Evening Star Newspaper, June 19, 1921, Page 56

FADE OUT Another Pug: Fairchild Story By Mildred Cram. Tllustrated by F. C. Yohn. ITA was pretty. She had no other excuse for her amasing lack of what our grandmothers call “good common sense. Ehe lived a life that would hive de- stroyed a strong man of the Victorian era. She never went to bed before two, nd she rose invariably at six to ride in Central Park. After breakfast she walked up and down 5th avenue, nosing 1o and out of shops and galleries, with i the inquisitive, alert, shivery manner | of a young pointer. She always]| lunched in the noisiest restaurant she could find. In the afternoon she danced Br skated. getting home in time to minute, he said, abruptly to the point. “Why don’t you take Rita away?" “Egypt — Italy—Jamaica mured Rita's father in voice. “Nonsense! Take her to Tahiti or British Guiana or the Belglan Kongo. The most uncomfortable place you can think of. I know a better dose than any of those—Magella. Try Magella! 1t's hot and dusty and as unfashion- able as a Gilbert and Sullivan operat- ta. There's only one hotel in the place —Afifty cents a day tout campris—you know what that means! There you will encounter primitive morality un- adorned—no jazz, unless it be the na- sal caterwauling of some amorous Latin singing_ ‘O Sole Mio'—to the moon! Go:! Stay a year. Rita will turn romantic in seif-defense. She will probably marry a Magellan aria- mur- sepulchral dress hurriedly for a dinner party, where she danced again. ‘"She was pretty, but she had no! heart. She was far too pretty and too | busy to think about her heart. and. as | a result, wasn't hothered by falling in; 1ove or by the disturbinz subtleties of ! the game of rentimental hide-and-seek. She was as cool and as impersonl as | a dryad—a twentith-century dryad | frisking in and out of marble lobbies. scented tea rooms, theaters and skat- ! ing rinks. Somewhere in the back of | her mind was the thought: “If I stop, ! 1 shall realize how absurd 1 am. I'm! afraid to stop.” ! _.So she went on, running a race and ' not with happiness, but with amuse ment. And amusement wore the face of a satyr. while happiness stayed out | of sight like an elusive and desirable faun. Whenever Rita felt the pangs of discontent she fancied that she was bored, ard bought a new hat or a fur | ceat to assuage the pain. t * x k% ITA had a father, and her father, | being the director of a rallway, a millionaire, and fifty-five years old, ‘was also no fool. For a long time he | had watched Rita frisking among the | patted palm forests of Manhattan—at | first with humor. because she was so | YQung to be so wise; like a kitten ! sharpening its claws—then with pit and finally with genuine alarm. He realized that he saw her only at break- fast. Now and then he glimpsed her from the windows of the University Club—a fashionable young person yrapped in furs to the tip of her piquant nose, her head held high, her i eyes reflecting the prismatic brilliance | of 5th avenue. On those occasions Mr. Blanchard | sighed. He wanted Rita to be happy, | and, reasoning backward to his vouth, marriage signified happiness. It dis. tressed Mr. Blanchard to watch Rita revolving like a squirrel in a cage. Other girls married. But what in thunder could he do? It is no longer the custom to push reluctant maidens jnto matrimony. Once he xald to her: “Rit about time you settled down? ‘Settled down? Isn't there some young Rita’s ey ide. ‘otd_dear, i 1 want you to be huppy i he got up from the table. Kissed the top of his head. and laughed. pepfectly happy. Why on earth should fall in love- It's 0 uncomfortable— always worrying about how you look and whether he'll be picased. and hav- to toe the sentimental mark Honor and obey! No. I'm happler as 1-am? ‘Mr. Woman Blanchard knew better. No in the world is happy who has not looked Jife in the face, and | 1 Rita was dodging -the..igrus. . The ‘music of the v\'u(]&-“ua,drmned out by the throbbing tom-tom of the jazz. And Mr. Blanchzrd put in some serious half hours wundering right and wrong. This gilded « age couldn't be reality; foxtrotting couldn't be the ultimate zim of exist- ‘ence. Rita had slipped away from him ‘While he bargained in the market place. Dissipated? So was he, thei Drunk on directorships. . . . | Mr. Blanchard’s office’ was on the' jeateh a | where he sat him Gown to wait. | riass | the a tocrat who is descended from some Neapolitan fishmonger—and live hap- pily_ ever after. It is on your own heac “Are you serious?" Mr. Fairchild, a block aw violently into the unseeing, ber mouthpiece. “I know nothing of daughters. But, remember, I have a| son who took his Manhattan diploma three years ago. I sent him to Magellu and he has learned many things— principally that a large slice of the world' lies heyond Brooklyn to the north, Jersey City to the south, Fort Hancock to the east and Van Cort- landt to the west! Pug has a whole- some respect for men who have never set foot in the Knickerbocker and who have never heard of Florenz Ziegfeld. When he comes back he may even u derestimate us a trifie.” “Rita won't go,” Mr. Blanchard in- rrupted. “Then kidnap her. A steamer sails or Rio tomorrow morning. You can company boat _there—the ! Rough Rider. She's a tub, I warn you. | If you want an excuse—why not rep- resont me at the official opening of the railway? Take a frock coat and a top hat. There'll be soine sort of a service—flags, speeches, compliments. Entente cordiale’ The government is slipping, and we are hanging on to our property literally by our teeth. It's up to you." Mr. Blanchard had a vision of him- gelf—millionaire and railway celebrity —dictating the policy of a one-track road a sun-baked South American . repub Inwardly he groaned. But because he w; thinking of Rita's lackluster heart, he =xaid briefl Thanks. Tl go. t night he dined at home. Rita was not there, and the servant ex- plained that she was dining with the Fairbankses and later “going on" to the Chu Chin Chow. Mr. Blanchard groaned and retreated to the lilrary. He had two tickets for passage aboard a fruit_steamer sailing in the morning for Rio; he took them out of his, pocket and smoothed them on his knee, and smoked three large black clgars in slow succession. The serv-! ants went to bed. Outside in the fash- | ionable East Side street there was an occasional silvery clink of passing motors and the rarer clop of a car. The little brass clock on the library table kicked frivolously on to- ward midnight, passed 1, 2. 3. Mr. Blanchard's head wobbled on his shoul- Gers, but he keut himself awake. And at 4 the front door opened, closed softly, and Rita came in. She was dressed coolie’s costume—hydrangea-blue pan taloons, purple coat, orange cap set; jauntily on her braided halr. She stood! in the doorway, blinking sleepily. “Sitting up? Father, what on earth has happened?” t occurred to me.” Mr. Blanchard , “that you and 1 were seeing too tle of each other. Today some one -d me whether your eyes were blue Lrown—and 1 had forgottem: Come| here.” . SRR iy Rita crossed the room and sat on rm of his chair. “I have gray yes,” she said. hat's so. Gray. And what do you sec_with them, my dear?” “You sound like the wolf in ‘Little ted Riding Hood.' I see you. Andj you're getting bald on the top of your dear old head.” “I'm getting old.” tei £ in a glorified TH PUG, CATCHING THE RIFLE, TURNED IT UPON THE ASTOUNDED NATIONA THIS SURPRISE AND THE EDG No wonder her smils was as listless as_cigarette smoke. He felt her hand on his shoulders. T'm crazy to go.” she whispered. Magella—anywhere! I've played on all the instruments; I've pulied all the strings. I'm bored!’ He put his arm around her. and they clung together, crying a littie because they really loved each other. .In her heart she was thinking: “Ppor old dear. He needs a rest.” He though “Rita needs a perspective.” And;both of them wc~s Wrong. of course: "~ But they caught the fruit steamer and sailed away with her out of the crowded, brilliant harbor down a Sea that deepened as they traveled south- ward, into unimaginable blus; guli: hovered astern; dolphins turnéd .som- ersaults and played pinwheel;the sun rose in a glory and sank as with the metallic clamor of a brass band—a shattering of gilded fragments on the rim of the world. y Rita had brought six trunks, two hatboxes, golf sticks and her own saddle. Miniature republics were as far trom her ken as they are from| vours and mine. For all she knew. Magella was romething lile the fir: act of “Florodora”—palms, show girls. spotlights, comedians and syncopated melody. She expected to see Al Jolson um-pahing on the beach with a cho- rus of blond eannibals one-stepping in the bosky shadow of artificial co- coanut trees. She pictured herself flirting with naval officers in spotless duck. There would be a moon every night. of course. And some one with a guitar : Rita possessed a heart. but she would have said “Nonsense!" had you dared to tell her so. She had always been proud of her aloofness—she ~ould turn her emotions on and off with the ease of a bell boy wielding an icewater spigot. She hoasted of being able to ray to any man, under ny circumstance: T will not love vou." And she never had. Tt is dif- ficult to propose to a girl who is mak- ing it perfectly clear that you are, mentally, physically and spiritually, nvisible. Mr. RBlanchard watched her with samazement and pity as the big fruit steamer cut swiftly southward across a tranquil sea. She was as hard and bright as platinum—and equally precious. Civilization had given her the polished surface, the patina of all luxurious, ex- pensive things. Mr. Blanchard thought with a sort of panic that she probably had faith in the perfect docilitv of the element she would patronize a typhoon apd face. without flinching, a tidal wave. All her life she had commanded ‘people and things. As she paced the fruit steamer's deck, with her hands in the pockets of her smart tweed coat, she had the air of saying “Nothing can happen to this ship, because 1 am on board.” And it terrified Mr. Blanchard, who was responsible. He knew what lies in am- I bush for those who put their nose in the air and keep it there. Life has a way of placing invisible things across the path; such snares as love and poverty, failure and desire. And Rita was too pretty, too confoundedly pretty. “Well, my dear,” he said, leaning on the rail by Rita's side, and squinting at the dazzling sky, “we're almost there! Tomorrow Rio, then a short trip on_the company boat. and then—Magella. Does your heart skip a beat when you think and revolutions? She glanced at him and shrugged her shoulders. "It takes more than that to make my heart skip a beat,” she snid. * X x ¥ B AT Rio—not Rio de Janciro. by the way, but a reeking hot coast town farther north—they transterred them- selves and Rita's bulging trunks to the Rough Rider, and for a number of days were bumped, rolled, pitched and kicked down a steaming sea toward Magella The Rough Rider was dirty. She was top heavy. Her narrow decks were ex- the withering attentions of an foun B pped out of the ocean popularly called Signor Pug—knew that a pretty uniform doesn't make a soldier. “When the clash come: Diego, president of the- tn “warriors will fal: on and yammer. It is the way of comic- opera armies.” The clash came and Diego's war- lors were four days' march from the capital. It fell to a handful of citi- zens to face the attackini national- ists In the streets of Magella. And Mr. Blanchard, seat by Fairchild pere 10 open the Magella railway with dignity and ostentation, was on his blissfully unaware that the bal public had burst into howls. M Blanchard had been brought up in a country wher law and order were as much i matter of course as the regu- |lar intaking and outgoing of one's reath. He spoke blithely to Rita of | “revolutions.”” being under the im- | pression that they might witness a fight between street urchins and po- licemen. * % x * HE crew of the Rough Rider, how- ever. suffered from no such color- ful illusions. No wireless communi- catlons were received from the sta- tion at Porto Bio, which in itself was enough to cause the captain to wring his hands. He called Porto Bio as long as the Rough Rider remalned within calling distance, but the sta- tion, for the first time in five years, failed to greet the ex-privateer as she staggered down the coast from Rio. and the captain, peering anxiously from the bridge, pointed with a blunt forefinge: ‘Magell Mr. Blanchard looked, felt his heart leap with a strange new excitement, and ran below to Rita's cabin. She was lying on her back in the narrow berth, her arms clasped under her head, her eyes closed. She wasn't in- terested in Magella. Bitterly she said s0. ‘Magella? You dragged me down here because I was bored! The cure is worse than the disease. I'm seasick. I'm uncomfortatle. I'd give my right hand to be back in the land of bath- tubs and ice water. If this is romance, give me reality!” That afternoon the rosy hued clouds drew nearer, heightened. took on fan- The following morning a pile of rosy ' labout y WnU wERS BETW=EN OF ETERNAL SPACE. une forward with Rita was behind him. Hello, I’ug,” she said. Pug Fairchild shouted. He caught Ri hamds. He danced an_ecstati fox trot up and down the Rough Rider's narrow deck. He shook Mr. Blanchard's right hand and then, for good measur his left. He held R length and sc and gratitude. “Rita! An American girl dle of a tupenny-ha You' ight for tired Rita was cool. Her heart was beating at its usual rate—which was just a little steadier than u Waltham wi h. he was pret nd knew it. Revolution or no revolution, here was just another voung man whose eyes kindled at thé sight of her. Strange that she could think of him thus, con- sidering their last meeting in New York. But to her he was then just a lovable boy. Though the whole world rocked with hate and triumph, she remained true to her role. “Is there a decent hotel in Magella?" ided. Pug said shortly. “But say we can make vou comfortable. And his smile died like the sun going behind a cloud. * % x % HEY went ashore in the launch, Rita refusing to stay another night on board the Rough Rider. Blanchard followed meekly, with \scared looks over his shoulder at the | stranded coast stteamer, from whose deck a constant popping of firearms | sounded like explosions of corn in some | gigantic popper. gingerly caution. i of palms and white sand and sombreros|hyed cumuli thrust above the horizon, |in the launch, a thin, dark man in soiled linen. Pug introduced him to the Blanchards as “my friend, Carlo Gonelli, who fought for the freedom of Magella” Rita bowed and Go- nelli, clicking his heels together. bent from the waist. ‘What a monke: ‘What a beauty!" Gonelli thought. They continued to stare at each other all the way across the harbor. Gonelli's black eyes flashed sidewise, impudent and admiring. His coat was ripped up the back: his collar had wilted in the heat of some ter- riffic fight in the narrow streets of {the city; his curly hair stood on end. | Rita saw that there was blood on the jback of his hands. A deep cut, as if | some one had slashed at him with a Rita thought. Mr. | i { i | | | i 1 | i frecdom. E SUNDAY STAR, WASHINGTON, D. C., JUNE- 19, 1921-BART 4. m would have been to iing Blanchard of the Great Trupk hat pretty girl with the steady héirt. She screamed once. Mr. Blanchatd, feellng the cold nose of a long-barrcled Winchester pressed agzinst his neck, said distinctly: “Outrageous!” and became silent, as if_seized with an immense discretion. They were pushed back into_the launch, and. secure in shadows, the ten nationalists tumbled aboard after their prisoners. Rita fell on her kne She got up and, Rroping in the darkness, cried: “Father, where are you? “Hered' Mr. Blanchard groancd, try- ing desperately to bite the invisible ionalist who was sitting on his tl chance one commanded in of you understands “1 do.” 3 ut into the harbor and go north until we tell you to stop. 1f you speak above a whisper you will have no need to speak again. “Bene. id briefly. A muteh flured. Ritu saw a crowd dark men in wide-brimmed heir eyes glittered out of the o of wolves. Four of he protesting body of ‘s son. " ‘onc cried in a sol- It is Signor Pug him- vour service,” Puz remarked. looked from him “toward the man who had “fought for Magella's He was bending over the engine. As if the deep cut on his ands werc not eneuch, the national- ists had wounded him agafn during the brief 'scuffle on the wharf; there was blooil on his cheek. and his natty bow tie had werked itsclf into a ri- buld position at the back of his neck. * * k% THE light flickered out, launch. tipping dizzily beneath the unaccustomed weight, moved out yards away the shore moved by, a shapeless density of houses and vege- f could do—what might be done. If, for { your artillery. tion. Nothing stirred there. There|instance, her honorable goat tugged ' Benissimo was not a light, not a sound to show that this was a city for which men had just fought and died. . This was Magella, little 1and. ol big desires. This was the placé 6f papler mache palms which Rita had imag- ined. Only now it reached out to her in that breath of scented felt ity reglity, its glamour, its romance. Presently. lulled by the rustle of wa. ter and the throb of the engine. she|blaze licked at a handful of sticks. Hix ' ter o fell asleep leaning against the broad back of a very dirty nationalist who was spending the night pressing the nose of his rifle into her father's ribs. She dreamed of a rose-colored boudoir, of snowy pillows and scented tubs, of crystal and lace and silver—of New York, 'y o s She woke to a luminous dawn. The launch lay in shallow water beyond a white beach fringed with cocoanut palms. Pug and her father were wad- ing ashore, knee-deep in the surf. Go- nelli was wrapping his wounded hands about with strips of cloth torn from his tattered shirt. He met Rita's eyes “Good morning, signorina.” he said. Rita thought ‘He isn't such a monkey. after all One of the nationalists offered to carry her ashore, but she pushed him ide and waded in with Gonelli, the crested waves breaking to her “What is going to happen to us?’ she demanded. “God knows, signorina. These men |look upon Signor Pug as their heredi- A man was fussing over the engine | tary enemy. He is the personification rible! Senate hears about this! ‘hey'll send down an army and a fleet ané blow this damned little country out of the sea! Whereupon Mr. Blanchard was prod- ded with the butt end of a rifle and told in colorful Spanish to hold his tongue. He was ulso told, but lost the gist of the telling, thut he was the l the bafflink | cleventh son of a degenerate pig. ai despised Yank, an enemy of the peo- ple, and a bad coin. To be called & {bud coin in Magella is to taste the dregs of insult. This knowledge, at least, Mr. Blanchard was spared. He gulped a cup of coffee, groaned, und stretched himself full length on the ground, 100 exhausted to care wheth- er he was false currency or not. Rita looked at him and smiled a twisted little smle. Blanchard of the Great Trunk! “Pug. about enough of this?’ Pug lifted his haggard face from a tinful of the enemy’s coffee. “Sooner or later.” he said quietly, "Il start something.” Presently the two men lay down side by side, surro -ded by a ring of nationalists, who -.cpt, their gaudy ponch . on that side of the pocket which 7 -1 the canon and ‘he trall. Two rema.ned awake. of these men sat on a rock directly in front of Rita. She stared at his pon- derous shadow silhouetted against a <ky full of blazing stars, He wore a wide-brimmed hat with a chocolate- cream crown. and a rifle lay across his knees. The other watcher sat at the head of the. trafl. Now and then Rita caught sight of the glow of his cigarette—a tiny crimson spot in an immensity of darkne: Farther up the slope the horses stamped and cropped at the sparse grass of these high places. A thin, high harmony of Wait until the United States| I * she said, “haven't we had! wrapped in| One | T had grown suddenly cold. and the wind, sweeping ddwn from the fan- tastic peaks of the qffl'uflnal, howled mournfully as it Tassed over the rim of the canyon. 'The stars fiickered out; the watchful nationalist kicked the embers of the little fiFe anz cuddled in his poncho. Tha swyan who guarded the trall—was erased by the shadows; there was no longer even the glow of his cigarette. “Tll dare,” Rita thought. “I'll try.” The nationalist, with a grunt, lifted his hands from the rifle and felt in his pockets for the making of a cigarette. ow.” Rita said aloud. She snatched the rifle, threw it down’ between Pug and Gonelli. and with a single, violent shove pushed the pa- tionalist forward into the fire. Madness followed. The guard at the head of the trail woke from a trou- bled sleep and with a_howl fired in the wrong direction. The other.lay in the embers and prayed. Pug, catch- ing the rifle, turned it expertly uj the astounded nationalists, wko were | between this surprise and the edge of ternal space. They groaned and #ft- ed ‘their hands heavenward, while Gonelli, flying turough the darkness {like the disembodied spirit of revenge, came into violent contact with the guardian of the trail. and not only deprived him of his gun. but of every ounce of breath in his body. They fell, clasped in each other's arms, and roll- ed down the stony path. Presently | Gonelli cime back. a crestfallen ban- dit_stumbling before him. All of these things happened simul- tancously. For an instant the world was full of oaths, thumps. groans and lexcitement. Then Signor Pug kicked {one of the enemy out of the fire and mad~ oration to the others: and the | Snores rose from the sleeping nation- | alists. Rita _did not sleep. that Pug She was aware They lay between the armed guard and the ;fringe of snoring banditti. She alone at the jeash. . . . If twenty-two years of having her own way had not destroyed in her the essential pualities of her race—fortitude, daring, and the ability to act quickly. If she dared— She lay still, with closed eves, pre- tending sleep. “Then, by imperceptibl inches, what seemed to be hours of . and she | effort, she managed to get behind that | immovable nationalist. He pald no attention to her. At his feet a feeble hands grasped his rifie. He was as silent, as ponderous as a stone idol. “I can’t do it,” Rita thought, shiver- ing. She glanced at Pug. He lay on hi side, facing her. And she saw tha his eyes were not closed: beneath his lids he gazed fixedly at the wakeful nationalist. Gonelll was actually The Neapolitan, he who had | fought for the liberty of Magella, had flung his arms over his head in an attitude of despair. Rita watched hix face—ardent, spirited. scornful—and knew at last that she possessed a heart. She felt it beating, riotous and delicious: an unfamiliar chaos that astounded her. She had no idea who this man was, beyond the fact that he had found her beautiful and had dared to tell her so. He touched her imagination. With frightened leap of her heart she thought am going to love him in spite of myself! A Ma- gellan. A tattered. curly-haired no- body! Romance. Oh, glory! nd Gonelli. for all their; ‘into the harbor. Scarcely a hundred [courage. were quite helpless. “Hombres. you have been outwitted |by a weman. You call Yourselves sol- \diers! The liberator is dead. There s no room in the country for enemies of { peace and prosperity. Por Dios. senores, {you will be the joke of Magelia! Now, | come here—one by one—and give me Buena ! Damn_fine! Now head on d_keep walking until {1 tell you to stop. Gonelli, will vou and |Mr. Blanchard bring that _string of { horses? I'm hurrying on. Tve 2ot a best I girl in Magella. And I'm hankering for ia shave. We'll go straight up the river | bed and through the Indian trail. Soidati® | Avanti The disgruntled nationalists disa; | peared into the blackness of the can { with a faint rattle or spurs and the clat- ¢ small pebbles that bounced be- i fore them down the trail. Mr. Blanch- ard, suddenly galvanized into violent action, started after the horses. Gonelli and Rita had disappeared | Somewhere in that smothering darkness they stood heart to heart. Gonelli was isaying “Your heart beats in tune to { mine,.amore. | And Rita whispered, “I've heard the 1 music of the world at last. When dawn came she was riding by Gonelli's side. Before them Signor Pug sat upon a brisk pony and drove the twenty nationalists toward Magella. Gonelli leaned over and caught Rita's {hand. He pointed, and in the deepeninz glow of that amazing light she saw th- | frail that led toward the future and * she said, and smiled into {down the trail an s ing up the He looked, rubbed his fingers scross hi haven chin, zrinned, and thought “Happy at last. Amen. (Oopyright, 1921.) THEIR HUMAN SIDE BY WILL P. KENNEDY. All the thrills of living on the outlands of civilization with savagery a8 next neighbor, of sleeping in heathen tem- ples, of searching out the hidden treas- ‘| ares of the earth and of being called in “WHAT IS GOING TO HAPPEN TO TSt” SHE DEMANDED. ———— of the hated Yank, the spirit of prog- ress, the symbol of political sanity. They will kill him if they can. They will kill me because I am his friend. You they will hold for ransom, some- where in the hills. ‘Things like this don't happen.” ‘They happen in Magella, signorina.” ‘Why don't you do something?" Gonelli stared down at her with a look of amused admiration. “Why not? Why not, indeed?” He glanced over his shoulder at the picturesque ragamuffin who was prodding him forward with gentle insinuations and pressures. “Signorina, low voice, I have ever seen. I expect to die very shortly—ten minutes or ten hour: is all one! Dying men should have cer- taln privileges. Forgive me, signorina, if T tell you that I loved you when 1 saw you. I am a Neapolitan by birth, a Magellan by choice. We Magellans by Uncle Sam to take charge of provid ing essential materials for the manufac- ture of munitions that won the world war have been experienced by Dr. H. Foster Bain, the new chief of the bureau <f mines. He comes to his job experienced as an executive and as a practical miner in this_country and all over He knows something of how the other governments are handling their busi- ness. He has spent most of the last gix years in mine exploration in Africa and | the far eastern countries, from Siberia | down into India. During the war he was assistant director of the bureau of mines, in particular charge of the raw materials needed for war munition This time last year he was in China. and out In the interior where the travel was by pack trains. They slept in the temples and so got such an intimate ac- quaintance with the heathen gods that he doesn't_think much of their house- Keeping. Once they were o far out in open, and the best camping place was in a graveyard because there were grass the world. | | ascertained that wiil wen 1o ward brompti usual to the government printing offie the publi- cation has been susperded by direc- tion of the joiut committee on print- ing—as an econemy. Now i concur- rent resolution has been put through and about 5,060 of those vest pocket directory rule books will be printe The only change made is that they are to be prepared, published and dis- tributed by the joint committee on printing instead of by the clerk of the House. But they are coming out a month late, * X x ¥ In the midst of his worries ove: the tariff bill to mest unprecedented world conditions, Representative Joseph W. Fordoey of Michigan, chairman of the ways and means com- mittee, amuses his colleagues and vis- itors with many amusing stories and remarks. When he announced that he would issue a statement a blunt and | the wilderness that they slept in lhe‘ and trees. Again, they were getting into a town and couldn’t find a temple to sleep in, s0 they set up their army cots at a wide place in the road. When they started to found the people ga near to witness the ceremony. He crossed the Yangtse 'way up in Colorado. get up in the morning they thered from far and 1 he"satd in 2| the interlor where it flows in & canyon you are the it i like that of e TRNI anyon in e vy He descended in one day | from 10,500 feet above sea level to the river at 2,500 feet, and climbed on the other side next day to 10,00 feet. That night he was tired enough to_sleep. When in Central Africa he visited live for the fun of living. We fight for |a Missouri mining engineer making the joy of fighting. We love for the|copper in a smelter for some Belgian: glory of loving. We die when there is|using natives for the labor. most of no longer honor in living. I will fight {whom had not seen a white man five to live, to love you. and to win you.{years before, and where the country Ebbene was so wild that they heard the lions don't know what ebbene means,” |roar regularly at night. One night Rl‘llasald. ut T grasp the plot.” the lions showed their contempt for And, be it frankly said, she smiled|the local authorities by coming into ardent sun that po sword. Yet he busied himself with he engine.-. . . Was he a Magel- lan? An Jtalian? She looked away from him and watched the cit No one was visible: beneath the i Inuble row of clipped trees along the Esplanade. There were no lights in tastic and incredible mountain shapes, developed substance, color, realit: Rita, standing in the narrow bow of the Rough Rider, saw the city of Ma- gella come into focus—first a blur of | white, then opaque squares against background of tropic green, then dis- tinguishable houses—the twin campa- night was decently finished, and :'g?fi |n‘ the heavens until the stars came out. There was no shade any- where during those burning, intolerable days. Rita lay in her stuffy cabin and fanned herself and thought of i New York—New York wrapped in snow Mr. ard sat in his shirt sleeves in the ‘STHE 3 ADMITTED. Siwenty-fifth story of a bullding near | Mowling Green. From the windows he eould see the harbor. that gateway 40 adventurous dreams. Ships came n- from southern seas. Ships sailed ‘out again, bound for the four quarters of a delectable globe. The men who Sailed In them knew other horizons | than the pinnacles d towers of New | York. ‘Perhape,” Mr. Blanchard thought.!clamorous as the kieking of the frivo-|ceeded in buil Mooking out of his office window a the complicated activity of the harbor —“perhaps if I take Rita away, she will acquire a prospective. She has her nose pressed on the Manhat- plate-glass pane—" He reached for the telephone and alled Hanover six million. Two ocks away. slung aloft in another wilt and marble skyscraper, a bell Jangled sharply. And presently Mr. Hlanchard was grinning into the mouthplece of the telephone and opening his heart to the senior part- ner of the Fairchild Company. _“This you, Fairchild? Blanchard. 1 am iIn troubie and need your help. Not financlal—human. It's Rita. She isn't Thappy. Nothing I can put my finger on, you understand—she makes all the motlons, but she does ané. If I hadn't been a business de- bauches, I would have seen it long, ago. She seems to_tnink that the day 3 lost fn which she has not danced sl | ours in a badly ventilated room full of idlers and cigarette smoke. She :pretends to like it, but I know better. ta is at heart as sound and as fresh as she ever was. Only she has acquir- &8 some astounding notions. Ro- i elity. devotion, idealism, and other id-Victorian virtues. If Rita's mother | ‘Were alive, Rita would not be dis- gainful of the homely moralities. 1 ‘have allowed her to listen too long 10 the piping of the saxophone. Mr. Fairchild chuckled. “New York's| to blame,” he said. 'This city is rong meat for the young. You've got o' be a fool or a worlding to keep Jyeur balance.” ; * % ¥ * A4 R. FATRCHILD'S time being worth -~ @bout fifteen hundred dollsrn.a TRIP WILL BE FLAVORED WITH “ARENT YOU PAPRIKA,” BLANCHARD AFRAID TO GOM™ Nonsense.” Rita kissed him and spied the tickets—as he had intended that she should. “What have yeou got there?’ ickets. New York to Rio.” “Who's going?” “You and I There was a short silence, when it seemed to Mr. Blanchard that he could hear the beating of his heart, loud and lous clock. Rita was motionless, with her cheek against her father's hair. ‘Nonsense!” she said, after 3 mo- ment. “I can’t go anywhere! You've no idea how busy 1 am. He spoke dryly: “You seem to be— very busy.” He put the tickets in his pocket and stood up. “I'm sorry, Rita. “What are. you doing in Rle?” “I'm not_going there. Farther—to Magella. You remember Pug Fair- child? . “Yes. Blanch: meager shelt when Rita ven! c of air, she saw him playing three dark gentlemen in greasy ther ! ngrh:;;!;'cmm mines lay behind the ecity of Magella in the cindery heart of the Santa Chfl;tlflln m:‘:::l‘v:r‘:; ital had flung e m in the campagna across the range, , northward to the on the other side thward” o, the Concordian frontier. capital, pouring into the national treas- ury via old man Fairchild and Bowling een, New York, had not only ‘brought Magella before the eyes of the ‘world, but had paved the way for spectacu lar future. Old man Fairchild’s son, armed with Yankee faith in the in- vincibility of right, had not only suc- ding the railway, but had kept the opposing political parties from flying at one another’s throats. The royalists, strongly proppéd “and reinforced by American dollars, fa- vored the Fairchild company. = The nationalists, opposed by nature to law and order, bit around the edges of the peaceful administration, looking for an easy way in. e Administering Magella was like see- ing to the moral and physical welfare of Babeldom. There were perhaps a dozen pure-blooded Magellans, in the city—men who claimed to be descended r of the deckhouse. Once, o tured on deck for a breath cards with ponchos. nili of the cathedral, the dome of the Teatro Nazionale, the vast, semi-cir- cular wall of the Arena Goldoni. When the Rough Rider slipped around the Capo headland and en- tered the harbor it became evident that all was not well in Magella. The sound of rifle fire was distinctly audible—sharp and dry as a stick drawn along a picket fence. Now and again a puff of white smoke blossomed in the hills, and those on board the Rough Rider heard the dull explosion of big guns. A coast steamer had gone ashore at the harbor's mouth like a stranded whale. *And as the Rough Rider passed, a crackle of rifles broke out on the steamer’s deck. Rita become aware of a faint singing above her head..She heard some one shouting: “Out of the way! They are firing at us!" “Incredible.” she thought, and stayed where she .was., Looking toward the city, she saw men stagger, crumple. and. fall. She saw the whole side of a house collapse and become a flcating cloud of yellow dust. “So this is Magella!” she panted. ““Are they staging a fight for our benefit, or s it real” 3 Mr. Blanchard groaned. “Real” He pointed. ‘‘Look! Some one’s coming out in a launch. Rita looked. Her cheeks were flam- “He has finished his railway and I|from Spaniards who came to the little | ing, her eyes brilliant. And her heart, going down to open it. A job like-| white city with the dawn of the new |her lackadaisical heart, skipped every!pug, 1y to be flavored with the paprike of | world, bringing jewel-incrusted cruci- | other beat. She saw *a launch put off adventur: “Why ? fixes, saddles made of silver, coins of the reign of Phillip, {from shore and head straight for the and hope -beyond ! drifting Rough Rider. An American flag{ gistinguished guest “They are going to have a revelu-|{he dreams of man. This handful of i rattled at the stern, and Rita saw a man self-respecting element.” Rita slid to her feet and stretched her pretty arms over her head. “Aren’t you afraid to take me?" “Aren’t you afraid to go?™ She laughted. “No!" * % * % R. BLANCHARD tyrned away to 1\ hide the triumph in his eyes. He ance is out of date, along with fi-|ynew if she had sald “Nonsense!" |pie—racial again he would have lost his temper; he might even have slapped her—and | the thought appalled him. After all, she owed him something. She spent his money with reckless prodigality and’gave nothing in return for it. Mr. Blanchard was no fool; he knew that behind every parasite there is a bank account—he had been to blame. Ten thousand a year for ball gown: Five thousand for horses and motors! Heaven knew what else she expected. | view. But old man Fairchid'sssen— ting position behind the deckhouse and | ors. They lived in grilled houses facing the Plazza Indepenenza. or. the fashionable Esplanade. - For the fest, Magella was biracial and bilingual. A Spanish-Italian mot- ley trod the narrow streets, bare- footed and wearing for shelter from the acorching sun enormous -straw hats with conical crowns. The rail- way had brought about a social mifnce flotsam from the ‘four corners of the glebe drifted ifito the city in the wake of industry—Chinese, Germans, negroes from Louisiana-and Alabama, Englishmen, Japanese. : The nationalists recruited malcontents from this volatile element,” prodded them with anti-American tirddes, threw the gold dust of the Chrigtiihas into their eyes, and formed an army. The royalist forces: were very Wéll drilled; when miarching in holidsy D rades they flashed and glittered -and meneuvered with all the spectacular elegance of West Point cadets on-ré- n't deceive |tion down there—bandits versus the|gristocrats had grown gray with hon-{standing upright in the bow, a target for every rifle along the Esplanade. He waved, and as the launch came along- side Rita caught sight of his face. ‘Pug Fairchild! He came up the Rough Rider’s side ladder, haggard, splattered with the mud of Magella'and the “blood of Ma- gellans, ~ barefootéd, bareheaded and laughing. and huried questions. +¥It's all over,” he shouted, “Finit The revelution has happened ‘and has failed. We drove the main forces out two hours ago. Cammarillo is dead. saw him die. President Diego and Miss Di are at the consulate. McCarthy is helding ti mines. ‘And the royalist' comic opera forces are now engaged in is hands over-his dust-begrimed -face. ‘Por Dios, senores, a wonderful fight! ‘Where -is_Mr. Blanchard? We had a wire ten days ago—" Mr. Blanchard rose from his squat- and lay on her side, half oyt of water, | The crew of the Roughi| Rider plucked him off the side ladder. cleaning up the water-front - streets.! _He' stretched, grinned happhy and- ran| the shuttered houses. ignor Pug.” Gonelli s: e are victorious! Viva Magella! ‘Are you sure,” Mr. Blanchard asked in an unsteady voice, “that it is quite safe to go ashore?" “There fsn't a nationalist in the city,” Pug assured him. “If you like, T'll take you to the consulate. The launch slid smoothly toward Ithe wharves and jetties of the com- | pany’s property at the extreme narth- ern end of the Esplanade. Darkness, complete and baffling, shut down on {the city. Gonelli cut off the engine and the little craft drifted into the shadows through a narrow way be- tween fishing boats and small freight- ers lying at anchor. A distraught barking of dogs broke out on shore. A man's voice shrieked once: “Lib ertal” Then all was still again. The launch grated against an Rita could see nothing of sheds and 1 Lvisible jetty. save the bulky outlines storehouses, But Pug got a foothol on. the slippery landing steps and gave his arm to father and daughter. They stumbled up to the wharf level, onelli close behin GO e ik this” Mr. Blanchard said sharply. “lf anything should happen to us—' it lh‘ & There is no explaining the compli- cated activities of destiny. It just happened that the bouvant Signor flushed with victory, Broggy with fatigue, an: #s, had brought Magella's e ihed ashore at the Destiny, not !ll”sfied t the show was OVer, staged an :‘x':‘:'lcumnx ‘befgre. me!lpiflrlcllly king, flying home to roos Pen o C: mmarillo's na.ionalists had eluded the mounted royalists in the dusty melee on the Esplanade, and, taking advantage of the thickening twilight, had hidden themselves in a tangle of freight on the company’s wharves.. None of these men had any idea that .Cammarillo was dead. He had fallen in the Via della Pace, not 2 hundred yards from the American ORIt ey heard Mr. Blanchard's voice, coming out of the darkness like 8 fretful echo, they wriggled for- ward on hands and knees, obeying the inaudible command of the dead leader, jumped up swiftly and, with a single, noiseless, expert motion, surrounded the three men and the girl. Pug and Gomelli had n | wrong_place. in-¢ d blinded by the sud-! inte Gonelli's eyes. They were met on the beach by the tem nationalists. The ten had. by som¥ phscure ‘political sum in.arith- metje,-become twenty. And thefe were téthered in the meager shadow of the'cocoanut palms. = Pug smiled at Rita. *“They are tak- ing us to Cammarillo’s hacienda,” he sald. “Try to look pleased” always ride before bre Rita laughed. aktan The way led across a narrow pla- teau. a place of palms and fruit trees, of deep torrents rushing between lush banks to the sea. of dense vegetation, brilliant flowers and sudden open stretches drenched with sun. twenty nationalists divided themselves and guarded their prisoners with' en- thusiasm. Gonelli rode at Rita's side. He talk- ed to her of life, of sunshine, of youth d| i and' the precious certainty, of,Jove. told her of Magella—the great Lk tains and the plains. He spoke'to hef, j with gentle insistence, of herself. i “You are an American. Yet vou speak to me in the language of my | people—with your eyes. You are beau- tiful. You have been in my dreams al- ways—you have come with your long {brown hair spread over your shoul- 1 ders, with whispers that were just for me. You are straight and flexible and swaying as the stem of a young bam- boo. You have stirred my heart.” : “In New York.,” Rita said, “no one ®ays things like that unless there is a calcium moon and slow fnusie.” Tn Magella.” Gonelif wered, “we say things like that whéfi we love.” ‘You love easily.” *We are not subject to mean hesita- tions and fears.” At noon they haited in the ve shadow of the Christinas at the mollx of & narrow gorge through which some estuary of the Marias river poured into the plain. A fire was lighted and the hungry prisoners were; given coffee and bread. Afterward they mounted again- and. splashed through the gorge to the river bed beyond——that fabulous floor of pink sand at the base of the Christinas. made . * Kk ok X% THAT night the nationalis camp two thousand feet above the river fh a scooped-out pockést shel- 0 idea who |tered from. the wind. Mr. Blanchard | who have was “who in -the sitent scuffle which | groaned- like a wounded man when mothering black- ook place in the took plac Plack- ness of that unfamiliar place. ail black—sky, earth. sea—and to | moved by pain and fury. have fired into the pressing bodies speech, they lifted him from his hdrse, and, to reckless he.shouted: “Outrageous! Hor- town and carrying off a policeman who had gone to sleep on the steps of‘\!he cdommln;'lnl_ o‘l n'olllco‘ dfu round the ‘Inines it Wgs.80, % {ul that Dr.dB!“Inmwenl lg‘-.:l‘\ s ea parties and Tenhis matclis, TAAY! ing by automobile, and h &:13‘:_.1- and well served dinners at thé-local’ club. That.sharp contrast betwéen ¢lvilization and savagery, Dr. Bdin grows to be an old story in the life of the mining engineer. * % Xk % Representative Richard N. Elliott of Indiana—President Harding and his other many frfends call him “Dicl Fhe | boasts that his district is the only one | represented in ngress that has a nickname—"“The Old Burnt District —and that it harbors more singing Quakers than anyv other community in the entire United States. It also is fa mous for Fountain City, the principal station of the underground railroad of civil war days. The house in which Eliza, heroine of “Uncle Tom's Cabi took refuge is still standing, Repre- sentative Elliott says. There are two stories as to why the Eiliott district got its nickname— one that after a spirited election a big bonfire was started into which the victors threw the plug hats of their adversaries; the other that in the early days, when the votes in a na- tional election were being canvassed in Philadelphia, the returns: from: this district were late owing to poer traveling facilities and the fact that theére had been secrious forest fires— then some one said, “Wait till the Old Burnt District is heard from.” 3 kX Some one is always starting some reform at the Capitol which causes a lot of bother. then' some small change in procedure—and then things go on again just about as be- fore. . Here’s an illustration: For some twenty years the clerk of the House, under a requisition, has been getting printed copies of a neéat vest- pocket Congressional Directory, which carries the rules of procedure in the Hou! This usually comes out about » month before the big Congressional directory in which are the blogra- phies of the membera. This mession the vest pocket directories have not been forthcoming, and the members learned to depend .upon them have been asking “Why?" ey are especially desirable this session. because they would be of the utmost wvalie to the. unprecedentedly large Dumber of new .members. 1§ has been Amuses His Collexues Wit Stories. Humorous hu ;xa-tkl w" s 11 <4 part.of-wisdom 0 “keep tf short and snappy.” “Uncle Joe” opined, lflpu*ply. that he'd have to do about as ‘he did at a recent din ner. There be warped them that he would take his guidance from the dress of the modern woman and that his speech wonld be “Just enough to cover the subject aud short enough to be interesting. IR E The things that members of Con- gress are asked £6 do both in letters and by visitors ‘area sometimes most surprising. Representative E. Hart Fenn, & new member and old news- paper writer +from - Connecticut, thought it would. be pretty hard for y one to give him-& surprise. Then along came a man who was aggrieved because a dentist-had pulied out the wrong teeth and asked Representa- tive Fenn to get them back for him, or damages. He came to Representa- tive Fenn because he represents a district that contalns an insurance ecompany that insures dentists against suits brought against them by dis- satisfied patients.” Landing of Columbus. Forg four cepturies there have been dispute and disagreement as to the first landing place of Columbus in the new world. It is known that he landed on one of the Bahama islands, but in that widely scattered group there are thirty-six pleces of land, large enough to be classified as islands, and about 700 “cays” or “keys,” like those which lie along the Florida coast, and in some cases tty well out to sea. i'l‘haeufly hatratives have it that Co- i suggested lumbus landed at or on a place which the native Indians called Guanahani, and which the Spaniards named Sa Salvador, or Holy tsfl‘"l:r‘dl et has been given as the landin Columbus and so has Watling Island. Attwood's Key or Samana has been chosen by some as the place which Columbus called San Salvador, and other investigators ‘who ma termed au- thorities have picked 7T Island, and others have chosen the Island of Mari-