The St. Charles herald. [volume], June 30, 1917, Image 3

About The St. Charles herald. [volume] (Hahnville, La.) 1873-1993

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, The Real Man
t/.
By FRANCIS LYNDE
. —" (Copyright by Cbas. Scribner's Sons)
J. MONTAGUE SMITH, LATE OF LAWRENCEVILLE, DISCOV
ERS THAT AS "JOHN SMITH," A CONSTRUCTION CAMP
WORKER, HE CAN'T CONCEAL HIS PAST LIFE
Synopsis—J. Montague Smith, cashier of the Lawrence ville Bank
ami Trust company, bachelor society leader engaged to marry Verda
Hichlander, heiress, is wrongfully accused of dishonesty by Watrous
Dunham, his employer, and urged to be a scapegoat for the crooked
accuser. Smith strikes Dunham, leaves him fur dead and flees the
state. He turns up a tramp some time later at an irrigation dam con
struction camp in the Rocky mountains and as John Smith gets a rough
job.
CHAPTER IV—Continued.
"I'm afraid he'd have to loosen up
on his record a little before we could
bring him In here. Badly as we're
needing a money man. we can hardly
afford to put a 'John Smith' Into the
saddle—at least not without knowing
what his other name used to be."
"No; of course not I guess, after
«11, he's only a 'lame duck,' like a good
many of the rest of them. Day before
yesterday, Bunlell, the deputy sheriff,
was out at the camp looking the gangs
over for the fellow who broke into
Lannigan's place last Saturday night.
When he came into the office Smith
was busy with an estimate, and Bur
nell went up and touched him on the
shoulder, just to let him know that it
was time to wake up. Suffering cats!
It took three of us to keep him from
breaking Burdell In two and throwing
him out of the window !"
"That looks rather bad," was the
president's comment. Col. Dexter Bald
win had been the first regularly elect
ed sheriff of TimanyonI county in the
'early days and he knew the Symptoms.
"Was Burdell wearing his star where
it could be seen?"
The engineer nodded.
"What explanation did Smith make?"
"Oh, he apologized like a gentleman,
and said he was subject to Utile nerv
ous attacks like that when anybody
touched him unexpectedly. He took
Burdell over to Pete Simm's shack sa
loon and bought him a drink. Perkins,
the timekeeper, says he's going to get
a megaphone so he can give due notice
,in advance when he wants to call
Smith's attention".
The colonel pulled out a drawer in
the desk, found his box of diplomatic
-cigars and passed it to the engineer,
saying: "Light up a sure-enough good
one, and tell me what you think Smith
has been doing back yonder in the
other country."
Williams took the cigar but he shied
at the conundrum.
"Ask me something easy," he said,
"I've stacked up a few guesses. He's
from the middle West—as the Bible
says, his 'speech betrayeth' him—and
he's had a good Job of some kind ; the
kind that required him to keep abreast
of things. If there's anything In looks,
you'd say he wasn't a thief or an em
bezzler, and yet It's pretty apparent
[that he's been used to handling money
In chunks and making It work for Its
living. I've put It up that there's a
woman In It Perhaps the other fel
low got in his way, or canje up behind
him and touched him unexpectedly, or
•something of that sort. Anyway, Tm
not going to believe he's a crooked
-crook until I have to."
Colonel Baldwin helped himself to
one of his own cigars, and the talk
went back to business. In the irri
gation project, Williams was a stock
holder as well as chief of construction,
and Baldwin had more than once
found him a safe adviser. There was
need for counsel. The Timanyoni
Ditch company was in a rather hazard
ous condition financially, and the presi
dent and Williams rarely met without
coming sooner or later to a threshing
out of the situation.
The difficulties were those which are
apt to confront a small and local enter
prise when it is so unfortunate as to
get in the way of larger undertakings.
Colonel Baldwin, and a group of his
neighbors on the north side of the
river, were reformed cattlemen and
horse breeders. Instead of drifting
farther wert in advance of the incom
ing tide of population following the
coming of the railroad, they had
availed themselves of their homestead
SStTand had taken up much of the
grass land in the favorable valleys, ir
rigating it at first with water taken
«nt of the river in private or neighbor
's.
n came the sheep-feeding
1 after that the utilization
•op-raising areas. The small
>ving inadequate for these,
ildwin had formed a stock
roong his neighbors in the
I and his friends In Brewster
lldlng of a substantial dam
:ern hills. The project had
iple enough in the beginning,
was sold for cash and each
r -would be a participating
[ water. Williams, who had
ted States reclamation man
rame, to the Timanyoni, had
«ul estimates, and the stock
q provided money enough
ie cost of the dam and the
After some little bargaining, the
dam site and the overflow land for the
reservoir lake had been secured, and
the work was begun. Out of a clear
sky, however, came trouble and harass
ment. Alien holders of mining claims
in the reservoir area turned up nnd
demanded damages. Some few home
steaders who had promised to sign
quitclaims changed their minds and
sued for relief, and after the work was
well under way it appeared that there
was a cloud on the title of the dam site
itself. All of these elashings were car
ried into court, and the rancher pro
moters found themselves confronting j
invisible enemies and obstacle-raisers i
at every turn.
The legal fight, as they soon found i
out, cost much money in every phase
of it; and now. when the dam was i
scarcely more than half completed, a !
practically empty treasury was star
ing them In the face. There was no
disguising the fact that a crisis was
approaching, a financial crisis which
no one among the amateur promoters
was big enough to cope with.
"We've got to go In deeper, colonel ;
there Is nothing else to do," was the
engineer's summing up of the matter at
the close of the conference. "The snow
is melting pretty rapidly on the range
now, and when we get the June rise
we'll stand to lose everything we have
If we can't keep every wheel turning
to get ready for the high water."
Baldwin was holding his cigar be
tween his fingers and scowling at It as
if it had mortally offended him.
"Assessments on the stock, you
mean?" he said. "I'm afraid our crowd
won't stand for that. A good part of it
is ready to lie down in the harness
right now."
"How about a bond issue?" asked
the engineer.
"What do we, or any of us, know
about bond issues? Why, we knew
barely enough about the business at
the start to chip in together and buy us
a charter and go to work on a plan a
little bit bigger than the neighborhood
ditch idea. You couldn't float bonds in
Timanyoni Park, and we're none of us
foxy enough to go East and float 'em."
"I guess that's right, too," admitted
Williams. "Besides, with the stock
gone off the way it has. It would take
a mighty fine-haired financial sharp to
sell bonds."
"What's that?" demanded the presi
dent. "Who's been selling any stock?"
"Buck Gardner, for one; and that
man Bolling, up at the head of Little
creek, for another. Maxwell, the rail
road superintendent, told me about It,
and he says that the price offered, and
accepted, was thirty-nine."
"Dad burn a cuss with a yellow
streak in him !" rasped the Missouri
colonel. "We had a fair and square
agreement among ourselves that If any
body got scared he was to give the rest
of us a chance to buy him out. Who
bought from these welshers?"
"Maxwell didn't know that. He said
it was done through Kinzie's bank.
From what I've heard on the outside,
Pm inclined to suspect that Crawford
Stanton was the buyer."
"Stanton, the real-estate man?"
"The same."
Again the president stared thought
fully at the glowing end of his cigar.
"There's another of the confounded
mysteries," he growled. "Who is Craw
ford Stanton, and what is he here foj?
I know what he advertises, but every
body in Brewster knows that he hasn't
made a living dollar in real estate
since he came here last summer. WIL
Hams, do you know, Pm beginning to
suspect that there is a mighty big
nigger in our little wood pile?"
'Ton mean that all these stubborn
holdups have been bought and paid
for? You'll remember that Is what
Billy Starbuck tried to tell us when
the first of the missing mining-claim
owners began to shoot at us,"
"Starbuck has a long head, and what
he doesn't know about mining claims in
this part of the country wouldn't fill a
very big book. I remember he said
there had never been any prospecting
done in the upper Timanyoni gulches,
and now you'd think half the people in
the United States had been nosing
around up there with a pick and shovel
at one time or another. But It was a
thing that Starbuck told me no longer
ago than yesterday that set me to
thinking," Baldwin went on. "As you
know, the old Escalante Spanish grant
corners over In the western part of this
park. When the old grants were made,
they were ruled off on the map with
out reference to mountain ranges or
other natural barriers."
Williams nodded.
"Well, as I say, one corner of the Es
calante reaches over the Hophrns and
out into the park, covering about eight
or ten square miles of the territory
just beyond us on our side of the river.
Starbuck told me yesterday that a big
Eastern colonization company had got
a hill through congress alienating that
tract."
The chief of construction bounded
out of his chair and began to walk the
floor. "By George !" he said ; and
again: "By George! That's what
we're up against, colonel ! Where will
those fellows get the water for their
land? There Is no site for a dam lower
down than ours, and, anyway, that land
lies too high to be watered by any
thing but a high-line ditch!"
"Nice little brace game, isn't it?"
growled Baldwin. "If we hadn't been
a lot of hayseed amateurs, we might
have found out long ago that someone
was running In a cold deck on us.
What's your notion? Are we done up,
world without end?"
Williams' laugh was grim.
"What we need, colonel. Is to go out
on the street and yell for a doctor," he
said. "It's beginning to look as If we
had acquired a pretty bad case of ma
lignant strangle-itis."
Baldwin ran his fingers through his
hair and admitted that he had lost his
sense of humor.
"This Eastern crowd is trying to
freeze us out, to get our dam nnd reser
voir and ditch rights for their Esca
lante scheme. When they do, they'll
turn around and sell us water—at fifty
dollars an inch, or something like
that !"
"What breaks my heart is that we
haven't been able to surround the sure
enough fact while there was still time
to do something," lamented the ex
reclamation man. "The first thing we
know, Stanton will own a majority of
the stock and be voting us all out of
a job. You'll have to come around to
my suggestion, after all, and advertise
for a doctor." It was said of the chief
of construction that he would have
joked on his death-bed, and, as a fol
lower for the joke, he added: "Why
don't you call Smith in and give him
the Job?"
"You don't really mean that, Wil
liams. do you?" growled the colonel.
"No, I didn't mean it when I said it,"
was the engineer's admission ; "I was
only trying to get a rise out of you. But
really, colonel, on second thought, I
don't know but it Is worth considering.
As I say. Smith seems to know the
■s
6 .
u
"—and Yell for a Doctor."
money game from start to finish. What
Is better still, he is a fighter from the
word go—what you might call a joyous
fighter. Suppose you drive out tomor
row or next day and pry Into him a
little."
The rancher-president had relapsed
once more Into the slough of discour
agement
"You are merely grabbing for hand
holds, Bartley—as I was a minute ago.
We are In a bad row of stumps when
we can sit here and talk seriously
about roping down a young hobo and
putting him into the financial harness.
Let's go around to Frascati's and eat
before you go back to camp. It's bread
time, anyway."
The chief of construction said no
more about his joking suggestion at the
moment, but when they were walking
around the square to the Brewster Del
monico's he went back to the dropped
subject In all seriousness, Saying:
"Just the same, I wish you could know
Smith and size him up as I have. I
can't help believing, some way, that
he's all to the good."
CHAPTER V.
The 8pecialiet
Though the matter of calling in an
expert doctor of finance to diagnose
the alarming symptoms in Timanyoni
ditch had been left Indeterminate In the
talk between Colonel Baldwin and him
Belf, Williams did not let It go entirely
by default. On the day following the
Brewster office conference the engineer
sent for Smith, who was checking the
output of the crushers at the quarry,
and a little later the "betterment" man
presented himself at the door of the
corrugated-iron shack which served as
a field office for the chief.
Williams looked the cost-cutter over
as he stood in the doorway. Smith was
thriving and expanding handsomely in
the new environment. He had let his
beard grow and it was now long enough
to be trimmed to a point. The travel
broken clothes had been exchanged for
working khaki, with lace-boots and leg
gings, and the campaign hat of the en
gineers. Though he had been less than
a month on the Job, he was alreudy be
ginning to tan and toughen under the
healthy outdoor work—to roughen, as
well, his late fellow members of the
Lawrenceville Cotillon club might have
ly
to
a
I
1
said, since he had fought three pitched
battles with as many of the camp bul
lies, and had in each of them proved
himself a man of his hands who could
not only take punishment, but could
hammer an opponent swiftly and neat
ly into any desired state of subjection.
"Come in here and sit down; I want
to talk to you." was the way Williams
began it: and after Smith had found
a chair the chief went on: "Say, Smith,
you're too good a man for anything I've
got for you here. Haven't you realized
that?"
Smith pulled a memorandum book
from his hip pocket and ran ids eye
over the private record he had been
keeping.
"I've shown you how to effect a few
little savings which total up something
like 13 per cent of your cost of produc
tion and operation," he said. "Don't
you think I'm earning my wages?"
"That's all right; I've been keeping
tab, too, and I know what you're do
ing. But you are not beginning to earn
what you ought to, either for yourself
or the company," put in the chief
shrewdly. And then : "Loosen up.
Smith, and tell me something about
yourself. Who are you. and where do
you come from, and what sort of a Job
have you been holding down?"
Smith's reply was as surprising as It
was seemingly irrelevant.
"If you're not too busy, Mr. Williams,
I guess you'd better make out my time
check," he said quietly.
Williams took a reflective half-min
ute for consideration, turning the sud
den request over deliberately In his
mind, as his habit was.
"I suppose by that you mean that
you'll quit before you will consent to
open up on your record?" he assumed.
"You've guessed it," said the man
who had sealed the book of his past.
Again Williams took a little time. It
was discouraging to have his own and
the colonel's prefigurings as to Smith's
probable state and standing so prompt
ly verified.
"I suppose you know the plain infer
ence you're leaving, when you say a
thing like that?"
Smith made the sign of assent. "It
leaves you entirely at liberty to finish
out the story to suit yourself." he ad
mitted, adding: "The back numbers
—my back numbers—are my own, Mr.
Williams. I've kept a file of them, as
everybody does, but I don't have to
produce it on request."
"Of course, there's nothing compul
sory about your producing it. But un
less you are what they call in this
country a 'crooked' crook, you are
standing In your own light. You have
such a staving good head for figures
and finances that It seems a pity for
you to be wasting it here on an under
graduate's Job in cost-cutting. Any
young fellow just out of a technical
school could do what you're doing in
the way of paring down expenses."
The cost-cutter's smile was mildly
incredulous.
"Nobody seemed to be doing It be
fore I came," he offered.
"No." Williams allowed, "that's the
fact. To tell the plain truth, we've had
bigger things to wrestle with; and we
have them yet, for that matter—enough
of them to go all around the Job twice
and tie in a bowknot."
"Finances?" queried Smith, feeling
some of the back-number instincts stir
ring within him.
The chief engineer nodded; then he
looked up with a twinkle in his closely
set gray eyes. "If you'll tell me why
you tried to kill Burdell the other day.
maybe I'll open up the record—aur
record—for you."
This time the cost-cutter's smile was
good-naturedly derisive, and it ignored
the reference to Burdell.
"You don't have to open up your
record—for me; It's the talk of the
camp. You people are undercapital
ized—to boll It down into one word.
Isn't that about the way It sizes up?"
"That Is,the way it has turned out;
though we had capital enough to begin
with. We've been bled to death by
damage suits."
Smith shook his head. "Why haven't
you hired a first-class attorney, Mr.
Williams?"
"We've had the best we could find,
but the other fellows have beaten us
to it, every time. But the legal end of
it hasn't been the whole thing or the
biggest part of it. What we are need
ing most Is a man who knows a little
something about corporation fights and
high finance." And at this the engi
neer forgot the Smith disabilities, real
or Inferential, and went on to explain
In detail the peculiar helplessness of
the Timanyoni company as the antag
onist of the as yet unnamed land and
Irrigation trust.
Some real opportunities come
to "John Smith," but the fear
of detection and capture worriea
him deeply. Some big develop
ments are given in the next in
stallment.
(TO BE CONTINUED.)
Servants as Hosts.
A curious custom exists in the town
of Port of Spain, in the island of Trin
idad. Every year the servants, who
are all black, give a grand ball for
their masters and mistresses. The
Princes building, a huge place where
all public entertainments are held, is
engaged, and everything is done in the
best style. There are two halls for
dancing, one for the servants and the
other for their guests, both of which
are beautifully decorated.
The best band in the island is en
gaged, and the guests are given a
champagne supper. Etiquette is very
strict and precedence rigidly observed
by the servants, the governor's butler
and his lady going in before the chief
1 justice's groom, and so on.
Conscription of Inheritances One
Means of Meeting War Cost
By THE RT. REV. CHARLES H. BRENT
Proteitant Episcopal Bishop of the Philippines
In the practical consideration of "ways and means''
at the present time the question of inheritance con
scription should he taken up in detail.
The younger generation would he deprived of tho
individual wealth of their fathers, but they would bo
beginning their lives with equal opportunities in a
country of better opportunity, not weighted down by
an enormous debt and financial burden.
The idea of the abolition of inheritance is not new.
It has been suggested many times, to be accomplished
either by the imposition of very high inheritance taxes
or the prohibition of legacies over a certain fixed sum. I am not urging
it as my solution of the present situation, but 1 consider it worthy of the
gravest consideration.
According to the charter of our liberties, all men are born froe and
equal. Of course, they are not all born equal. Some are allowed to start
their careers with a tremendous handicap. I have, in the fairly recent
past, spoken in a great many boys' schools. For the most part the students
were rich boys. And I have always taken the position that it was a most
unfortunate thiDg for a boy to have his own checkbook, unless he had first
learned to earn his own bread. In nine cases out of ten it is an evil result
of inheritance. What it does is to debase the value of youth. The boy
depends on his checkbook instead of himself.
The idea of such abolition of large inheritance is the very antithesis
of socialism. Socialism tends to decrease the freedom of the individual.
The principle of making it impossible for any youth to inherit a large
fortune is a principle of individualism; it would act to increase the free
dom of the individual. In drawing nearer to actual equality, it would
offer to the young man more opportunity of individual development and
individual value. It would make the individual more important to the
state because of his own innate value. It would proceed on a principle
of individual democracy instead of on a principle of socialism. It would
mean equality of opportunity, and that is the basis of democracy, the basis
of our nation—what we are fighting for. In the present time of need it
would release an immense amount of money, and free the country from
a great future burden.
Why Anglo-Saxon Countries, Other Than
America, Have Fewest Felons
By H. A. FORSTER of New York
Among the enlightened nations the United States leads the world
in manumitting murderers and enlarging felons, while Anglo-Saxon
countries not under the American flag have the least percentage of mur»
derers and felons. This extraordinary and deplorable phenomenon is not
due to obscure causes.
If Americans wish to remove this reproach, they have only to study
the criminal procedure of Anglo-Saxon countries. The vital features in
which the English, Australian and Canadian criminal procedure differs
from that of the majority of American criminal courts are the following:
The British, Scottish, Canadian, Australian, South African or Indian
trial judge is a strong judge, not a mere moderator. He gives the jury
the benefit of his experience and skill by advising them in difficult ease3
respecting the weight and effect of the evidence, what he believes the
evidence has shown, but he also informs the jury that they are the sole
judges of the facts, and are at liberty to disregard his advice. The dis
tinctive features of Anglo-Saxon jury trials is a strong and experienced
trial judge aiding and advising the jury, but leaving the ultimate decision
of all disputed questions of fact to the jury, instead of acting as a weak
and opinionless moderator, as the trial judge must do in three-fourths of
our states. In Canada the judge may try most criminal cases without a
jury where a jury is waived by defendant.
No trial by newspaper, no publicity bureau work is allowed while any
action, whether criminal or civil, is pending; only a true and fair report
of evidence and court proceedings is allowed to be published pendente
lite; sweatbox and third-degree are unknown alike among the police and
public prosecutors. Trial by newspaper and publicity bureau work
pendente lite are suppressed by vigorous enforcement of the common-law;
practice in relation to contempt of court.
' " 1
World -Neighborhood Problem of Today
Similar to That of Individuals
By DR. J. A. MACDONALD. Editor of tho Toronto Globe
The problem of living is the problem of a man's right to life, liberty
and the pursuit of happiness. It claims the right of a man to enjoy th®
fruit of his labors. It affirms that no able-bodied man shall be allowed,
as Lincoln said, to eat bread by the sweat of another man a brow.
It declares that difference in capacity, which yields difference in.
achievements and in rewards, must not interfere with democracy's equality
of opportunity for all and special privileges for none. It requires that
as slavery is a dishonor and a degradation to humanity, every man s liai l
be allowed to be master of his own life and be helped to make that self
mastership intelligent, just and free.
And the individual problem of living is involved in the social problem
of living together.
The social problem may be simple enough when the neighborhood ia
6mall, the individuals few, their interests plain, and their rights una3
sailed. But that problem becomes infinitely complex as life widens ita
horizons, deepens its needs, heightens its aspirations and becomes more
keenly sensitive to its own destiny.
An d this is the world-neighborhood problem today, the problem of
the individual nation maintaining the strength and fullness and freedom
of its own life in just relations with the rights of other nations in the
same world community; the problem of one race preserving its identity
and its ideals in the same world order with other races and their distinc
tions and their ideals; the problem of one people, strong and masterful,
securing and enlarging their place in the sun without shutting the needed
sunshine out of the life and history of other peoples, who also have aspi»
rations and obligations in the same world neighborhood.
This is today the problem of the world.