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About The Oregon daily journal. (Portland, Or.) 1902-1972 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 8, 1916)
THE SUNDAY FICTION MAGAZINE, OCTOBER 8, 1916 IMG OlDERS HERET 1st something about a tiler- hat' tbat shift ar fellow's per. specttve a few points to leeward, rve seen ttiat same fact illus trated, several times in my life; i I remember, for- instance, when old Jack Senrick, city editor of the Chron icle, used to enunciate his famous theory that two drinks and an inspiration should keep a reporter in working order eighteen hours a day. Men came and.' went rapid ly on the staff of the old Chrdnicle under Senrick's regime. And then the Rice News Company elected a board of direc tors that held different views- than the city editor, and Senrick went the way of the obsolete. Once back In the ranks, he rescinded the Inspira tion if not the two drinks phase of his theory. But Senrick was only an understudy for Stephen K. Cor rigan, president, ma jority owner and im pelling, genius of the yellow stacked Corri pan Lin ot lake freighters Corri pan's folks were whiteflsh seiners from. Thunder Cape, on the north shore of Lake Superior, and Steve had soen the big pond in all its varying phases for twenty- two years before he took up his abode in Cleveland. He was a deckhand on the old Georgian Maid when she accu mulated a deckload of 3,000 tons of ice, not specifically mentioned in the clearance pa pers, and turned tur tle off Whiteflsh Point. Steve climbed out of 'a galley window as the old package freighter took her final roll. It was rumored along the docks that the cook had' designs on the same exit, which Steve found necessary to discourage with a brace bar before he. acquired' precedence. As a matter of fact the cook didn't follow at all., for some reason, but Steve paid, dearly enough for hi priority. He war froxen to the spar he'd grasped upon going over, and the rerenue cotter Caribou,- when it pieKed hir. up, nv hours later, found it necessary tor leave two or. three ofhis fingers on the flagstaff: of the Georgian Maid. ' Steve stayed" ashore- thereafter, and iro one - could blame him much for re nouncing a life- afloat;. Bar the. young Canadian couldn't quite; overcome his passion for navigation; and- when his hands, healed enough, to. grasp a-pea he accepted a clerical, jo ft. In the Cleveland offices of the old Tilton Line. The days before, the commerce com mission became interested in the degree, of consanguinity existing, between: rail roads and steamship lines were the salad era of lake shipping, Steve progressed upward rapidly enough, and when a good many enterprising "rail and wave" alliances were handed their divorce, de crees Steve's independent line was. Jerk ing about all the Iron ore that, the steel trust boats couldn't handler Steve didn't subscribe, to the idea- of hiding one's light under a bushel,, and all of His huge, maroon -colored steel freighters bore the name of some mem ber of the Corrigan family. L covered the launching-of the Edith Corrigan for a Cleveland paper, and' it was there that , r first met. the president of the; line. He Ebr Arthur James nUutrated by Bm Cbhem ayes A WIRE will countermand the sailing order," said Rlary-Malloxy but the jingle of dollars prevented Corrigan: from? hearings ESS Eg had" all of your true- publicity seeker's, awe of the newspaper man, and. upon presenting my credentials I was invited into the owner's stand. Edith Corrigan; in whose honor the- big 600 footer- had been named? waas - Ttotdlnff" the- be-ribboned bottle or champsgne? and talking vvaciousiy wttht ar. slender- young" man whose perf-rslr, inr ommectloir witBr some polo exploit; often giBgHd"'tfae society sec tiosr ot ourlbcal? papsrst Corrigair snored a cigar into- ray rnwTd; rumbled & loir of imposing statistics absut : the new boat'svtomjage- and dtnren 'stans anfc then, turned1 to- repeat- the- per, foi nuvuee for- at- motietr picture weekly npresstrUrtive. WAS" more interested in the daughter than in the old navigation master. She was- a splendidly active, vigorous glrL. with the Irish combination of black hair. and blue eyes. I marveled that she could . be of the same flesh and blood as heavy Jowied, harsh voiced? Stephen K. Corri gan. A band was playing popular airs, to drown the harsh creaking of. the retain ing, stays as they were dislodged in pairs r couldn't hear what father and daugh- tween them: The girl's slender hand, gloved in pearl gray; silk, rested lovingly orr his huge arm, and" when,' in a clear, resonant voice, she cried, T christen three Edith Corrigan," and buried the champagne against the - greaf red steel ( bows, the Hgfit hr her father's eyes re deemed the harshness of his forbidding countenance. The big-vessel glided smoothly Into the' bay, and witlr one last glance at the ill assorted pair I left the gaudily decked" stand. L saw little of the Corrigana- for the next year or. two- Sometimes Edith Cor rlgan's white.- French, roadster would flash past the Chronicle Building-, and . I would catch .a glimpse, of. the. pretty fea tures, sparkling;, blue. eyes. and. bright red cheeks, framed, against, a background of blue silk, or white fur. Her. beauty mad her a Special. f&voriteand. old. Steve Cor rlgan lavished, his wealth upon htsonlyj daughter.' Steve himself was. much Inl' the limelight. He wast a. leader, in. tb attack against rallroad-owrted ship lines, and lobbied actively in favor of various dissolution, bills. But. bis greatest prominence was ac quired as- an opponent, of. seaman's. ter were discussing, but it. was patent unions- He was the-, type of shipmaster that the strongest affection, obtained he- who spends-' f2S000 on a. mahogany pan eted suite of rooms aboard his steamers, ta be used, sometimes as often as twice a year, while deploring the wholly inexcus able deeirwof A. B. seamen to have their wseetfc raised from jig to $TT monthly. I; interviewed, him on the. subject, and found him. bitter in his condemnation of walking: delegates and union publics -tiens. Hex wwved his- mutilated hands about as hs -declaimed against all forms of orgeansatioBr In any wise- calculated to boost wages- at the-' expense- of divi dends, r asked hint suddenly what he considered a. fair wage- for his last trip on the in fated Georgian Maid. He seemed momentarily nonplused, and then seized the question to-turn his own end. "See that, hand?" he bellowed; "more like, a sponge than anything else well, I got that in active service, and when any of these lily fingered union swabs try to tell rue a n y t h i n p about higher wapes and 'full crews' I'll shake It before their eyes and tell them that rve seen service and know the ropes. Full crews" he puffed savagely on his thick black cigar and strode back and forth In his mag-. nifJcent innrr office "full crews! Hell of a full crew they shipped in the old en days. Why, the old Georgian Maid used to ship short handed with half cf those aboard down with the- 'D. T.'a.' No steam heated quar ters forward for us, either, and now- " He stopped with an inarticulate oath of disgust. I dropped in thw -Corrigan Line ofQeesi frequently during tta big anti-unien fight that the iron jawed: old president was; leading. Mapes cov ered the union cannv and' I brought in the- rebuttal from the employer's t r ong. hold. It . took, a lot of front, page suae-, and the old:, man. seemed Uvgloryrln the prominence the issue gave hirav "Wetve got 'em on the ma; he told, me-exultantly one afternoon late in December Are burned cheerfully in the great, red-brick, fireplace of hi sumptuous den. "They're springing a. lot of. sympathy stuff atout the man afloat, these, nights, butlrwos'ti get em over with anybody but' the, ote sisters." yrtISK tirade wa interrupted by th 171 noieeissss entry of the- butler; wftw announced:: tizst a young lady- war very. anxious: tot speak with Mr. Corrigan. Corrtgan Crowned, consulted his watch;, and snapped: "Weil; show her- is,'- V rose? to leavey but he- cheeked me per enpsxrrilyK "Stick irout; Keppler," he command' edi "If won't take- a moment to settle this, othear maitter-." t reanmedl ray. chair- and- waited; A. young- girt entered the- room- and glanced nervously from- Corrigan to- mer ' She osdiuswertsiaaybarrhei doorway for almosraminute.and It occurred to me that Corrigan might have offered, herr a chair. He. didn't, "It's It'Si about, father," sh hsgari nervously, in.a.riclt coatrsito voles. with. Just a trace-oltremoe.. "Hshas.wired.us that hs: has. been, ordsred to. clear from "A: wrrc woxzid cottrriermarrd' the order," he agreed, dnyy. "Bat' it won't"