Bridgeton pioneer., July 27, 1911, Image 3

About Bridgeton pioneer. (Bridgeton, N.J.) 1884-1919

Image provided by: Rutgers University Libraries

                
A VISION OF A
METROPOLIS
Br MADGE ELLSWORTH
Copyright by American Press Asso
ciation. 19X1.
There is in New York what is called
the Riverside drive, on which stands
General Grant’s tomb. A long strip
of park overlooks the Hudson river
and the heights, or Palisades, on the
opposite side.
One summer night a young man in
evening dress sat on a bench in this
Iliverside park. He had been during
the evening-well, perhaps it is better
not to say where he had been. New
York is an artificial city and possess
es many attractions for those inclined
to gayety and at night is an illuminat
ed pleasure ground. In Its streets, some
of them bright almost as day with
electric lights, one may see a mixture
of every degree, from the highest to
the lowest.
This young man, a student in Colum
bia college, had been spending the
evening to suit himself and before
going to his room near by wished to
get the air in the park. It was desert
ed except by himself, and he found
the change from the bewildering
crowds in the streets refreshing. He
sat some time without a single per
son passing.
Extremely drowsy, he was falling
into a doze when he suddenly became
conscious that there was some one sit
ting on the other end of the bench.
Rubbing his eyes, he looked and saw
a young girl, her head resting on the
back of the bench, her face, which
was very pale, turned upward toward
the stars. She was flashily dressed,
and the student had but little doubt
as to the class to which she belonged.
He was about to rise and leave the
park when the girl said in a faint
voice:
“Take me to my room.”
“Are you ill?” he asked.
“Unto death.”
“Where is your room?”
“Not far. Come, I will show you.”
She put out her hand for him to help
her to rise, and he noticed that it was
cold. In assisting her he did not need
to exert any strength, for she was
light as a feather. Indeed, it did not
seem to him that there was any weight
at all in her. She put her arm through
his and leaned on him, but still there
was no weight.
“Have you no home?” he asked.
She shuddered. “Don’t speak to me
of home. When a girl comes from the
country to New York home is a thing
of the past.”
“Not all girls.”
They walked on in silence. The arm
resting on his was not only cold, like
her hand, but there was a dampness
about it that seemed to chill him to
the very marrow. Moreover, he fan
cied he heard a faint gurgling, like
running water. The route to her room
lay through lonely streets, and the
student would have been glad to be
free from her. But he feared that if
he disengaged himself she would fall.
So he walked on, constantly yielding
to the chill of her presence as if a
woman of ice were walking beside
him.
There is a park on the other side of
the heights from the Riverside drive,
and into this the two descended. Pass
ing a bench, the girl sank down into
it, saying:
“I can’t go any farther.”
Seeing that she was falling from the
bench, he held her up, and, believing
she had lost consciousness, he laid her
out upon it. He chafed her hands and
fanned her with his hat, striving to
revive her. Finding that she still re
mained unconscious, he put his face
down to hers to learn if he could de
tect warm breath. He could not.
Placing his hand on her heart, he
could not feel its beating.
The student felt troubled. He was
too chivalrous to desert the girl. When
she came to consciousness finding
herself alone might turn the scale
against her. And yet he was not
sure that she was dead. Suppose he
were found in such a situation with a
dead girl. His whole life would be
blighted. He knew not what to do.
He tried once more to revive his com
panion and, failing, resolved to go for
assistance. It would be far better for
him to go, find some one to help and
tell a straight story than to be found
at ueaa or mgnt wun a oeaa woman.
The park is narrow, ana the student,
crossing it, entered one of the street
near by. Catching sight of a police
man, he called to him aad told him
there was a woman in the park who
needed assistance. But a few minutes
were required to go to her,.and on the
way the student gave the opr a bar*
outline of what had hippened. As
they approached their destination the
student was surprised t0 And the
bench empty. /
Thinking he had ip^taken another
"for the one on whi-X had left the
girl, he went to 'tfe next on either
side. Both were Vacant. Then he
looked up at the co* and said in a star
tled voice:
■“She-*’ gene.’*
‘ x thought you said she was dead or
dying.” j
“She was.”
The policanan went back to his beat,
and the stpent went home. The next
morning tb latter saw an account of
the suiciq by drowning of a girl in
the Fludsn river off Riverside park.
The bodjbad not been recovered.
The sldent gave up his* college
course. 1 was said that he had studied
too hard Be this as it may, he went
Into a sjittarium, where he remained
a long pie.
<00D ROADS BEING BUILT
IN COLORADO BY CONVICTS
State Saving at Least $100,000 by Mak
ing Criminals Do Work.
By putting its convicted criminals
“on honor" and allowing them to (lo
road building—such service to the
state gaining them commutation or
sentence—Colorado seems to have gone
a long way toward solving the high
way problem and the problem of the
unemployed convict at one and the
same time.
About half the convicts in the Colo
rado state penitentiary at Canyon City
are employed in road work. The pris
on population varies from 700 to 750.
and It is estimated that the labor thus
secured to the state means an actual
CONVICTS AT WOHK ON COLORADO ROADS.
cash value of at least $100,000 per
year, not to speak of solving the vex
ing question of keeping criminals em
ployed without conflicting with free la
bor.
It costs about 36 cents a day to keep
a convict in a road camp as against 12
cents a day in the penitentiary. The
men must have better food when en
gaged in such hard manual labor, and
tills forms the chief item of added ex
pense. But even this expense has been
saved to the general taxpayers of
Colorado, as the counties through
which the roads are built contribute
the extra 24 cents P” day per man.
This tax is gladly -rne by the coun
ties. as they receive most of the bene
fit from the construction of the roads.
AAAAAA
TAFT INTERESTED IN GOOD
ROADS.
In a recent letter President
Taft expresses his interest in
good roads as follows:
“I have a very intense inter
est in the development of good
roads the country over, and I
am very glad to know that the
movement in favor of this im
provement has taken such na
tional form as to indicate the
widespread feeling of the neces
sity for giving to the residents
of the country as distinguished
from the city a facility for inter
communication that will greatly
add to the comfort of living in
the oountry and will increase
the profit of the producer and
farmer by reducing the cost of
tis initial transportatisn.
A GOOD EXAMPLE.
Two North Carolina Farmers Are Con
stantly Dragging Roads.
An example worthy of emulation is
that set by Grimes Bros., farmers and
millers, of Lexington, N. C. These
gentlemen own a big farm north of the
city, touching the city limits. A short
stretch of the road through this farm
has been macadamized, but so well is
the whole kept that it is impossible to
tell without very close attention just
where the nine foot strip of macadam
ends and the clay begins. The road
for more than a mile north of the city
is almost perfect, smooth, level and
dry in all sorts of weather, and the
secret of its fine condition is the road
drag. After every hard ruin a team
and drag go over the road, and it is
thereby kept in almost perfect condi
tion.
iu striking contrast to this road is
the road just beyond the farm of these
good citizens. Ruts and holes abound,
and travel ceases to be a pleasure and
becomes a positive discomfort to man
and beast. The road drag did it all.
All of this work has never cost the
county or township a penny. These
gentlemen have furnished the labor
and teams and have done the work
“without reward or hope of reward.”
It is their hope that the example which
they have set will spread.—Southern
Good Roads.
ttee ©OTiLEir
* PERPETRATED BY WALT/AcDOUGALL •>
Sure. i'M L
chauffingon
if
-THIS TRUCK;
6
GINKAND BOOB*THE IMPULSIVE GINK FALLS INTO AV£RY~NATURAI FRROR ~
SAMPLt-TAKEN FROM COLD STORAGE - THIS.
Why does a Chicken cross the Rood ? ( Dont Shoot!)
TO GET IN FRONT OF AN AUTOMOBILE . CNow.Smorty, how about it ?)
JOKES Renovated, Aerated, Kiln-dried and Upholstered for
theTrade at Short Notice :Addre«« TLp 0..tUt TFRMS rtARH
* PERPETRATED BY WALT MP DOUGALL •>
GINK AND BOOB ; GINK FALLS DOWN .SO TO SPEAK ON A LITTLE PRIVATE SCHEME .1
i «n a ■ k. i /%•■■■» * » . . ■ . . ; : _ " Tf
LUUML INU I CO »H.buyTrtpp and family have reTurned from a Two-monliis abroadinc} with
d lot of valuable anticjues.Mrs Vapp has secured a gargoyle from Hamlet’s tomb, SisSappe
copped off Oliver Cromwell’s shaving-mug, Ira \app bought a glass eye once used Ly Goethe,
Eli Vapp obtained a porous plaster belonging to tbe Duke of Alva and A G.'Yapp bought an
alleged handpuinttxi Rembrandt which looks pretty but wbicb some of our best art experts and
critics suspecT to be really second-band All la'cse treasures will be exhibited attbe Annual
Strawberry (festival at the Second Baptist on next Wednesday Evening ,along with Some
stereopticon pictures of tbe foreign larv-'.i vented hytheYipp family on their recent trip.
eir recent trip.
WHITE LIES.
Hnr> Owoulnt)
THE ONES WE HAVE TO TE.LL
oath
ham Solway states on_
that he has followed the
he
water for sixteen years—
has never caught up with it
IT IS TO LAUGH!
The prize joke,sofdr,of 1911
is in Hie announcement I hot
Senator Simon Guggenheim
is on The following Senate
Committees ; Agriculture
and forestry, Conservation of
National Resources, Mines
and Minina and Public Lands.
This makes the Congressional
Record a jest Look , 0. K .
Local News Note: Last night,
on entering his own Lome, Jeff,
liters was savagejy attacked
by bis batrack and was badly
injured intke hallway.
JHEYALL DOIT.
, To. be The
style
not
only
| to yoto
Europe
every
summer
buf also
fo knock
the United
States and
your home cify to The report
er before leaving the country.
Tbis shows class and good
brefidino .drabill^om me..
In Chancery
By WILLIAM D. CARTER
Copyright by American Press Asso
ciation, 1911.
When the storm of the civil war
broke over the country in 1861 John
Abercrombie, a young man of twenty
two, who had been preparing himself
to take his father’s place as president
and owner of the controlling interest
In the Abercrombie Manufacturing
company, like most young men of
spirit at that period, insisted on join
ing the Union army. Ilis father, who
was preparing to retire, was so disap
pointed and angered at this course
that he told his son to go to the war
and he hoped he would never come
back.
‘‘I shall keep .Tane Wetherell here
with me,” said the old man, “to take
care of (he house and be a comfort
in your stead and shall leave her ev
ery cent of my property.”
“Do so,” replied the son, “and you
may count on me not trying to break
the will. I shall claim nothing of you
or what you leave behind you.”
Jane Wetherell was not related to
the Abercrombies. She was a connec
tion of Mrs. Abercrombie, who had
brought her into the house for a com
panion and nurse, and when Mrs. Aber
crombie died her husband had contin
ued to rely on the girl for various
comforts, including reading to him,
since his eyes were weak. When the
old man saw John’s name published
among (lie killed at the battle of An
tletam his heart softened, and he re
gretted his past action toward his son.
For twelve years Jane Wetherell took
care of the old man. Flo said he would
make her c mfortable after his death,
and it was generally supposed that
she would inherit all his property,
though no one knew of the parting
scene between him and his son and
the father's threat.
There were indications that Jennie
Wetherell had had a love affair. She
never accepted any marked attention 1
from any young man, and she appear- i
ed to have suffered a blight. These 1
were the principal reasons why those |
who knew her said that she had been
crossed in love and would not marry, j
When Mr. Abercrombie died every '
one was surprised at two things—tirst, j
that he left a much larger estate than
it was supposed he had possessed and, !
secondly, that he had made no will. |
The latter of these surprises was the j
more a surprise because by not mak- j
lng a will he left his estate to be con- j
tested for by a host of relatives, in i
none of whom he had taken any inter-1
est, while Jennie Wetherell, in whose
veins there was none of his blood, was
left out by the law of inheritance en- *
tirely. (
An account of this condition of
things got into the newspapers and j
among other things stated was that j
the body of John Abercrombie had 1
never been recovered and was sup- j
posed to lie either in a trench or under !
one of the mute army of headstones j
marked “Unknown." Instantly there '
sprang up as if from the^rave three !
different men who clnimtS to be the ,
said John Abercrombie. One said he j
had been badly wounded, taken to a [
hospital and. recovering, had deserted; j
another that he had been hit in the
head by a minie ball and the mem- j
ory knocked out of him till recently. !
The third declared that he had been
captured, taken to a southern prison I
and on being exchanged had gone
west, where lie had since lived incogs j
nito.
Any one of these men if he couln
have established his identity with that
of John Abercrombie would have in
herited the whole estate. Rut they
were all working on a very small pros
pect. None of them had any papers to
show that he had been in the army,
and only one manifested any familiar
ity with military affairs. Jane Weth
erell at once pronounced them all im
postors. Had she hud any legal claim
on the estate her word would have
counted for little or nothing. As it
was, it counted for a good deal.
Since the settlement of the estnte
was in a jumble Jane Wetherell wa
left by the chancery court in charge
of the house in which she had so long
lived. A year elapsed, at the end of
which 107 names of relatives of the de
ceased Abercrombie were handed in to 1
the court as claimants for a share of
his estate, and there were more to
come. It began to look as if no one
would be rich from the estate unless
one of these men who had risen up out
of the earth could prove himself to be
John Abercrombie.
One day there was a wedding at the
Abercrombie house Jennie Wetherell
was the bride. Who the groom was no
one seemed to know. There were no
cards, no invitations. Only a few wit
nesses were present, and they were
servants. As soon as the ceremony
had been performed the groom went to
the chancery court and presented dis
charge papers from the Union army
and other proofs that he was Sergeant
John Abercrombie.
The case of the relatives collapsed.
John xVbercrombie had gone to the war
partly because Jennie Wetherell had
refused to marry him. After his de
parture she had discovered that she
loved him. Finding his name bad
been reported among the killed after
the bnttlo of Antietam, he had taken
advantage of the error to disappear
from the world. Being badly wound
ed, he was discharged and went to
Colorado, where he had lived till in a
newspaper he had seen an account of
the clamor for his father’s estate, when
he had returned and learned from Miss
Wetherell of her mistake In refusing
him.