Show FOR THE CHILDRENS SAKE A by FANNIE HURST 0 by mcclure newspaper syndicate service ANN MEREDITHS marriage Z ANN k was one ot of those runaway affairs if she metY met donald onald mutrie muerle on a sunday and married him that day week H her e friends and some of his said ann was too good for him meaning that up to the alme of her marriage donald had been what might be called a prod prodigious I 1 g I 1 ous S 0 W er 0 of f wild oats ann knew this after a fashion and her sweet eyes were alight with the determination to reform donald she married him tor for love she bould could reform him with that love in iii whatever fashion ann was to be the loser by this mar marriage ringe she bettered herself economically donald was a born moneymaker money maker As his friends said of him about everything he touch d turned to gold donald even a little the worse tor for drink could turn from a better bargain than most men in the power of their full faculties ann up to the time of her marriage ria ge had been a sort of forewoman in a fairly large uptown department store of urban city one of those great shops of convenience that occasionally dot the residential districts of large towns the kind of shops that cater to the housewife who does not have time for the long trips to the downtown districts after her marriage ann lived in a lovely stone ten room home in a residential district where heavy traffic was forbidden cut but almost from the first th the e reformation or did not dot pan out as ann had dreamed it would donald was not as set in his ways as he was wild in his ways from the very first he began to come home roaring drunk two or three times a week the lovely home that ann had taken such pride in creating became the storm center of the most painful and difficult scenes from the very first it was almost with horror that ann regarded the coming of their first child but for a while about a year after its arrival a change came about in don old ald ile he seemed humble chastened chasteney chast ened deeply contrite and in love with the mother of his lovely little daughter and lor for a brief twelvemonth twelve month the pretty home became something of the thing ann had dreamed it might be the coming of her second child was a period of happiness and thanksgiving for ann life assumed a tranquillity and a beauty donald who could be very very nice when ile he was nice was not only the provider magnificent but for three months after the coming of the little lithe boy remained a devoted husband and father then one night light donald came home drunk with her heart in her mouth ann greeted this sudden strange horror of a companion of hers and made up her mind to fight a vallant valiant fight with him and nip in the bud the possibility of a return to his habits of debauchery there were tears and reconciliation after that dreadful night but something had snapped in donald not only did the drinking continue but donald became untrue and faithless to ann in the most flagrant sense of the word poor ann sometimes she was obliged to hold her head up suit and pretend not to be seared with insult when these companions of donalds passed her on the very streets of the city in which they lived the next nest five years of her life became a nightmare it was anns horror it was anns humiliation to see her lovely children constantly subjected to the spectacle of a maudlin father and of home scenes nes of high angry and bitter words that should never have reached their tender ears in vain ann sought to avoid these scenes preferring often to sulter suffer in silence than to subject tier her sensitive little girl and boy to the gross spectacle of a family row because that was all they could ever amount to with donald debald half crazed with drink and blear eyed from too much dissipation and too little sleep why she leave him said some of anns friends on the other hand those of her more conservative serva tive relations owing to religious scruples and fear of public opinion advised her to stick it out for the childrens sake eake for the childrens sake was a phrase th atlay constantly on poor anns bitter lips it if not for her children she would never have endured it if not for the indignity of vis visiting itin 9 upon those innocent little products of her unfortunate alliance the stigma of odthe the public sep of their parents parent sAnn ann would have gone back to her old position long ago she did not crave divorce sh she e too had certain religious scruples and besides it seemed to her th that a t she ehe could never again have dent clent faith in the marled state to try it with another no ann ADD was not for divorce AU all she secretly craved was respite from the ladig indignities donald continued to heap bean upon her and above all upon n them their children arid and yet in anns heart the tear for them of the stigma of separated separate d 1 parents was even gr greater eater for six years the condition waged little adele a blue eyed doll of a child whom donald adored when sober had literally been reared in a home of snarling domestic biag tragedy edy bobble bobbie the boy could tell by the sound of fat fathers hers feet anthe stairs when he be was returning home drunk and would run screaming and sobbing to his mothers side gathering these babies to her sometimes it seemed to ann that her hands were dark with sin SIB tor for having brought them into the world what mattered it that their home was lavish that theli their father when sober adored and pampered them the atmosphere of that home bome was drenched in horror when their father came into it he be smirched smirch ed his children by his very presence one evening such a shocking scene took place in that home when donald returned to it in the company of one of the women of dreadful finery he was known to associate with and entered th the e very room in which his children and wife were having their dinner that without taking time to contemplate the results ann packed up her children bag and baggage and with them left the hot house aie she went back to a boarding house she had lived in during the years of her work in the uptown department store the next day ann sent for her nurse from the house she had left and engaged her to take care of the children in the rooming house while she sought out a position the old store was glad to take her back at an increased salary a sufficient increase to enable ann to keep the nurse mald maid and leave her children in the care of this reputable woman while she went dally daily to her work lt it was not the ideal environment I 1 but the two small boarding house rooms responded to chintz and white paint and when ann ana returned to them evenings she did so secure in the knowledge that her childrens little ears would know only her loving greetings and that their little hearts would expand in an atmosphere mo sphere ot of pea peace ce and love no it Is by no means the ideal solution anns struggle Is lift a bitter one she will not accept help from donald even for the children but the two littie little rooms represent something that the big house never boasted tranquillity the secure knowl elge that the delicate growing minds of her bobble bobbie and adele will know only the sunlight of harmony and the kind of gentle environment that it Is anns annd life hope to provide them with now as ann looks back baal upon it all upon the turbulence of the years the agonized moments of indecision the fear of making the break from the so called security her husbands board and keep gave her in the community she realizes that the cruel thing to her children would have been to remain with them there vassals to a father who would provide them only with the material things of life prisoners in a home borne where their little spirits were hourly subjected to the w environment of disharmony and ugliness bess anns children no longer hear words of bicker and anger anns children no longer iun itin i un terrified at the sound of a step upon the stair beauty thrives in those boarding house rooms the beauty of pence peace and contentment it is said of donald A autrie that he has since come to his senses sense and sund that a strangely sobered and regretful man Is making every possible advance to his bis wife in the hope of regaining her confidence and resuming life with her on a sound and fresh basis whatever anns ultimate decision she starts for per her work each morning with a high head and a ahugh heart in her opinion she has kept her self respect ain in her opinion she has done the right thing by her children |