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Newspaper Page Text
'IT- A TEN-CENT CATASTROPHE By H. M. Egbert The man who gets his salary from a distant city lives under the Damo clean sword. JeiiRins was no ex ception to this rule. The leather company employed agents in several towns, and Jenkins, newly posted at Sequah, drew his $40 weekly out of the mailed letter with fear and trem bling. What if the company should suddenly dispense with him? Once the letter failed to arrive, and Jen kins, who always waited for the checks to pay his weekly bills, was in despair. To complicate matters there was Mrs. Jenkins, a frail, weakly woman without the least ability to earn a living if anything happened to her husband. Jenkins had this possibil ity upon his mind all the time. To crown his troubles, he was a "one job" man. He had been with the leather company, which was a soul less concern, since he entered their service as an office boy, 30 years before. Shy and retiring, he did not see the ghost of a chance to earn anything if ever he lost his position. No, that did not crown his trou bles, but he had another trouble mixed with joy, the two so interwov en that he did not know where one began and the other ended. Laura, in the local hospital, had presented him with a boy, their first child. Jenkins had looked in awe and partly in fear, at the extremely red atom of humanity, then at his wife's weak figure. He saw the radiant happi ness of motherhood upon her face. At such a moment most men would have thought of anything but ma terial things. But into Jenkins' brain there flashed an appalling thought. He remembered that, having paid the hospital bill for only one week ahead he had exactly $12 in the world. Suppose the check failed to arrive next day! He passed a sleepless night. In the morning he waited for the post man with growing panic. The usual letter from the leather company was in his mail. But it was typed instead of written by the cash ier. Jenkins tore open the envelope, desperately hoping to see the famil iar pink check flutter out Instead there came a formal notification. "As you are by this time doubtless aware, we have decided to discon- Took a Silver Candlestick From the Buffet tinus our agency in Sequah. You will therefore close the office pend ing the arrival of our representative, who will take charge of the stock and fixtures." Jenkins let the letter flutter to the floor. He put the rest of the mail, unopened, into his pocket and went iiuiuuiumjuu,) up lu iuc uuspnai. xi , was always his habit to notify Laura W when an unexpected event occurred. . But when he looked at her he could gj&- ,, ..- t"