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About The Willamina times. (Willamina, Yamhill County, Oregon) 1909-1972 | View Entire Issue (April 21, 1932)
Thursday. April 21, 1932 TIMES, WILLAMINA. OREGON at least, he'd tried. H e would try at the next garage he came to. A fter all, they couldn’t do anything to him. They couldn't even, with rudeness and ridicule, make him feel any worse than he felt right now. All the same, he went hy two more before he tried one. At last he opened a door and went Inside. He took hla autv choke out o f hla pocket and started In on the first man he saw. "Can I Interest you . . H e didn’t know what he was saying, but It must have sounded coherent since the man listened calmly enough; but a fte r a while he yawned and said, “Yon’ll have to talk to the boss. I ain't got “Pay her real wages, whatever ahe'a was leaning over her closer than nec hla pretenses? I f she were to see nothing to do with IL " worth, and always pay them, Juat us essary, and hla good-looking-enough through him, what would ahe think? “la the boss out?*’ Edward asked. you pay the others. And If ahe turns face wore a fatuous smile. He looked How would ahe account for hla un He thought for an Instant he was go out not to be good enough, discharge around with a perceptible start as his willingness to turn salesman, now and ing to get a reprieve, but the man her. Don't try to make her feel that employer opened the door, straightened then, when he had a chance? Would said, "No, here he cornea now.” So she's Just one of the family, 'helping up, and said with a completely changed ahe decide that he was lazy—or he had to begin all over again. out.’ Don't try to pretend, to anybody, manner, "That's all. Yours very afraid? The fog lifted momentarily while he that ahe'a doing It for fun.” truly." O f course he believed In the auto talked and he heard himself saying H e seemed suddenly, too, In a great choke. He believed It waa a valuable lie eeld, "O f couree not," In a rather things . , . hurry to get out on hla rounds. He adjunct to a car. H e believed that It aggrieved tone, but he admitted to A customer had come In and the had a lot of people to see. he told himself that this was exactly whst he actually waa better, more to be relied boas was getting uneasy. "Oh, It'a a ll Edward, between now and six o’clock. upon, cheaper— In the long run— than had been meaning to try to pretend. righL I guess,” he said at last, “but Almost against his will and aware any of the other devices In the market She had made him wince hy putting there are so many o f those things. that hla voice didn't sound aa casual her finger on a sore spot. He had which pretended to o more or lees No, I don't believe I ’m Interested. aa he meant It to, Edwnrd asked, "la the same thing. He believed heartily never realized before that he waa a Nothing doing Just now, anyway." that a business letter, Edith?'* enough In all thia to hire glib young snob, but now the fact confronted him. H e was out on the street once more. men to go about telling people It was The girl laughed. **1 should say He hnd been trying to find a way to He had known It would come out like true and trying to persuade them to not I” She turned around to him with save hie face. He flinched from the thaL IVhat the boas had said was nothing In her face hut a grin of per buy chokes on their representation thought of Edith’s going In on the perfectly true; there were uncounted that It was. The only fault he had to fectly spontaneous amusetnenL "It's train with him every morning under things to make cars run better, or find with these young men was that the silliest stuff you ever saw. It's the eyes of his more prosperous ac more conveniently, being offered they didn't do It well enough. That a letter to a girl. He la sort of a — quaintances whose daughters didn't every day. pretty well disposed of hla moral su washout, Isn't he dad?” have to go to work. He hnd hud In W ell, he'd tried, anyhow, and the periority, didn’t It? the hack of his mind, even while Julia Edward sighed. “I ’m Inclined to experience hadn't been so bad. By Oh, he was making a mountain of a tulked, the whimsical explanation he think he Is," he said. The sigh was comparison with the way he’d felt m olehill! He'd been arguing with would make to M ariner when he told h alf rueful, h alf relieved. He waa when he went Into th at place, he waa himself about ft until he was getting him who the new stenographer was glad Edith felt that way about him, almost elated. H e might aa well go morbid. The thing to do would be to going to be. hut this feeling he kept to himself. on and try other places. H e tried an put one of the chokes Into hla pocket He'd always said thnt snobbery waa "You wouldn't be broken-hearted, other and another and another. He some day. walk Into the nearest garage a specialized form of cowardice. Ha then. If I let him go?" he asked. lost count at la s t; didn't know how he came to and sell them a dozen. wnsn't a coward— wna he? “Broken . . .” She whipped around many he had tried. The thing was so T hat would settle the question Mariner looked a hit hlnnk when upon him and saw hy his grin that he obviously useless, he was surprised to whether there waa anything the mat Edward told him of Edith's plan and waa teasing her. "H e Isn’t really any And, In the main, so mnch good-hu ter with him or not; take the sting out hla own tentative agreement to It, but mored tolerance. They let him talk. of Edith's “I know that anybody who he offered no overt objections. She’d They even seemed to listen, some waa any good could sell those things." ffnd It a pretty dull way of spending times for one minute, sometimes for O f course, she'd been talking about the hpr days, he thought, but of course as many aa five. salesmen when she said thaL not about ahe wouldn't have to stay If she found The steady repetition of failure was him. Anyhow, he'd do IL when he had It so. wearing him down. The mood of des time, and restore his sense of propor “ I don’t believe she'll find It dull,” peration that had driven him from tion— leave his mind free for dealing Edward said. " It w ill take her a week with matters that were really Im the office waa once more engulfing him, or so to get the hang of It, and It may with fatigue, ernde bodily fatigue, on portant. prove too much for her, hut If It top of IL He couldn’t go back to the Naturally he'd find It unpleasant, a does I ’ll let her go nnd get some one office now. H e waa marked legibly man of hla years and position, to start else. It's to he a plain businesslike w ith failure, branded with IL out peddling, to try to get the attention arrangement. W e'll pay her a fa ir of a man who was busy—or pretend A queer reminiscence came over him salary— and see that ahe earns IL It's ing to he— about something else and of the other office; the handsomely her ewn Idea, from the first, hut It w ill didn’t want to listen to him ; to as furnished, comfortable office In the In be a material help to me If It works.” sume a manner of hollow goodfellow- surance company; of himself sitting In M ariner said, "Oh, that's all right, shlp . . . “Say, friend. I've got some the easy chair, dictating to a smart, of course," and apparently forgot all thing here . . neat stenographer. The queer, almost about IL H e was In a queer sort of It made film sick to think about IL unbelievable oddity about It waa that mood, these duya, anyhow. It waa Call It fear. I f you liked. He'd do It he didn't wish himself back there. Not hnrd to he sure you had hla attention, though, some time. H e was going to even now. For the man who had sat for anything. have to do It. In that easy chair, comfortably sal U|»on Edward, Edith's presence was He did discharge the city salesman aried, secure, exercising an authority profoundly disturbing. It gave the and none of the applicants who an that was unquestioned as fa r as It day a different color and texture from swered hla want-ad In the paper was went, seemed to him not to have been nny thnt hnd gone before. It made conceivably satisfactory. The out-of- a man at a ll— a symbol; a stuffed the office a different place. town salesman, too, was temporarily s h irt Thnt sort of electrical tingle which Tha Fellow Was Leaning Over Har laid off. M ariner was more nearly non He turned Into the office of another her presence put In the a ir couldn't be Closer Than Necessary and Hla existent than ever. He and Edith had public garage and asked— it had be- n permanent thing, could It? How Good-Looking-Enough Face Wore the office to themselves. come a mechanical question— for the long would It last? Why, It would a Fatuous Smile. There came a particularly bad day; boss. “He's busy now,” his Inform ant last, Edward found himself deciding, no orders at all In the first m all; an said with a Jerk of the thumb. “You'll good, Is he?” ehe asked. “Oh, dear, exnctly as long as he could play up to obviously disingenuous letter from a have to wait a minute.” I wish you could get somebody that IL On the day ahe saw him slack, customer who owed them quite a lot Edward drew near and waited. was some good. O r I wish . . despondent, frightened, ready to quit, of money, offering a perfectly un I t was another salesman who was She didn't go on to complete the the spell would be broken. bankable ninety-day note Instead of talking to the boss, trying to sell him alternative, and presently he asked her There had been nothing aggressively the check Edward had counted upon— a newfangled trouble lighL Edward what It was. He didn't much want to, virtuous about her manner. She'd Just another bad debt; a dun that he sim listened absently at first, but a fte r somehow. But the alienee forced the been natural. Once, Indeed, she'd ply hadn't the heart to answer; a tax a minute or two he noticed something. question from hint. mildly shocked him hy uttering a per notice: and a long chatty letter from The salesman wasn’t saying a word " I wish you'd go out nnd sell the fectly audible “d— n" over some mis a bond house announcing an attractive about the merits of hla device. He thing yourself,” she said, “Just to take In her typing, and once when offering of municipal tax-exempt se was talking discounts, quoting Job show them up.” she'd bent over hla desk to see some curities ; that was a lt Nothing to do. bers’ prices. There was a clean profit H e tried to laugh that off as a sim correction he was pointing out to her, Out-of-doors, the day was ironically of two dollars and twenty-five cents In ple absurdity, but he found he couldn't she'd forgotten she wasn't at home fine; the sky, a pitiless cold blue; the every individual light the boas could let It go at that. “I doubt If I could and rumpled hla hair. winter's aun. In greaL broad, golden sell, ’fh a t was more than a dollar show them up. In the first place,” he No, ahe wna all rlghL She'd keep splashes, making a mockery of his better than he could hope for under said. "You see I've never sold any It up as long ns he d id ; ns long as he despair. H e shut hla hook and put ordinary conditions. He'd better let thing In my life. There's a— special remained the person ahe wanted him down hla pen. Edith at that moment him leave a h a lf a dozen on consign technique about It that I've never to be. She wouldn't be critical; she'd had gone Into the shop for a consulta ment w hile he was finding out what learned. And then, of course, I have take him fo r granted as long as ahe tion with Charlie Franklin. H e got the demand amounted to. The sales to be here, really; especially now that could. W hat ahe couldn't do wna be up and put on hla hat and overcoat. man would come back In a few days Mr. M ariner has practically aban sorry for him, encourage him, pull him W ith hands that trembled, he picked and sell him a real order. doned us.” He essayed a smile. up when she saw he wna down. She up a sample choke and slipped It, Edward didn't try to make a sale la “There has to be somebody on the could pull him up wonderfully as long along with a pad of order blanks, Into that place. H e remembered, now, that bridge, you know.” ns she didn’t know It waa necessary. hla pocket. hla salesmen had always grumbled “ Well, I ’d be here," ahe reminded That waa what It came to, then. He "I've got to go out for a while," he told about discounts. He'd followed M a ri him. ”1 mean, I usually know what to must never give himself away. Edith, when ahe came hack Into the ner's lead In stiffly maintaining the tell people now when they telephone. They got Into the doldrums. The office. " I may not be back before price. He'd learned something more. And I've sold three chokes this week Impetus thnt their business had got lunch." Why should any of these little dealers to people who were driving by and from the automobile show In January W ell, he’d got out, anyway, he re care how much gasoline his device stopped to see what It was like. Oh, flected, aa he closed the door behind had spent Itself. Nobody now took would save? They sold gasoline. of course," she concluded, a fte r a him. He was safe so far. Edith any Interest In hla car. The accessory They'd sell anything there was a hand pause, “I know you really are too game was hibernating. There'd be hadn't remarked anything queer about some profit In, unless It were so hope busy. I was only— wishing. I know nothing much doing until spring, or at his voice. less a fraud that It kept coming back that anybody who was nny good could least until a few line days gnve a H e walked away without direction, on th e ir hands. sell those things." hint that It wna coming. A real adver with no conscious objective. H Is hands He tried the new approach and The afternoon mall enme In Juat tising campaign wna the only thing were In his overcoat pockets and his found that h alf the time, perhaps, it then, like a godsend, and gave them that could posalbly wake them up, fingers became conscious of the thing worked. H e accumulated a little list something to do. But that talk of right now. This wna the uurden of they were gripping—that d— d auto of dealers to whom he was to send, theirs wasn't forgotten. He didn't be the salesmen's complaints. choke! He'd left the office with the next day, h alf a dozen of hla chokes lieve, at least, that ahe hnd forgotten Idea of making a sale, and with some Edward did his best— and It was a on consignment. It. Aa for himself, It kept gnawing unrecorded vow that he wouldn't come better beat than he would have been He was dog tired by now, but some away In hla mind like a persistent back until he had made a sale. caimhle of a month ago— to Inspirit how he couldn't stop. Something— he mouse, audible whenever the alienee them nnd keep them up to their work. He was passing a big public garage didn't know what it was— drove gave him a chance to hear It. He admitted It was a handlcnp thnt now, and he paused before the show him on. H e couldn’t be expected, could he, they weren't better supported by ad window. They hnd all sorts of acces At last, he visited a man who did to rush out whenever he found a free vertising, hut a real campaign wua out sories In there. Why didn't he make not mean to hear a word of his story. moment nnd peddle their article about of the question. The financial re his beginning here? Why didn't he go H e was a swarthy man. of sixty, per the neighborhood? "Can't I Interest sources of the business didn’t run inside and find the boss? And say haps, with a thick neck and a bullying you In the Mariner Auto Choke?" O f to IL "Can I Interest you . . voice. course It was preposterous. Edward had an out-of-town customer H e turned and walked hastily, al (TO BK CONTINUED.) on his hands one day and took him to All the same, he grew acutely self- most furtively, away, as If his design conscious about the periods of unwel lunch. When he got back to the office, might have been legible through the A n c ie n t L a k e D w e llin g come leisure which kept cropping up about three o'clock, he found the city window to the boss— the design, nnd The remains of one of the lake salesman dictating a letter to Edith. during his business days, and he re the terror, too, thnt set him on his dwellings of the Gaelic period, fo rti The glimpse he got of the man sorted, sometimes, to rather fa r way once more, in flight agnln. He'd fied against Invaders, was discovered fetched occupations to HU them up. through the glass door, before he have to do It some time, though. H e on the bed of a Scottish loch which opened It. offended him. The fellow Did Edith suspect the hollowness o f couldn't go back and face Edith until. has partly dried up. The BEGINNERS A N o v e l by H e n ry K lte h e ll W e b s te r SYNOPSIS A e tln r In Rood fa ith to aid a nalffh- bor, Ituth In grah am , In a hu aln.aa w ay, E dw ard P a tter so n , r a u h l.r of tha C hi- • * < “ • ■ • n r y o f a I l f . In su ran ce c o m pany, I. w r o n g ly su sp ec ted by h l . wire, J u lia , o f In fid elity. H er a c c u s a tion u n lit , him for b u a ln .a ., and ha t a k a , a abort vaca tio n . On h it retu rn ha I. d e e p ly w ou n d ed by hla d a u g h ter, E dith , te llin g him hla paraonal b eln n g ln g a are In t h . " .p a r e room." h a v in g b . . n rem oved from the room whl^h had been h l. and hla w ife*, bed- room F a t t .r .o n a ccep t a the altu a tlo n ae proof o f hla w ife ’, b e lie f In hla g u ilt. E dith , a e v .n te e n y e a r , old, I. w orried over th# e etr a n g o m e n t of her paA m ts. H er m oth er o n ly p artly su e- r e .d e In her e ffo r t, to co m fo rt h .r . The .o n , E dw ard. Jun ior, I. at c o lla g e . A b u sin e ss m a tter b r in g , an "Inven tor," Jam as M ariner, Into p n ttsr sn n ’s life M ariner n .e d a H.OOO, w ith w h ich to push h l . in v e n tio n , an a u to m o b ile "hoke, and I'a tt.r a o n , a fte r a b rief In- v e etlg u tlo n , d e c id e , to g o In w ith him , su p p ly in g th e m oney and ta k in g a part In the m a n a g em en t W ith o u t In form ing hla fa m ily , he realgna from the Inaur- i n c . com p an y, d e v o tin g hla w h ole tim e to t h . pu ahlng o f the In ven tion . An old friend . A lbert W illard, la fr a n k ly .k e p t lc a l o f the v a lu e o f the ch ok e. I’a tt.r a o n t e l l , hla w ife o f t h e c h a n g e he hae m ade, (the a c c e p t , the a ltu a tlo n E dith I. m ade a w a r e o f th e c h a n g e In the fa m ily fo r tu n e , by h e r m oth er te llin g her ehe h a . d ecid ed to part w ith th e co o k , .h e and E dith to do the h ou aew ork . At C h ristm a s E dith*, achool, a p r iv a te one, p u t . on a play, In w h ich th e g ir l h a . a p a r t H er brother E d w ard cornea from c o lle g e for the h o lid a y .. W ith him la lin g e r M organ, w h oiv E d ith hrd kn ow n a . a child H er mot? er a«!.« ': 111h to le a v e her preaen t ach. ol and tl <h her atu - d le a at th e publt* h igh achool. It w ill m ean a s a v in g o f se v e ra l h u n d d d o l- lar«, and E d ith a /r e e a . A ta lk w ith R oger M organ heat t e n . her E dw ard te lle her he I. g o ln x to pay h l . ow n w ay th r o u g h th e u n ' v .r .' t y , and ehe decid es to le a v e s.-hoi I and fit h e r e e lf to b ecom e her fa th er* , a ten o g ra p h er. He la hurt, but her d e te rm in a tio n la e v id e n t CH APTER V T h e C ow ard I They compromised with R<llth. It w a i agreed, after tin evening'» argu ment and a morning'. Investigation by Julia, that the child might go to her nice little business college for a tria l month. By the end of that time, If ahe atilt wanted to, .h e could go to work for her fnther at the office. It wna he wlfh Insisted upon the de lay. Hla wife, to hla astonishment, after ahe hnd heard what Edith had to aay nbout It, waa In favor of let ting her take the plunge at once. She was frankly enthu.lagtlc over the plan. 11« had never been able to make out whether Julia believed In the auto choke or not. She had never Raid .he thought their own car ran better with It, than before. She blew cold when he blew hot. She never took .0 dark a view of the future a . when he came home buoyant over a good order or a gorgeous prospect Yet when the prospect faded or the man who had Bent In the big order turned out not to have the money to pay for It, when he found himself drifting on the rocks o f de.pnlr, ahe Just took hold of him and pulled him through. Often he recalled Ile rt W illard's saying that ahe w a . a good .port. It had surprised him at the time and It aurprlaed him still. It waa true— true up to the hilt. In a WRy. It waa true If you considered what she did. Hut If a good sport waa an adventurer, who took hazards and defeats as a part—even an enhancement— of a game, then Julia waa a . little a sport aa anyone he knew. Less than he himself. But whatever the source of her enurnge might be, the steadfastness of It sometimes made him gusp. And It wna not, he believed, all a bluff, either. From aoroe source or other ahe wna finding happiness. She hadn't been to cheerful In months. H e wondered rather bleakly whether this might be due to the cessntlon of their mnrltnl relations. Was that part of their life something she hnd nlwnys hated, and wna It now her sustaining belief that she had escaped from It — perman en tly! She confessed herself puzzled about the change In Edith. She'd known more of the g irl’» real feelings, of course, than he hnd. Anyhow, she wna delighted with the chnnge of heart. “It'a really on her account more than yours," Julia nmnzlngly told him, "thnt I want her trained to earn hpr living. I don’t want her ever to hnve to wake up to the fact that she's helpless, at the mercy of some one elso—nny one elsp, not even the best husband In the world." She sold It with such Intensity thnt he asked, before he stopped to think, “Did you ever feel like that?" “I don't, now," she said, and he was glad she went on talking about Edith without giving him a chance to ask any more questions. "You must make It a real Job for her. Ned." she told hint earnestly. Pa#e 5
