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Show 0 1 :o:co:o:oxo:o:o;o:o;oxo:o:o:o:o:f:o:y. 1 0 The Surprise That Came to Bronsoni What you got?" asked Wex, eyeing my sample case ns If undecided about something. It was evident that he was looking for Bronson nlon this line. ; Immediately launched Into a tUm-oour new lines, and after a few minutes he began to le Interest-id- . I had never been able to Interest him before, but that was because Bronson always got there first. "Now, look here. Ridgely, I wound up, patting him affectionately on the shoulder, 1 think it's about time had a good order out of you. I w:a to Mr. Cracken about you I caking just before coming down here, and he would greatly like to have you for n regular customer, lie thinks you are the inot up to date merchant outside the big cities. Did he say that?" Wex looked I leased. Yes. and I am sure he will do come tiling handsome by you If you will order your fall stock of us. For Instance, he might allow you the usual cash discount on a time account. "Do you think he will? Moneys rather tight just now." It In fact, I will sell Tm sure 'with that understand you the goods As for the goods If they're not ing. satisfactory, I wont come near you next year." "That's fair enough," said lie. Trot m out. It was all over In half an hour. Ridgely had ordered a bill of goods totaling $1,500, and, bidding him an afdo-scrl- I f By HARRY VAN DEMARK 1 iCwpyrljiht, by Pally Story lub. Co.) had landed In Dayton with the avowed Intention of selling Wex Rldgcly a hill of goods, or going to the Insane asylum In the outskirts of the village as a permanent boarder. Kinsley, Cracken & Co., tny employers, had intimated that an order from him would prove acceptable. This was told me by Mr. Crackcn himself, in a tone I could not well misunderstand. So, when I stepped off the train and saw Bronson of Ird & Dclstons In the act of tipping a boy to carry his sample cases to the town hack, do not wonder that 1 said Good heavens!" and thought something a great deal worse. There had always been bad blood between Ilronson and myself, our paths were always crossing. He had no scruples when It came to getting ahead of me; nothing was too desperate for him to attempt If It gave m? the "short" end. Uy several little tricks unknown In the category of the true professional man he had been able to hold Wex Ridgelys trade against me, so naturally I grew to have It in for bint. And on this day, when I saw my rival, cool and debonair, standing before me at the Dayton depot, and had visions of Ridgelys order slipping away from me again ditto, my job I made up my mind to square it all with one coup de maitre. We reached the hack about the same moment. Dron on scrambled In, leaving the boy to throw his grips on top of the vehicle, and I followed, pulling nty own sample case In with me. "Youve got your nerve! This front Bronson. "Sh! that's all right, old man, I said, soothingly. In a tone plainly audible to the driver. Thats all right now. I know you think youre a drummer, and its all right for you to think so. Sure sure there there! What are you talking about, anyway? There was a blank look in Bronsons eyes, as well there might have been, for what I said sounded to him like rank balderdash. Where do you gents wrant to go? queried the driver, politely, sticking his head in at the door. To Ridgelys store, said Bronson, in no pleasant tone. No hotel and wash-ufor him while I was on his 1 , -- p trail. I turned to the There, there! vDon mind him; he thinks driver. hes a drummer, but theres" really something loose up here, and I Just tapped my foreheasignificantly. drive er well, you know where. Sure thing, he responded, grinI thought his nibs looked ning. kinder batty. Here I say, driver! cried Bronson, but he might as well have addressed a statue, for the driver, after looking at him curiously for a moment, climbed on the front of the hack and we whirled off up the country road toward the village, which was about half a mile from the depot. ' Bronson fumed and fretted and cursed, finally turning to me with: Blankety:blank you, Nevins, what did, you tell him that for? Is this a practical joke? There there its all right, now, Be still, theres a good I soothed. fellow. At this Bronson grew so mad he was speechless; he just sat there and spluttered without saying a word. If he gits unruly, jes call on me, drawled the driver, as he poked his head down and squinted at me through i lie frout of the hack. "Thank you. driver; hut Im sure he will go alung quietly," I responded. lie looks f me Jlke a feller what use t sell goods t' Wex Rldgely. I dont s'po.se that was what sent him off his nut. was it? No, hut it's a strange coincidence; he declares his name Is Bronson and that he used to sell goods to Wex. Of course, well let him think so. It won't do any harm, poor fellow. Well, drive up a little. I want to get my poor relative confined before he grows more violent." Youll stop at Itldgely's store, driver, and no nonsense!" shouted Bronson. Oh. sure will, returned the driver, winking good naturedly at me. Nevins, Ive a good mind to break I your neck for this trick. That man i eally thinks I'm crazy. There there, old fellow: of course youre not crazy no, no c? course not. That set him off again and we had whirled by Itldgelys store before he knew it. Finally, we drew up at the gate of the asylum grounds and entered at a slow trot. "Who have you got? I fioard an attendant ask. Another buggy one," returned the Gent Inside ll tell ye all driver. about it." That was my cue, so I made my exit, closing and fastening the door after I caught the fectionate good-by- , town. of out train ing even- Bronson? Oh, he got out aftei about three days detention. It took him that long to convince them that he wasn't crazy. When Dr. Smithers failed to show up. they made an Investigation and decided that there had been a sad mistak. I haven't seen Blonson since. Some how', we never seem to be in the same territory at the same tinm any more. One of my friends was heartless enough to suggest that I was purposely avoiding him. We may meet some day, and then me. but thats in the future, and I always Bronson, pale and weak from the the future take care of itself. let jolting he had received, scrambled unsteadily to his feet and looked foolAPPALLING COST OF WARFARE. ishly at us through the window. That look was all the keeper needed. It saved words and words of explana- Victor and Vanquished Are Alike in Dire Financial Straits. tion. All I said was: A patient from Dr. Smithers of Russia is without a fleet, deprived of Armadillo first cousin of mine the her Ills I off clean place among the powers of the mean. Gone patient, because she has neither navy world druma nut, poor fellow thinks lies nor with which to build one. It credit mer and wanted to stop at Ridgelys is store. Better get some help, hadnt practically impossible for her to resume her place as a first-clas- s power you? because cannot to she such be I I he hope Yes, replied, had, guess a even could without and she if Bronnavy, with a glance at the disheveled she son. Then he blew a shrill whistle raise the billion dollars which would take many years to and two other attendants came out of wants, it get a navy built, and generations to the building. The man in charge of the asylum make it more than a paper fleet. Rusalso come out, and I had to repeat my sias prestige is gone, her army destory about Bronson. I added that my moralized, her credit ruined, herof debt disfamily wanted him confined until the unbearable, and all the forces in are her loosed doctor could more properly diagnose order and turbulence the exact form of insanity from which society. So much for the loser. Turn to he was suffering. I tofd him the docto Japan, victor in the most wonderful tor would he down in the morning succession of Titanic struggles of all fix up the papers. history. How much better is her conI didnt know whether that sounded dition? She is utterly exhausted; her regular or not, but I took a chance people stagger under the fearful burat it. Bronson was raving like the maniac den of a debt that would be small for he was supposed to be when they took a wealthy country, but that is beyond a pohim out of the hack, wich greatly her resources. She has acquired cannot she which world the in sition facilitated matters, and they pulled afford to support. No nation has a him inside aO locked him in a cell. more magnificent army; no navy is suI didnt wait for (hem to come out perior to hers, unit for unit, and none no, sir not me! I ordered the hack is comparable to it in training and exback to Ridgelys store on the double perience; hut how shall they be quick, paid off the driver and went in. Ridgely met me with a hearty handshake. A NoVice. Sorry I didnt get around sooner, Patience You say hes got no But Ive just been taking I told him. sense? a relative to the asylum. Patrice Thats what I said. Why, Too bad, he sympathized. By I dont believe hed refrain from kissthe wray, wheres Bronson this year? Bronson? Oh, yes, the fellow who ing a girl when she had her mouth full of hairpins! Yonkers Statesman. used to be my rival? Let me see havent I seen him somewhere recentWheat Ruined by Rust. ly? Yes, Im quite sure I have. Oh, of wheat ruined by the The value met northern I him in the part yes at $5,000,000 a year. is estimated rust month. of the state last PLEASANT CURE FOR INSOMNIA, Mr. Phligminthrow Suggests One That Might Do in Some Cases, In iuy own caM" Mr. Ibllg ininthrmv. I find that itiMumiia pro- ceeds hugely from worry oxer money. My turxes are all right and I have a cart-irohtotnaeh. I can eat anything and enjoy It. and as a general proposition life looks pretty rosy to me; but still I do occasionally baxo nights when I cant sleep, whin I Ii awake worrxliig oxer lioxv I am going to make both ends meet. 1 nexer deliberately consider finan- cial questions at night, but I do find that sometime.-and this may be after a most completely comfortable evening financial questions obtrude themselves upon me after I have gone to bed. . To stave off these unpleasant ques- tions and enable myself to forget them so that I could go to sleep I have tried various familiar methods; I have got f out of bed and stood up to make tired; I have recalled and dwelt on pleasant journeys; I have counted from one up to a million, more or less; I have said the alphabet backxvajd over and over again; I have tried m.mv things; but do you know what in my case I find most efficacious? It is a story that I tell to myself about hoxv I am going to become comfortably rich and tints free from all financial troubles. It took mo a considerable time to build up this story In such shape that It just suited me, so that It seemed natural, like something that might have happened, ou understand, and then I filled in the amount that xvas coming to me. making that enough so that the Income from It would be sufficient to provide for all ordinary wants and as well for a few modest luxuries. Including a little travel a pleasant prospect to dwell upon. And by the time I had this story completely built up it took me some time to tell it to myself, with that snug little fortune that xvas to save me from all financial worry coming In at the end. And then when those money questions used to pounce on mo after Id gone to bed and threaten to keep me awake Id start off and tell myself that story, as in truth I have done many times. And sometimes Id have to tell It to thyself two or throe times over in succession to drive away the specter and then again once would do, that money coming in at the end of it soothing me to sleep, and then I have sometimes not even been compelled to tell it all through once; I have fallen asleep before I had finished it, before I got the money, so sure was I that it was coming to me. my-sel- Toeing the Mark. The phrase toeing the mark is of fairly old and somewhat obscure origin. Several different opinions are held as to how it originated, but the derivation most generally .accepted is that it comes from an old fashion among military men in drilling, to draw a line upon the ground and make the company dress by toeing this mark. The phrase thus acquired the meaning of standing up to something, and so became used in quarrels, when one of the parties would challenge the other to stand up to him. Even nowadays in some of tho country districts of Great Britain it is customary for lads when quarreling to provoke their opponents finally to the encounter by drawing a line upon the ground and telling them to toe the mark. The meaning of the phrase as now generally used is to come right forward and stand up to anything. What the Dogs Were For. Observing several $5,000 bulldogs on the estate, the witty visitor remarked: Are those dogs here to eat up submulti-millionaire- s poenas? e And the chuckled craftily. Ah, no, my friend, he whispered, they are here to eat up subpoena servers. multi-millionair- |