Highland Park Public Library Local Newspapers Site

Highland Park Press, 15 Aug 1929, p. 28

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Far, a trance-while..Mem made a perfect allegory bf helplessness on a.monument. She heard ar voice laughing. with a kind of querrimrex.. clamatibn: "Hello?" A _ The word was as unimportant as could be and it came from. what she had just decreed the :rnoat"utse1ess thing on earth, a. hindsome moving- picture actor. He went on: Rev.'Doctor Steddon. violéntly opposed to what he considers “worldly" things. accepts motion pictures as the cause for much of tho evil of the. pretient day. Troubled with a cough, Rememtrsr goes to pee 7 . A Elwood Fuistnbr, a prior boy. non of the town sot. As Remember and Dr. Bretherick discuss the problem a telephone mange brings the news that Elwood has been killed in an accident. Dr. Emmerich accordingly persuades Remember to go West, her cough Serving as a plausible excuse: to write home of mating and_marrvirttr,a pretended, suitor »~"Mi-. Woodvi0e"--amd later to write her parents announcing her "httattand's" death baton: the birth of her expected child. Unable alone to hear Cher secret. Remember 20a to her mother- with it. . _ Her mother agrees with. the plan of the doctor. Mam-leaves town. On the train Mein accidentally meets Tom Holby, movie star, “traveling with Robina Teele, leading lady in the movies, who ire‘The cynoauge of all eyes. The train comes ‘to-an abrupt halt, a-disaster having been narrowly avoided. and the passengers get out had walk about. ,“I’ve nearly died of thirst in.the desert half a dozen times,” he said; "but there was always a camera or two, a few yards pf? and a club wagon just outside. And theheroine usually came galloping to the res- cue and picked me up in time for the final clinch. I see the heroine, but the grub wagon’s late." Dr. Bretherick, an elderly-physician, 'who is astonished it the plight in which he fhtds her. Pressed by the doctor. Remember ad- mits her unfortunate atmir with The other "trassenkers. ts/ed about, bot Mem went farther" and fgrther. .She wanted to see what was on-the other' side of that butte as much as mankind' has lodged to see théldther sideAd the" moon. . ' When she started back the.cool of the butte’s-shadow made her rest aivhile. The heat and the hypnosis .of: the shimmering sand "trea put her asleep in spite of_heg:_se1f. She awoke with a start. , . Ta The train was moving, a new lo- comotive dragging it and its broken engine. She ran, fell, picked herself up,' limped forward. She was alone in the' wilderness, and the train was already a toy rpnw ning through a gap between ,two lofty buttes. Both- mocked the girl unendurably and 'she stood panting in a suffoc_atiop of fright, her hands plucking at each other's finger nails. Then for the first time Mem under- stood what the desert meant to those who had seen the last burro drop and found the canteen full of dry air. Remember Steddon, a pretty, umnhiati- eated girl, is the daughter-of film“: but mrrrtrw-minded mipitrter in 1 small mid-wat- ern town. Her father. ' Tom Holby laughed at futons-4 his pictures.- _ , NOW GO ON WITH THE STORY 30 Second titstamhent _,i' r yth jk _ _,i,)S0llll,l?,t1'i,fl'a'i"ii, ,,dn -“ 'Remember,' eh? Great! Ro- bina .would have preferred that to the one she chose. e Do you know Robina? V l _ . ' . "Pve seen her.” ‘- F t "On the screen?” _ "On the train." _ J -. "Oh, then' you haven't seen her. That isn't the. real Robina that walks about. That's just a poor, plain, frightened, anxious little thing,' a Cinderella who only] begi-nsvto live when she puts'on her glass slippers. She has to be'so "internally noble all day long that you can hardly blame her fordesting her overworked vir- tues when she's off the lot. I used to be a pretty] decent fellow, too, before I began to be a hero by trade. But now-r-gosh'. how, I love my faults.r When there's no camera on me Pm a mighty mean than." _ “Really?” "Oh,J'rn a fiend. Pm thinkint of playing villains for a while, so that I can. be respiriitabhy at'my own ex- pense outside the factory. But Pm so massed up between my Protea- signal emotions and my. Nrtsonal ones that it's. hard to keep from act- ing, on and off. Now look at this situation. If the camera gang were here Pd know just what to do. Pd be Sir Walter Raleigh in a Stetson and chaps. But since there's just us two here and Ihave you in. my power-or you have. me in your- power-I don't know just how to act. "Wh-what are we gomg to do t" _' "Well, 13m not going to act, any; way,'iis long as there’s ho camera on the job. Let's tit down and wait.” "For what?" . _ _ "'Oh, I guess the train will come back, or another one will come along and we' can flag it in plenty of time. Sit down on this handsome red divan, won't you? I'm Mr. Holby, by the way."- u f T - _ .5 _ A“ "Yes, I know," she sa"sd/ind told him hee name. . _ . ILLUSTRATED BY DONALD 'RILBY a "Are you a heroine or, an adventuress? THE PRESS Burs,h.e preferred to' give poor Hol- by htopinion of him. Mem crept back to her place, shivering with her first experience of stardom and its conspietmutmerm., ' .. It depends on you. Are you a hero- ine or and adv'entttregs'?" . . T "I d6h't uniferstamryou.y i "Aye you an 1htiahd or a vamp?" ffl don't sirealrFireneh.". . ", "Then you must he an onjtutop," heiiid. /'rn'that case I suppose I really ought to play thsr,villain and-,-.. But here comes the train, Gog-gone it! (just 351% were" working up a rear little plot. I hope I haven't com- _prornisediu. If you’re afraid I have, PII have to go back and hide till the next train comes along. Or you can, for I imagine it's' Robina that reyerised the engine, She' prob- ablrmipsed' me' and suspected that I was outhsre ivith/a prettier girl than she is-pardon me Shall I go hide?" . . That was a. chapter in Mem's life. Holby had guessed right. Robina had missed him and when the help- less eontiuetor protested against the alneady late, she pulled the rope sac- rilegé'ot reversing the Limited, her- self. " _ ", _ She knew the signals, having play- ed in a railroad serial, and she soon had the train backing at full speed. She had half suspected that, Tom Holby' hiursi companionjn We desert, and when she looked out and saw him with the pretty chit whose-mag- azine he had picked up, she was tempted to give the signal to go ahead, again. . . “Oh, hot. no! I.couldn’-t think of it. Nobody knows. me. It can't make any difference what they say about "Gosh! what an enviabIe position. Stick to your luck, Miss Steddon. May I help you down Y' '" _ Doctor and ~Mrs.' Galbraith took her hack to her 1odgintrs'and left her. They had no"6bieetton to mor- ing pictures and.attended them often; but Mem did not know this, and she felt like a thief when her worser'solf compelled her better self to a dank dishonesty. Both selves went to the movies. M, . .." , The Reverend Galbraith, paused. but Mem urged _him along, saying, "That'ran old friend I met that she hairestabrvshed the existence of her: Mr. Woodvme.' She Was already un- conseidisslsr" “planting” characters. "His .face locked familiar; but I guess it wasn't." . . Therreason it'looked familiar' was that lithographs of, it were posted isis all ovtr'.ryp,eor,tt Holby was. to" ap- pear therPiitoi picture. ." h -. '-,pirturtthm4iajth" tanned opt to be a joyolis Western woman raised on a ipneh and of a 1ourrand hilafious cordiality. She was "distreestd be- cause she eduld, not take Mam into her osim little home,' but it wasispill- ing oven: with children.' On the way to her boarding house sheenoted mariy of Tom Holby's por- traits. He was not the star of the picture. Robina "Nele was the star. Mem felt a 1ongintfto see this heroic picture, but Mrs. Galbraith would not leave her for a moment, and _ the night was prayer-%eeting night. Mern"ittended the evening devo- tions. There was nothing strange to her in. the drowsy, cozy atmosphere, the sparse company singing hymns and boWing in prayer and finding a mystical comfort' itt,the thought of sins forgiven and in eternal home lw- yond the grave. . A A "Miss Steddcn?" . "Yes." “I am Doctor Galbraith, pastor of the First Church here. Your father telegraphed me to meet you at the train and look after you." "Do you know papa?" "No, but he found my name in the yearbook. " have found a nice' board, ing house for you, and my wife and t will look after you as best we ean." In her desperation, she caught sight again of Tom Holby, who had walked briskly to the head of the train and was" striding back to his car. . A frantic whim led Mem to say, very distinctly, as she 'paftsed" him: T "Good night, Mr. Woodville.l' _Holby could hardly' believe hig eras, but he laughed to himself. "This is faint!" bowed and went on. Mem was struiek violently with the thought, "But what becomes oC5lr. Woodvtlle now?" The train made up so much of its lost' time that it was oriiy two hours la"te when it drew into Tucson. Tum made his "adieuar and left Mem in a whirl. But her faculties went around in the mid panic-of a Pinwheel when a strange, sombre person spoke to her: ( . J, But. Hem was experieiieing an as: tatioe,stttth as she had not kn'ow tr (Continued on next page) Thursday, August tir, 1939 DR. GE . Hours: 9 16 No Office Phone Residence P Thursday, A O. R. SELV 501 State and AUGUS Selvi , IRA A, TStl Larg Rebuildi‘ New. Co Phone Mano Corner Jam Ysi, LOU Jhi7E 1m G 'tite F", PRO A Small Gan: SIN IS 926 Tel

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