Show o e o 0 0 0 0 0 0 WHEN 0 e GRAND GRANDMA A 0 e RULED 0 o By FANNIE HURST 0 o e o o o o o 0 o e o 0 1931 McClure Newspaper Syndicate nEY said of ot her ber those who T THEY dared and those who dared wore outside her family that sho should have been born a n man Probably sho she should She was not one to employ any of the arts and artifices that were femi femi- nine The molding of her face was strong The Tho hook hoole to her nose was virile 1 The e tall sparse figure bent slightly In these later years hind had the stride to it of ot a gaunt man One won- won dere d In what years grandmother had ever eyer been sufficiently appealing In a feminine way to have won herself hersell a husband He had died eight years after aft er their marriage but those who knew said that he had bad died a happy hus bus band Gone by now were such of ot those graces which might have existed In Inthe Inthe inthe the younger woman Grandmother ruled her children sons sons law law in-law daugh daugh- law in grandchildren and great grandchildren with a high hard hand She lived In a house bouse with two of her married children and their fam fam- meso Within a mile half of the great gaunt red brick homestead h where she had borne borno her family there lived the remainder of ot her progeny Clustered around the mother hen as It were Dominated b by her grip was the family Strange thing there was ns almost In Inthe inthe the attitude of ot this woman toward her children that of ot the proverbial gold digger Fortunately they were a n generous easy lot with what grandmother grandmother grand grand- mother called their fathers father's spending streak She had lived through lean and terrifying years ears due to their fa fay fathers father's fathers father's ther's timers Improvident Ident ways There were times when the homestead had tottered tottered tottered tot tot- on the brink of foreclosure and plans for her children due to untimely and madcap Investments bad had been In Jeopardy Grandmother knew the dangers of ot that kind of ot Improvidence and probably probably ably decided that It was just as well to let her hel children offer gold to her heras heras herns as ns to spend It In their more promiscuous ous wa ways s. And yet et there were times when It did seem that greed and avarice came out over oer the hooked old face of ot this sly old woman Even en from her young grandsons she demanded the homage of so little as a weekly one or two two- dollar bill Tier Her son Wallace the most successful member of ot her family a tl striking prince like fellow who had made a fortune In a patent medicine used laughingly to refer to her as the pirate She looked like a n parrot and laughingly the family conceded conceded conceded con con- ceded that she acted like a pirate In his palmy palm years years and and Wallace was one to have good years and bad bad bad- It was nothing for him to shovel Into the stern old womans woman's coffers thousands thousands thousands thou thou- sands of ot dollars When grandmother was as seventy she gleamed like a 0 light light- house Jewels lay along her bony chest and burned In her strong gray gra Bair Three of ot her sons were associated In the patent medicine business Martin Martin Mar Mar- tin the second and Oswald the fifth They hey were a gay brood the owners of ot expensive wI wives yes and demanding children If It Grandmother was proud prom of them she gave precious little evidence evl evi dence of her pride She was constantly constant constant- ly taking them to task disciplining the grandchildren descending In tirade upon up up- upon on the extravagance of her daughters and law daughters denouncing In Inno Inno inno no uncertain terms the pretenses and magnificence of ot their social Grandmother was hard Grandmother er should have been a man Sometimes Sometimes Some Some- times In talking things timings over oyer the children children chil chill dren agreed among themselves that In their faint and crumbling memories of ot what their father had been he seemed to stand out as the gentle kindly maternal one of ot the two Of Ot course Grandmother had been superb had tided them over bad places but really now now now-In In her old age she was becoming Incorrigible It somehow was not nice for her herto herto herto to have accepted that thousand dollar bill Wallace had given her for Christ Christ- mas Wallaces Wallace's pretty wife Isabel did not mince matters motters about It Her Der own Christmas gift girt from her husband had been a chair which she had finally ended up by placing in his den That thousand dollar bill would have meant things s that were actually needed In Inthe Inthe Inthe the Wallace household Isabel loved love her home loved loed to deck It In finery She was as a entitled In her opinion opinion- and It must be admitted In the minds of the other children children ns as Grandmother was to deck herself herselt out with It In ht a a. square diamond ring Wallace himself was but there were hard and bitter lines around his mouth and amid the family knew without his ever taking anyone Into his confidence con that the thousand dollars hard earned coaxed from a 0 business upon which the demands were many had been maneuvered out of or him b by his mother And the tie old womans woman's contention was that since the money would be wasted at nt best by a set of wastrels she was sons wasas as entitled to some of these things as ns these children of ot hers that were the chips off oft the block of ot their Improvident improvident dent father Timings Things reached a 0 bad pass In the family The sons and find daughters daughter who I shared the house bouse with the old woman were restive and talked of ot creating their own homes Sons Song and daughters who lived within communicable distance distance distance dis dis- tance of ot the homestead were chary of calling and grandchildren had rigidly rigid rIgid- I ly to be taught the lie duty of ot their weekly week week- ly bow of t deference to the old patriarch patriarch patriarch patri patri- arch of ot a woman who sat In a tapestry chair and who resembled the pirate pirate- parrot But Dut even the Indomitable influence of ot this old woman was unable to cast Its shadow entirely on her family fumU The most dominant of ot her children the most endowed with the tho gift of personality personality per per- and wit was Vall Wallace ace At Atthe Atthe Atthe the end of ot the sixth year of his marriage marriage mar mar- he was Vas occupying one of ot the time beautiful new houses bouses of ot the town to His Hia wife rode In Imported motor cars cm's and the pair pall formed the time nucleus of one of ot the notoriously chic and gay social sets In the town The catastrophe which the old woman woman woman wom wom- an had so doggedly foreseen as InevItable Inevitable inevitable table came however sooner than even she sine expected A terrified horrified and blasted group of ot her large famIly family fam farn ily met one evening In the sitting room oom of ot the old homestead to confront confront confront con con- front In their plight and terrifying dilemma the hard cold eyes of ot the Grandmother Wallace had committed the able Incredible as it might seem the shades of ot the prison house bouse were about to cast their ominous reflection around this impeccable family Handcuffs Handcuffs Handcuffs Hand Hand- cuffs hovered over the wrists of Wal Wal- lace He had defaulted and was about to abscond It was a grim and stricken panic meeting of ot a gay clan The old woman In her tier high-backed high chair presided like me some menacing Fury ury Bitter Indicting words rattled ot off the thin ridge of her Inver lips She took occasion to scourge not only the stricken en figure of ot her son seated there before her In the limp attitude of defeat defeat de de- defeat feat but every ery member of ot the family Wastrels spendthrifts bios bles cheats Self satiation had been their undoing Lack of ot moral responsibility responsibility selfishness pretense gance Her scorn of ot them crackled from her old lips And all the while her son defeated sat before her with his Imis head seeming to drop down Into the slot of ot his shoulders and his horror horror horror hor hor- of the punishment of ot the law that was going to descend upon him creasy creasing ing his face foce and aging him It was then that the Grandmother reached out her like claw hand and touched his head lightly It was the time first gesture of affection her ber children had seen from her ber In years a curious curious curi curl ous om hesitant embarrassed gesture that lint somehow was as painful It was then I that the this Grandmother also from front boxes and drawers that she ordered I servants to bring to her began to tilt upon the old family dining table the time rich riches es of ot her resources Pearls The square diamond ring The thousand thousand- dollar bill from Wallace sapphire and diamond earrings pendants bracelets more Jewels and expensive decorations decorations decora decora- of every conceivable type And I from one drawer alone bank notes piles plies of ot them that had the time quality of fluttering out like live fingers unfolded unfold unfold- ed Insinuatingly The table top might have been strewn with the time yield of ot a n. pirates pirate's chest Thousands and tens of ot thousands thousands thou thou- sands lay Iny In bulk there The moment which Grandmother had dreaded and foreseen had arrived Her children were in need of what she had hoarded boarded for them Sitting there chastened the time shades I of ot the prison house began beban to recede I from the face of ot her son Wallace |