Lakeland Evening Telegram Newspaper, April 29, 1914, Page 8

HELD FOR R I RANSTH, By CLARA INEZ DEACON. : &I'wo persons in the world knew just how mean old John Beckworth was. | They were his wife and son. The wife was a humble little woman who had never dared to argue or to differ, and whose existence was scarce- ly suspected by the world. The son, David, had grown up in | such a mixture that his face carried the look of a man puzzled to know why he was here on earth at all. As a child he had been awed and frightened by his father. As a youth he had | been made to feel that he was in the way. At the age of eighteen he was sent away to school. He was a gawk and an ignoramus. For the first six months he was the butt of the school. Tlhon he began to pick up and aston- i ad everyone. 0ld John Beckworth passed as an er- ratic. Many a man's meanness has been covered up under that term. He was a note-shaver and a money-lender, and he spared no debtor. There were two or three business men with whom he wanted to stand well, and as they had spoken of the son he sent him to school. At the same time his table was so meager that his wife went about half-starved. After two years David was ordered home and the father said “It {s time you began earning your own living.” “] am willing to,” was the reply. “Hornaday will take you on at his grocyry at five dollars a week. You will Jay me $4.50 of that for board.” Like the mother, the son had never disputed a matter with his father. He did not begin now. With only a dol- lar or two in his pocket he walked out of the house and faced the world. In the two years he had acquired self- confidence. His father would have told him that without his aid he must wander the streets and starve. The young man did neither. He secured a fairly good position almost at once, tmproved it, and it was a year before he saw his father again. When he visited his mother it was secretly. He came back one evening to see his fa- ther. “There are two things I wish to ad- vise with you about. Firstly, it you can spare me $2,000, I can buy into a business that is making money, and shall ask no more of you,” he sald. “Not a penny!" firmly replied the father. “You will not even lend It to me?” “I will not!” “Secondly, I am in love with and en- gaged to a nice young girl, and I thought I ought to tell you that we are soon to be married.” “Why should you have come here to tell me that?” “Bosonca vou are my father.” "Umph!” % “Will you attend the wedding?” “I will not!” “Will you permit mother to? “T will not!” David Beckworth was married a few weeks later. Old John Beckworth occupied as an office a ramshackle old shanty in 8 neighborhood none too reputable. He did it to save rent. As it was a matter of common gossip that he always had a large sum of money with him and that he was in his office until a late hour In the evening, he had been warned over and over again that & plot would be hatched against him. He pald not the slightest heed to the warnings, and at length he was caught. One evening as the old man sat at his desk with his back to the door & man sneaked in and threw a cloth sat- urated with chloroform over his head. When the victim recovered his wits he was not only lying on the floor of an empty house, but was tled down and gagged. He had been taken out | of the back door of his office and into ' the back door of a cottage facing the other street. Young Beckworth was boarding when married, and after a few weeks the question of keeping house came up. It was the wife that must do the house-hunting. In her wanderings she came upon a cottage to please her, and got the key from the agent to inspect the place. In one of the bedrooms she discov- ered old John Beckworth. It was the day after he had been kidnaped, and he had not been reported missing yet. She had seen him & few times and rec- ognised him at once. She had also learned from her husband about his meanness. Her first thought was to rush out and give the alarm. Her second was to have a little talk first. The old man had had a pretty hard time of it since recovering consclous- ness. As it happened, he had only about a hundred dollars in his pocket when made captive, and this was far from satisfying the hopes of his cap- tors, of whom there were three. They wanted his bank check for $10,000. “You don't get it for even a dollar!* was his reply. They lighted a candle and burned his feet, but he would not'give in. They bent two of his fingers back, but still he defied them. They used him cruelly in various ways for two or three hours, and then left the house with the threat to re- turn at night and kill him if he did not give up. He had passed many hours bound and gagged when the young wife discovered him. He rec- ognized her, as she did him, and the first words he uttered as she removed the gag were: “This is some of your work—yours and David's!” “Another speech like that and 1 will replace the gag!” she replied. “Then who did do it?” S ————————— THE EVENING TELBGRAM, LAKELAND, FLA., APRIL 29, 1914. I came here to rent the place and found you thus.” “How do I know? ‘ ‘Release me at once!” “I will not!” The old man tried to shout, but his voice was gone. He had struggled against his bonds for hours and learned that it was useless. “Well, how much ransom do you want? he finally asked. “Not a cent, and you know it! Da- vid has told me what a mean and unnatural father you have always been, and how you have been a hog and a tyrant to vour wife. Do you glory in being a hated man, Mr. Beck- worth?" “Who hates me?" “Everybody that knows you well. There isn't a man in this city you can call your friend. Don't you know the children run after you and call you names?"’ “They mumbled. “And what ought to be done with you? You have tried your best to spoil the lives of vonr wife and son. You have turned cick husbands out on You have evicted widows and orphans. Your want of mercy has caused at least two suicides. No one has ever injured you. You have done what you have done because you are & human hyena. You have lost a hundred dollars. If it had been your all there would have been general re- joleing. 1f you had been found dead here nobobdy would have mourned you!” “David has never talked to me a8 you have,” said the old man. “Because you have made him fear and hate you.” “But I sent him to school.” “And every day he was there was & humiliation to him, and you were glad of it. Oh, what a devil a human being can become!” “If I've been a little hard on David I'm sorry for it. If he'd talked up to me mebbe I'd have been different.” “And maybe you were always hoping he would, so that you could find ex- cuse for turning him out of doors.” “If he wants that money yet—" “We wouldn't take a penny from you! No beggar in the street would accept your alms if he knew your mean nature!” “But about the ransom?’ he asked . after a silence. “It {8 this, take a whole day to think things over and see if there is any hope for you. If you conclude that you must continue to be a human hyena if you live, then hang or drown yourself! 1 will now release you.” “If this should get out—" { “You would be ridiculed to the day of your death, and everybody would say that it served your right I shall not even tell David about it.” When old John Beckworth reached home after an absence of 20 hours, in which his wite had worried herself almost 111, she dared to look at him {pterroeatively for the first time in ought to be arrested!™ he the streets. OXFORD RELAY TEAM INVADES AMERICA e e e—— — Four of the best runners of Oxford university, England, have sailed for America to compete with the Unive: sity of Pennsylvania in a relay race of four miles. A. N. 8. Jackson, G. M. Sproule, D. N. Gaussen and N. S. Taylor. AAAAAAAAAAAAAA her life. “] had to go out of town on busi- ness,” he sald as he kissed her. The old man kept to his promise. For a whole day he was reviewing his deeds, and there were immediate re- sults. He owned a much better cot- | tage than the one in which he had | been held to ransom, and within 8| week it had been deeded to David.and , his wife and partly furnished. Then he presented himself at their rooms and sald: | “David, I've been chasing some of the meanness out of my system. It came hard, but T did it. You can have | all the money you want to go into business!” “But, father—" [ “And 1 hear that your wife is look- | ing for a cottage to rent.” “I think I found one today,” swered the bride. “Don’t bother with it. Here 1s & deed. to one u_n__brEfl.I‘Lre_-_'nt_L" an- Eyes bulged out and moutns stood open. “And don't forget mother and the old home!” More mouth—more bulge! “And, David,” concluded the father, “i¢ this wife ever starts to give you any advice don't squelch her. It will be worth listening to and obeying!” (Copyright, 1914, by the McClure News- paper Syndicate.) Lord Minto's “Drop It.” The late Lord Minto’s policy of ma king the relations with protected states easier and less rigid was con celved from the moment of his ar rival in India. The very first “file” placed before him related, it is sald, in the case of a maharajah, now dead, who had been putting a Tudor crown on his servants’ liveries, his carriages, his china, and most of his belonsiogs, ——— - = In this photograph the Englishmen, from left to right, Indlan maharajahs are not posed to use the emblems of Bri royalty, and the correspondence o the subject had grown mountainou Lord Minto dealt with the matter i the shortest viceregal “note” on ord. He wrote on the top “Drop it.” Easily Explained. The elite were considerably myl tified when their washerwo! whirled by in a splendid limousin and not a little nettled besides. “Since we do not, as & matter soclal usage, pay our laundry how,” they demanded, with asperi “do you command such luxuries?” “Why, by saving the soap wrap to be sure!” the washerwoman plained in the best of tempar.~Pu e ——————————————— Would you take $10.00 in exchange for $6.50. That is what we are domg ing out $10 00 values and only ask you to pay $6.50. Sale closes May 15th. The FFamous Ostermoor .. i VUDOR PORCH 6 it Shade only.... 8§ ft. Shade only 10 ft. Shade only . —————————————————— $16.50 24x12 per rod. ... 20x 0 per rod... Joxra per rod. ... 30x12 per rod 30x 6 per rod. .. 42x12 per rodys.. 42x 6 per rod... 48x12 per rod 48x 0 per rod... e et et SHADES FENCING. 08 B 08F POt b HOW ABOUT THAT RUG FOR THE PARLOR ox12 Ax. $25.00 Now ... ox12 Tap. $12.50 Now ox12 Velvet $16.00 Now .$18.00 $12.75 CORRUGATED ROOFING 6, 8 10 ft. length, per square ... Prednventory Red Tag Sak 37 22 “* Wire wrapped Rubber Hose, per it.10 1-2¢ Cotton Hoseperifte, s o0 i Rubber Hose, Black, per foot .. LINOLEUMISE YOUR KITCHEN AND SAVE WORK Best peade per vl < iaisdesa i $.55 Medium grade per yd................ $.50 Hurry! Hurry! Before the Stock is all Gone. Lakeland Furniture & HARDWARE Co. Lakeland, Florida Hand- .0 1-2cts .10 ¢ts,