business office.
Two men were its occupants. One,
an old man, dignified but apparently
smucb disturbed, was facing a younger
crumble to nothingness and took up
hiB hat. "I am weak and ill,” he
added with a deep sigh; “the eleva-
tors have stopped running. I must
ask you to help me to my machine.”
“Sure enough!” piped the other read-
ily. “Come on,” and they left the
room.
Now the instant they were gone 1
seized the essence of this adventure
clearly in my mind. I believed that
a heartless villain was robbing an
honest old man. I acted quickly.
Rousing myself, I was inside the room
in a moment. I secured the packet,
I descended the fire escape, I was
down in the street.
Mr. Bowen had just stepped into an
automobile. The man who had accom
panied him to the street was hasten-
ing back after his anticipated booty.
The chauffeur headed the machine my
way. I leaped to the running board.
“What is this?” quavered the as-
tonished gentleman.
“Let me in with you, Mr. Bowen,” 1
said rapidly. “1 have something of
importance to say to you. Sir, I have
the money and securities you just gave
to that scoundrel in a room in that
building back yonder. Take them,”
and I thrust the packet into his trem-
bling hands. “Out of justice to me, 1
think you should assure me that 1
have helped a real cause by restoring
your property to you.”
And then I told him how I came to
be of service to him. He insisted upon
my going to his home. There I met
my fate.
Lepnie Bowen, then—Leonie Armi-
tage, my wife, now! How natural it
all seems to me now that the gratitude
of her father should communicate it-
self to her, that interest should lead
to sympathy, that this in turn should
end in love—love, the vision splendid
of this sober, serious old world of
ours!
(Copyright, 1916, by W. G. Chapman.)
Form No Racial Boundary.
There is hardly a mountain range in
the world that does not invite men
to traverse it somewhere. The Alps
are particularly thus breached, with
the result that for all their formidable
appearance they have as often con-
nected as sundered the peoples on
either side of them. They form today
horns are always glorious, but so are
the smaller peaks of the Maritimes,
of the. graceful Cottians, or of recon-
dite Dauphine. To each region there
is a charm all its own. And as with
the peaks, so with the valleys. The
better we come to know them the more
varied do we find them. We soon
learn to divide them into two main
contrasting groups: Those that in-
cline northward, mainly into German
lands, and those that bend south down
to the rich Italian plain, and these lat-
ter are far more charming than the
others.
Are Essentially Different.
In ancient days the region north of
the Alps was mainly a dense forest.
South of them has always been the
open fertile Italian plain. The winds
from the north were dry and cold;
those from the south warm and laden
with fertilizing moisture. Thus nature
herself imposed a different atmos-
phere upon these two sundered re-
gions; and though now, on both sides,
the forests have been driven aloft and
the lands suitable for it have been
tamed beneath the plow, the essential
difference abides. Fertile Italy climbs
aloft from one side; strenuous Ger-
many from the other. The very do-
mestic architecture proclaims the dif-
ference. The Italian valleys of the
Alps are old friends of the sun and of
the vine. Bacchus and Pan are there
at home. They seem to open to the
visitor a warm heart. Even where the
lemon cannot bloom the scent of it
seems to penetrate. The southern val-
leys always seem to draw one from the
Alpine heights as those to the north
never can.
A glance at the map shows that
tongue of hill country, by nature Ital-
ian, which Austria holds—the west
side of it stretching down due south
Too Much Refrain.
"Marriage!” said the sentimental
man, with a sigh. “Heaven’s greatest
boon to man— a good wife. My friends,
it is this that makes life possible, fill-
ing it with happiness and taking away
all loneliness and misery. Marriage
is one grand, sweet song!” he finished,
with a rapturous air.
His listeners were impressed; all ex-
cept a practical-looking chap in one
View From the Breuil Forest.
ANCIENT CEREMONY RECENTLY
HELD IN JAPAN.
Superstition Dying Slowly in the Em«
pire of the Mikado—Has Been an
Annual Custom for Twelve
Hundred Years.
Ceremonies were held recently
throughout the Japanese empire—in
household, shrine and temple—to drive
away the demons of ill-fortune. The
date corresponds to the old Chinese
New Year, marking the transition from
winter to spring under the ancient cal-
endar.
Tradition long observed in Japan
holds the demons of ill luck may be
kept away during the year by pelting
them with hard beans and by hanging
outside the door a branch of holly-
hock and the head of a herring. The
idea is that the herring, whose odor
is distasteful to the demon, will keep
the evil one from entering the house,
and that if he succeeds in entering he
will .be blinded by the beans. Each
member of the household takes as
many beans as he has years, and
throws them in all directions and it)
all the rooms of his house. \
It was about 1,200 years ago, dur
ing the reign of the Emperor Monbu,
that the first ceremony of demon re-
moving was held in Japan. Adopting
the rite from China, the emperor in-
corporated it with the object of stamp-
ing out an epidemic that raged
throughout the land.
Th« recent modern celebration was
like £k's: Toward evening house-
wives become busy preparing for the
celebration; beans are crackling in
kettles and feasts are prepared for
the family god and the family. Mean-
while the husbands clean the shrine,
light the sacred lights and burn in-
oense, while awaiting the beans and
the feast.
Parched beans are offered in a wood-
en box to the family god, and the fam-
ly clap their hands and reverently bow
before the shrine. Then the master
carrying the box of beans, starts round
his house, followed by his children to
pelt out the demons of misfortune.
When he throws beans toward the dj^-
rection of the god of good fortune he
cries out: “Come in, fortune!” anq.
when he pelts toward the other direc
tion he shouts: “Go out, demons!’
Children gather the scattered beans
and vie with each other in seeing who
gets most.
There is a superstition regarding
the word “bean” which may explain
why it plays such a part in the cere-
mony. The Japanese for “bean” is
“mame” and “mame” means “health."
Therefore the bean is the emblem of
good fortune.
no racial boundary. From the earliest
ages the people in the north have
pressed down over them and even the
loftiest Italian valleys on the south
slope of Monte Rosa itself are colon-
ized by a Teutonic stock. Thus it hap-
corner, who promptly rose to his feet, I pens that the Italian Ticino and Ital-
“Well, marriage may not be exactly ian Tyrol both remain under Teutonic
one grand, sweet song,” he said, slow- government and the frontier of the
ly, “but it’s certainly one grand, sweet Alps has never, in fact, been the po-
refrain—refrain from tobacco, refrarn litical frontier of Italy,
from the theater, regain from games, The Alpine playground of Europe
refrain from cycling week-ends—in takes a great deal of knowing. In a
fact, refrain from pretty well every- visitor’s first season the great snow
thing.” — Pittsburgh Chronicle-Tele- | mountains impose their eminence upon
graph.
He Was Thankful.
If you would please a mother praise
her child; but do it with discretion. A
visiting gentleman had submitted for
some time to the attentions of the
three-year-old boy of his hostess, but
at last grew a little tired of having his lights no less keen at lower levels. The
whiskers pulled and his corns trodden valleys have each a character of their
unon “Madam,” said he, “there is one own and the mountains themselves are
thing about your charming little boy not all alike. There are mountains
which especially pleases me.” “And built of crystalline rock and others of
him, and if he is likewise a climber he
will have little attention to spare for
valleys, but will Efpsnd hiB wonder up-
on the glaciers and the high crags and
the great phenomena of the central
mountains. But when the first flush
Df novelty has passed from them the
maturer lover of the Alps finds de-
what is that?” asked the smiling moth
er. “That he isn’t a twin.”
limestones of different qualities.
The great Matterhorns and Schreck-
from near the SRelvio to the bead of
Lake Garda, whence its eastern botm-
dary slopes northeastward up to the
ridge of the Carnic Alps. Within this
triangle is contained one of the love-
liest hill countries in the world. The
great snowy groups of Or.tler, Oetzthal,
Zillerthal and the Tauern do not be-
long to it. They are essentially Ger-
man, these severe crystalline ranges.
But all that is below—the smiling val-
leys, the crimsoned limestone peaks
and walls of the Dolomites, the rich
valleys that drain into the Adige or in-
to Garda—these are Italian, Italian in
atmosphere, in color, in vegetation, in
architecture, in language and senti-
ment, and whatever else gives char«
acter to a land.
To the traveler it is the Dolomite
mountains rather than the folk or afly
other feature that distinguish this re-
gion. They are in their way good to
climb, but they are far more wonderful
to look at. Half a century ago their
peaks were mostly untrodden; now
guns have been mounted upon points
whose first ascent may have beer
proudly chronicled within the memorj
of living men.
Germans Use New Kind of Shell.
The Germans in the Dvinsk regions
are using a new shell, which has a
cast-iron nose grooved internally and
with a central opening nearly one inch
in diameter, from which, several hours
after the shell has burst, there still
comes a strong odor of prussic acid.
The shell, which is provided with
an arrangement to delay the explo-
sion, generally bursts on the grounc^.
Wounds of the slightest characte
from fragments of these shells, i
evitably and usually very rapidly
cause death.
Real Optimist.
The rich French “amateur of sci-
ence” who has offered a prize of $20,-
000 to be given to the astronomer who
first communicates with a star or
planet other than Mars, will hardly
live to see the prize awarded, al-
though he thinks that communication
with Mars will be established before
many years. Apparently he is one of
those who believe that nothing is im-
oossible..
Community Forum.
Discussing the advantages of the
community forum as the embodiment
of fundamental ideals of American
governmeitt. Dr. P. P. Claxton, United
States commissioner of education,
says:
“No government will ever be safer
or wiser than the popular sentiment
of the masses of the people. The one
guaranty that this sentiment will not
be wrong is the systematic provision
of the means of organized public dis-
cussion. Democracy is the education-
al form of government. Other forma
of control may be more efficient, but
government through public discussion
means more in the advancement of
the race.”
Divided Prayers.
It was just before Christmas and
Tommy was praying for Santa Claus
to bring him a long list of things he
wanted. Finally mother said: “I am
afraid you are asking for too much at
one time.” The next night he ende
his prayer with the usual list, the
added: “And plea-T bring me. r bi
dog and cart; 1 will pray for the liar-’
esa tomorrow.”
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Vernor, J. E. The Lampasas Daily Leader. (Lampasas, Tex.), Vol. 13, No. 54, Ed. 1 Monday, May 8, 1916, newspaper, May 8, 1916; Lampasas, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth906221/m1/2/?q=%22~1~1%22~1: accessed July 15, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Lampasas Public Library.