Lakeland Evening Telegram Newspaper, February 4, 1914, Page 6

) ¢ 27T YOUR GASOLINE OIL and ATTERIES at the FLECTRIC 4! SHEFT& METAL SHOP \ C emaranasramar.a TH0S. L. CARDWEL! Phone 233 Lakeland, Fla B HBBBBBE 6o i DBt B Db BB OE el b e o 3 e ? | N | v rite that letter. " At this Period use all Safe- guards for Comfort and Well Being The best and most practicable of these ig ice"OUR ICE. It preserves your food, conserves your health, increases your pleasure, does you good in ways too numerous to mention—and all for a very little money. Instead of decreasing your taking of ice on the cool days which will be occasionally sandwiched between the warm ones, resolve right now that every day is a full ice day for you. And stick to that COUPON BOOK of ours. It is your consistent, per sistent SAVER. Lakeland lce Company Phone 26 Long Lifeof Linen that i» just what we are giving {s what you are looking for and alony with good laundry work. Try us. < Lakelana *Steam Laundr Wesh Xatu [} Praxe (B2 Loa St D s DR SR S S L MAYES GROCERY' C0. i “Reduce the cost of living,” our motto for nineteen fourteen feed, Wilson-Toomer Fertilizers, all kinds of sh * ving crates and baskets. oes, etc., at reduced 2OBOBOPOPOFOBOFOPUPIBOFTPOBOROPD FOSOSCHOS TS TS OP OSSOSO P FOSOBOHOE and C pr ricee Mayes Grocery Co. L THE PHOENIX Christmas. ] Call again_during 1914, bring a friend. = L E. PEACOCK. .. N M B LT THE EVENING TELEGRAM, LAKELAND, FLA., FEB. 4, 1914. NEVER T00 LATE By H. M. EGBERT. Jim Washington, the porter, went to the door of his car. Upon the plat- form of the next car another porter stood, snatching a few inhalations from a cigarette. “Howdy, Joe,” said Jim. “Your car pretty full?” Joe drew in a cloud and flung the stump away. ‘“Mostly women,” he said. “How's yours?” “Tolerable,” Jim answered. “Say, Joe, there’s a girl in Section 2 been crying ever since I come on at Spring- fleld. I reckon she left her fellow be- hind. Well, I reckon business will be | H ¥ 3 Will scll staple groceries, hay, % : ; 5 4 < ; Burton i 4 * H ! ‘ i Q * H LAKELAND, FLORIDA § 3 e Lakeland's leading] Barb Shop wish you atla werr, | thank you for 1913 patronage. MANAGER The PHOENIX BARBER SHOP better next month, when the regular crowd starts north.” Only the porter had observed the girl in Sectlon 2, for she was at the end of the car. Hilda Mercer opened her suit-case and pushed her damp bandkerchief into its bulging con- tents; she drew out a clean one, a powder puff, and a pad with a little pencil attached, and began to write. “I should not have left you if you had been frank with me, Will,” she! wrote. “What I cannot forgive is—" She stopped and stared out into the driving rain. “It was because I al- ways believed in you,” she continued. But the letter was tear-spotted, and she tore it into strips and watched them flutter out into the storm. They followed the car awhile, a flying pack of haunting memories. She would not She had written one, and Will would find it when he returned to New York the following morning at eight o’clock. Two men were seated in the smok- .| ing car. One was about five and thirty years of age; he might have been an accountant or bank cashier, , | for he had the alert air of one who', is in the deadly struggle of commer- cial life. The other lolled heavily in his seat, scanning the first man with furtive’ persistence. Suddenly he leaned forward, a curious smile upon his mouth. “Aren’t you the paying teller of the Merchants’ and Brokers’ over in Brooklyn?” he inquired. “I ask be- The Line Was Strewn With ments of the Wreck. cause you said it was a pity there was no way of catching a return train to New York by tomorrow morning. I thought maybe you were on a week- end vacation. I'm sure I've got you right. My name’s Phil Graves. 1 used to have an account with you.” The other seemed stunned by the recognition. “I used—to be there,” he answered, his voice quavering slightly. He wanted to go out, but 4 | telt that the other suspected him of 5 something. It seemed hours before € [ his acquaintance rose, -with a nod, and that same curious smile. Then % | he made his way back to Section 3, 5 opposite the girl. $| Hilda started and looked round at ¢ | him. Their eyes met, and the teller E rose up and stood before her. 5 “Don’'t you remember me, Mrs. § | Mercer?” he asked, smiling forlornly. " Her eyes lit up. “It's you. Alfred Burton!” Burton sat down beside her. “I heard about your marriage five months ago,” he said. “I meant to write to Will Mercer and congratu- late him—but I wasn't man enough.” “I wish you had,” she answered. “We should have been so glad to have welcomed you to our home.” “Will's a fine, lucky fellow,” said . “He's on the train, isn't he? You're not traveling alone?” “Yes,” she answered. “I'm making a little holiday jaunt—a visit, I mean.” She felt her eyes flooding with tears again. She looked at Bur- ton in defiant, helpless loyalty to Will. “Hilda, there's something wrong | between Will Mercer and you,” said Burton. “You're running away. | You're running away to think, just as | you used to do. You musn't think, | Ihut act. I want you to turn right round at Brattleboro and g0 back to him. There isn't a finer man ]ivingl | than Win Mercer.” “I know there isn't!” she answered impetuously, and then she saw how hideously wrong she had been. It was not Will from whom she was running away, but her own disconient; and she was carrying it in her heart, just as she would always carry it. “It's too late now,” she answered dismally, and looked out into the rain | again, ' Frag- PAGE SIX Will got home. i from Brattleboro till morning. She had made sure of that before she started in case her resolution weak- ened. He would discover the letter that she had left; if she went back ! be would forgive her, but things would never be the same. ' She was crying hysterically. Bur- ton let her hand fall and stared at the cushions of the seat opposite. He about himself? He, tco, must be back by Monday morning or become a fugi- tive. - Fate seemed to have lain in wait for him. Two people had recog- nized him in the same car, and he had thought never to be recognized again. When Hilda married Will Mercer it seemed that all the goodness had gone out of his life; he had plunged into dissipation and changed com- pletely; now, after seeing Hilda, every point of vision was as it had always been, and he looked upon his crime as something unbelievable. He swung round in his seat sud- denly. “Rilda,” he said, “I'm running away too. I have six thousand dol- | lars in my pocket, that doesn’t belong to me.” She looked at him in bewilderment. “There isn’t any train,” she gasped, tand Burton felt that he was no crim- | inal i Ler eyes, but only a man " caught in the same fatal net as her- self. The train from Brattleboro { would not reach New York until nine 'on the Monday morning. Will would be home before she got there, and his bank open. . . . A jar shook them in their seats, a | whistle shrilled, and the train ground its way to a standstill. Outside peo- - ple were shouting and the darkmess | began to be lit up by a flare of fire. Jim Washington’s frightened face ap- peared at the door, and instantly people were pushing toward the en- trance. They heard the cries. “The down nin wrecked! She’s catching fire! Saved ourselves by six inches!” Bur- ton was outside, one of the crowd that surged about a line of halted | cars, two of which lay on their sides amid a debris of wreckage. In front 'the engine puffed and screamed, like the hend of a dismembered centipede in aspect. The passengers in the two cars seemed to have escaped by a miracle. Nobody was hurt—and the line was strewn with fragments from the wreck. Hours seemed to pass. The passen- gers on both trains waited, their num- bers augmented by gathering country- men. It was evident that the line would have to be cleared before the up-train could move. As for the down-train, a jacking crew would have to place her on the metals again. | At intervals rumors of help arrived, but these proved vain. Burton had not spoken to Hilda Mercer. He was paralyzed by this slow flight of the hours that brought each nearer to the catastrophe of the 'morning. He did not even notice the arrival of the wrecking train till somebody tuched his shoulder. Then he looked up to see Jim standing ‘over him. | “We're going on in five minutes, boss,” said the darkey. L Burton got up unsteadily. “I'm not | going on,” he muttered. “It's all right, boss,” replied the porter. “The line's clear and the down-train's getting ready to start. She'll reach New York by midnight. We'll both have to make up time.” “New York!" cried Burton, and i €udlenly the iniracle was made clear to hin. He ran into the car. Hilda ,I\mrmr was seated in her section; her head dropped as theugh she were dozing. Burton snatched up her suit- case. “Hilda!” he cried, “we're going 'back—going home. That train's go- ing to make New York by midnight. I Hurry! We've both got our chance | to make amendment.” She saw the vision that he saw, and her heart leaped in measureless contentment. A chance to try again! | If they had not met, if they. had mnot been tempted, they would never have known the happiness that comes from accepting life. | Burton helped her aboard the down- | train. He took her suit-case and placed it upon a seat, and they sat down together. As they did so Bur- ton saw the man in the up-train star- | ing out of the window. He turned to! Hilda. “We're going to make the most of life now,” he whispered. “And I'm I ze'ng to call on you and Will some Jay.” She leaned back happily; and then | it was he realized that his love had ' not proved vain, even though it had failed. (Copyright, 1913, by W. G. Chapman.) Cody's Quick Come-Back. The late Col. Samuel F. Cody, Eng- land’s once successful aviator, was an American, and Cody in his youth led an eventful life as showman, sharp- shooter, circus tumbler and what not. Cody once exhibited, as a side-show ! feature of a circus, a Tartary wild Lorse. “Here you are, gents,” he shout- | ed from his side-show platform. “Here You are—the only genuine wild horse of Tartary. A purse of $10 is offered to anybody who can stick on his back.” There were no aspirants for the purse, and Cody continued: | “If any gentleman here can stick on his back 30 seconds I'l give him the| $10 purse and the wild horse besides, | by jingo. The animal's unridable. I've had years of equestrian practice, ! and he shakes me off in 10 seconds.” “Ever try gittin’ inside "im?” shout- ed a yokel. “Yes, I've tried that, friend,” Cody replied, “but his mouth ain’t as big as yours."—Washington Star. ) L. Ay There was no trainl had urged her to go back, but whatl # 20000 PICOS0OL¢: T.L. CARLETO SANITARY PLUMBING TINNING and SHE ET[METAL WOF, GasfFitting, Sewer Work, Driven Wells and|Purps . . . . « .. COR. N. Y, AVE ard Main ST. PHON; LAKELAND @ FLCF @ HORRCTROAOHOROROACHCACA S JRROROFIRTICLC 3R TR’ S0 O BCRORD CROTHIBCHORON X - I W > g g Brew + G OOMMIMRER.. o " YOU ARE THINKING OF BUILDING. : Ry, MARSHALL & SANDER e The 0id Rcliable Contr: ctors Whc have bgtn buildirg houses in Lakeland for yea.,,,'*‘1 whko neyer "FELL 'OWN' or failed to give satisfact 3 All classes of huildirgs cortiacied tor, The mar) reslder.ces built by this urm are evidgnces of their abi make good ] Ci MARSHALL & SANDERS Pnone 228 Blue f PO COPOFOOHDEQPO P SOROMPOPO ! | 3 1 W. EISKE JOHNSO: § Room 17 Kentucky Bldg. . REAL ESTATE AND LOANS CITY AND SUBURBAN PROPERTY A SPECIALTY l‘ iy It you want ta buy property we have it for sale; if you . o sell property we nave customers, or can get them for you. out vour list and seo me today. Wmmmm it i i The Cost of Living tis Gred ; ) ! F YOU KNov{”‘ Unless You Know Where to 8 R —— The selection will be the best The variety unmatched' The quality unsurpassed ¢ The'price the lowest r All these yofi find at our store ;‘ Just trade with us 4 This settles the question cf livis Best Lutter, per pound........... Sugar, 17 pounds ......... cevtesan Cottoiene, 10 pound pails........... Cottolene, 5 pound pails.......... 4 pounds Snowdrift Lard. * Snowdrift, 10 pound pails 1 00000000000 680060000 s0eslid 3 cans family sizse Cream ©000000 0000000 cessorPsocannn 6 cans baby eize Cream. B I R 1-2 barrel DOBE BIOUF s v oo s vsnnviavsonsns 12 pounds vest Flour.... Octogon Soap, 6 for........ * tsecessseiinas Ground Coffee, per pound. L e Y I e © gallons Kerosene. . . SACENCLHVIRNEIES SRV OB a6 o E. 6. TWEEDELI [veningTelegram10ca Wt