Loading...
The Wingham Advance-Times, 1936-04-23, Page 6PAGE SIX V WINGHAM ADVANCE-TIMES Thursday, April 10th, 103^ WOMAN REX BEAC-H “Copyright by Rex Beach” THIRD INSTALMENT isSYNOPSIS: Amos Ethridge found, murdered in a country lane with a crude cross of twigs on his breast and a scented sheet of note paper in his pocket. He was the richest man in the state with power and influence enough to make himself a candidate for Governor. With his death came hints of an unsavory private life, of scandal that might come to light if the murder is investigated too ■closely. . . . Mary Holmes, a former opera singer whose career was wreck­ ed when she lost her voice at the birth of her son, lives in squalor nearest the scene of the crime. . . . on a small chicken farm where she ekes out a poor living and tries to find in drink the forgetfulness of past glories when she was Maria di Nardi, world-renowned opera singer . . . . Gerald Holmes, a talented young art­ ist, is hated and loved by his mother who is embittered because his birth caused the loss of her voice and wrecked her operatic career. He has been befriended by the murdered Eth­ ridge, and is engaged to another of Amos Ethridge’s proteges . . . Hazel Woods, lovely and brilliant young actress, has been helped to success by Ethridge. She lives in a small cot­ tage owned by Ethridge . . . Jacob Riggs, eccentric old-time actor, now a doorman at the theater where Hazel Woods plays, has appointed himself her guardian and lives in a room ov­ er her garage. NOW GO ON WITH THE STORY “You thought I’d be shocked,” she went on after a moment, “but it takes more than—well, it takes something pretty dreadful to shock a girl who has lived the way I’ve had to live. There’s one thing the theater teaches —that's charity. Your, mother, what­ ever she is now, was a brilliant artist riu "her time and we must remember that. In the theater that counts for -a great deal. There are people en­ dowed with such blazing genius that ’’ordinary ties and ordinary conven­ tions don’t, can’t bind them. The fire of it burns away their bonds. Yes, and how can you judge right and wrong? They’re such words. Circum­ stances are so powerful. She told you what price girls sometimes have to pay for success—” “You angel!!” breathed the boy. “It’s only good, clean women like you ! who can be truly charitable.” J “No, no! We’re all pretty much ’ alike. Only, some of us are differ- > ently placed. What we actually do is Thursday night- of so little consequence as against what we are — or what we become. She had no right to stand in your way, of course; that was wicked and cruel; it was hideous of her to tell you this thing; but—how many geni­ uses are quite normal? Any great talent throws the scales off balance.” Gerald had somewhat recovered himself by noxy. Gently he kissed Hazel full upon the lips; quietly, rev­ erently, but with a throbbing earnest­ ness he said: “You’re the truest, sweetest woman I have ever known and you’ve brought back all my faith, all my courage, all my you’ve made a. man of can think charitably of then surely I can. Yes, a wonderful thing, for you’ve made me more ashamed of myself than of her.” • It was late when the lovers man­ aged to tear themselves apart and to exchange the last kiss. For .some time after Jerry had gone Hazel stood where he had left her, gazing meditatively at nothing and with the , faintest pucker between her brows. [She pulled herself together when she j heard a sound in the adjoining room, and inquired: “Is that you, Jacob?” “Yeah! I been waiting till Jerry went home. I wanted to talk to you.” Hazel returned to the dining room. "It's pretty late—” “I know but—there was a couple of fellahs at the theater after you left. A couple—detectives.” Miss Woods turned startled eyes upon the speaker. “Detectives? W-what for? What about?” “The Ethridge case, of course. They asked a lot of questions: how often he was used to coming here; did he ever come after the show, when you was alone; was you ever out to his place; tvhat kind of friends was you and him? All that kind of stuff” “I see. them?” "I told ’em what the Book says: ‘The wicked man shall fall by his own wickedness. He shall be snar­ ed in the work of his hands.’ Amos Ethridge was an abomination unto the Lord and the Lord slew him with the edge of the sword.” “But surely that didn’t answer their questions, Jacob.” “Oh! I told 'em he came and went here, like a lot of others—him- own­ ing the theater like he did—and you went out to his place once in a while when he was giving a party or some­ thing. About him being here that self-respect; me. If you my mother, you’ve done And what did yon tell WIFE OF ITALY’S CROWN PRINCE This is the first portrait of the wife of Italy's crown prince, in the nniform of a nurse. It was wiade in loonie before she departed for Eritrea to administer to those Winded in “They asked about that?” “They were awful particular about the night he was killed. I said if he’d been here I’d of seen him, sure, and 1 didn't. I didn’t see his automobile standing outside, either. 1 swore pos­ itive to that." There was a moment of silence, then Miss Woods murmured with an effort, “No doubt they are question­ ing everybody. I knew Mr. Ethridge well; he was very kind io me. He treated all of the company well, for that matter. Why should I wish to —to injure him? Or anybody?” “Sure thing! That’s what I told ’em. Folks have to have a reason for killing folks. You’re just a sweet in­ nocent kid. Iniquity ain’t in the in­ nocent and nobody taketh reward against ’em. They showed me the let­ ter that was found on Mr. Ethridge and wanted, to know if it was your writing.” “Well?” The inquiry came faintly. “Oh, I lied about that, too! I said wasn’t.” Miss Woods’ knees weakened and she sat down, Her eyes were wide and frightened; they were fixed hyp­ notically upon Jacob’s. The old man regarded her kindly, then said: “Now don’t you worry. Nothing’s going to happen. You go to bed. Jacob won’t let nobody hurt you.” On the morning after Jerry’s visit, Mary Halmes ran through a stack of newspapers and discovered,' to her surprise and to her chagrin, that no­ where was her name mentioned. The it Her eyes were fixed hypnotically on Jacob. Ethridge case was featured as prom­ inently as ever, but she had dropped out of it. In one weeks she had em­ erged from obscurity, had become a national character, and had been for­ gotten; it seemed almost as if she had been born, had lived feverishly, and had died, all in seven days. She did not enjoy the sensation; she was offended. The taste for publicity is like the taste for narotics: it feeds upon itself, and, once formed, it hard to break. For a while Mary Holmes had walked in the spotlight; now to be elbowed aside, to be crowd­ ed entirely off the stage, caused her to boil with rebellion. Her vanity had been hurt by.the first newspaper stories, it is true, but with a little im­ agination and some gin she had been able to ignore their mockery and to construe what remained as applause: it took some effort to picture herself as the old Mary Holmes beneath whose feet once more were the rapt, upturned faces of the world, but af­ ter a fashion she had succeeded. It was a sort of game and she had en­ joyed playing it. To be robbed now of that enjoyment left a bleak feel­ ing of emptiness, a feeling which in­ creased when she dimly recalled her scene with Jerry on the previous ev­ ening. So he was going to get mar­ ried! That would leave her more al­ one than ever. She was sorry she had told him the truth about himself; he was such a sensitive flower! He would probably stay away altogether, and his visit had at least broken the deadly humdrum of this wretched ex­ istence. Any interruption, anything whatever to do or to think about, was preferable to monotony such as she endured. She realized this morning that those visits had meant more than she had imagined. Heigh-ho! About all the excitement £he could look for­ ward to from now on was being call­ ed as a witness in the Ethridge case and getting back into the newspaper columns in that manner. But there, was no certainty that she would be called. Her love of the dramatic made her wish that she had a really sensa­ tional story to tell. It would be thrill­ ing to take the stand and give testi-1 many that would electrify the court, the whole country. There w’ould be some fun in that and— Her mind envisaged a new thought and she considered it while feeding her poultry. When she had finished her work she walked up the road and spent a longtwhi!e studying the scene of the tragedy and carefully explor- the Italo-Elhiopian war. As Princess Marie Jose of Belgium, she married Umberto (Prince of Piedmont) sev­ eral years ago. She is the sister of Ing the ground, When she returned the present king of Belgium,ihw was a deep frown of preocew- •w' Wellington Mutual Fire Insurance Co. Established 1840. Risks taken on all classes of insur­ ance at reasonable rates, Head Office, Guelph, Ont, ABNER COSENS, Agent. Wingham. Dr. W. A, McKibbon, B.A. PHYSICIAN And SURGEON Located at the Office of the Late Dr, H. W, Colborne. Office Pfione 54.Nights 107 HARRY FRY Licensed Embalmer and Funeral Director Furniture and Funeral Service Ambulance Service. Phones: Day 117. * Night 109, DR. R. L. STEWART PHYSICIAN Telephone 29. Dr. Robt. C. REDMOND M.R.C.S. (England) L.R.C.P. (London) PHYSICIAN AND SURGEON DR. W. M. CONNELL PHYSICIAN AND SURGEON •Phone 19. > W. A. CRAWFORD, M.D. Physician and Surgeon Located at the office of the late Dr. J. P. Kennedy. Phone 150 Wingham 1 W. BUSHFIELD Barrister, Solicitor, Notary, Etc. Money to Loan. Office — Meyer Block, Wingham Successor to Dudley Holmes. J. H. CRAWFORD Barrister, Solicitor, Notary, Etc. Successor to R. Vanstone. Wingham Ontario R. S. HETHERINGTON BARRISTER and SOLICITOR Office — Morton Block. Telephone No. 66 F. A. PARKER OSTEOPATH Ali Diseases Treated. Office adjoining residence next to Anglican Church on Centre St. Sunday by appointment. Osteopathy Electricity Phone 272. Hours, 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. A THOMAS FELLS AUCTIONEER REAL ESTATE SOLD Thorough knowledge of Farm Stock. Phone 231, Wingham. It Will Pay You to Have An EXPERT AUCTIONEER to conduct your sale. See T. R. BENNETT At The Royal Service Station. Phone 174W. J. ALVIN FOX Licensed Drugless Practitioner CHIROPRACTIC - DRUGLESS THERAPY - RADIONIC EQUIPMENT Hours by Appointment. Phone 191. Wingham A. R. & F. E. DUVAL CHIROPRACTORS CHIROPRACTIC and ELECTRO THERAPY North Street, — Wingham Telephone 300. pation upon her face, but her eyes were bright and' there was a purpose­ ful set to her features. Later that day she assured herself that some destiny must have shaped her thoughts, for Mr. Vogel, the new prosecutor, drove out from town and interviewed, her, With him he had brought Westland's chief of detect- iyes, Lopez, For a while Vogel ques­ tioned Mrs. Holmes perfunctorily; then his bearing changed; he became alert, sensitive. “Why didn't you make all this known before?” he inquired. “The police talked with you and so did the newspaper men." “Yes,” the woman laughed harsh­ ly, “They talked with me; and then they went out of their way to make me ridiculous. The idiots! The swine! Why should I tell them any­ thing? Come here, I want to show you something,” She led her callers out of her living room and into a squalid bedchamber adjoining, The bedclothes had been slept in repeat­ edly and had not been made up; the the room was indescribably dirty, its windows were unwashed. It was pre­ cisely the sort of den in which a wo­ man like Mary Holmes would sleep. Too bad she was not a credible wit­ ness, Vogel thought. If she were any­ thing except what she was, he could put some confidence in her, make use of her, but— "Sit down.” Mrs. Holmes cleared two rickety chairs of their burdens of old clothes, dusty newspapers, and what not, then from a dark corner she dragged forth a rusty trunk, The lid of this she flung back: it was par­ tially filled with old scrap-books, pro­ grams, lithographs, photographs,, and the like. She rose with her arms full and dumped her burden upon the bed, then thrust a huge volume into Vog­ el’s hands, “Run through that and then ask me why I tried to shoot that penny-a-liner! Those, are clippings. Most of them are foreign, but you’ll ■find some in English.” Vogel turned the first few leaves of the book, then he looked up in­ credulously. “What the devil—? Are >u—Maria di Nardi?” he inquired. “I am. Or I was.” “Good Lord!” The prosecutor star­ ed at Mrs. Holmes. Lopez looked over his shoulder and read the yel­ lowed headlines. Together they ex­ amined the photographs on the bed and compared them with the huge slattern before them. The pictures were old; those in street dress were quaintly out of date, but many were in operatic costumes which the men readily recognized. All showed a young woman of magnificent physi­ cal proportions and considerable beauty. In the shapeless figure and the bloated face before them none of that beauty remained; nevertheless the likeness was recognizable. Vogel rose to his feet in genuine agitation. “This is astonishing! I knew of you, of course, although I never heard you sing. I—it’s incred­ ible!” He stared about at his sur­ roundings. “Do the newspapers know who you .are?” “Nobody knows who I am, except my son.” “You have a son?" Mrs. Holmes nodded. In a few words she told her callers about Jer­ ry, and from her tone as much as from her words they drew pretty ac­ curate conclusions as to the relations existing between her and her boy. For perhaps an hour Vogel and Lo­ pez took turns questioning the wo­ man, they they drove her back to town with them. In Vogel’s office she repeated her story to a stenogra­ pher, read it in typewritten form, then swore to it. "When, at last, she had been sent home, Lopez exclaimed. “Well! That’s the biggest wallop ever had. It upsets everything.” “Don’t you believe her?” “Sure! She must be telling the truth, but you’re going to have a hard job to make a jury believe her.” “We’ll have to check up, of course.” “That'll be easy. But remember, she’s 'queer,' Everybody knows she’s drunk half the time. She’s a notori­ ous character and—well—she’ll preju­ dice herself.” “1’1!- take care of ihat. I’ll see that she make a good impression. I’m go­ ing to get her out of the pigsty, dress her up, and put her in a hotel and make her look like a human being. I’ll take her off the whiskey, too, and make sure that she doesn’t talk until I'm ready to have talk. This isn’t an ordinary case, Chief; it's a newpaper trial. When the time comes I'm go­ ing to explode something.” “Oh, it’ll be a big thing for you if you can get a conviction where our local people have failed to even start anything. But speaking of explosions —what about the Woods girl? This kind of blows up our theory about her, doesn’t it?” “We’ll have to wait and sec.” f “Shall I show that 'Thursday* let­ ter to the reporters? They’re after me every day to see it. They know about as much' as we do.” “iShow them nothing until I tell you to. Now then, locate that auto­ mobile with one headlight just as i quickly as you can and bring me name of the man who drove it.” (Continued Next Week) the BIRDS HAVE THE BEST OF THINGS To the Editur av all thim Wingham paypers. Deer Snr:— Mebby be the toime this letther gits printed we may b.e havin shpring- loike weather, an sure, that wud plaize a lot av paypie so it wud. Av ■coorse we hev often had springs jist as late as this wan sames loikely to be, but the young ginerashun is in such a hurry to git playin golf, an baseball, an boulin on the grane, that they won’t belaive what us ould toim- ers do be tellin thim. I often tink that the birruds hev a betther toime than human paypie. They kin go South on their own pow­ er, as soon as the weather begins to git cowld in the fall, an come back a- gin in the shpring in the same way, not costin thim a cint fer gasoline ayther way. A lot av Canadians who hev sinse enough, an money enough, go South wid the birruds in the fall av the year, an come Nort agin in the shpring. Av coorse it is only a fail' dale that we sh-ud visit thim Yanks somet'oimes in the winther, fer, a lot av thim lads do be afther comtn Nort into On­ tario in the summer toime to the wondhers we hev to show Niagara Falls, the quintuplets Hipburn Govermint. I suppose thim Grits will be back on the jawb in Ottawa this wake throyin to bate ould, man depreshun, wid Mishter Binnitt sittin back an laughin a thim, an kaypin his pow- dher dhroy fer the nixt elickshun. The noospaypers an radio men do be throyin to tell us that toimes are gittin betther, because mebby 500 more min are bein put to wurruk somewheer in Canada, but not sayin a wurrud about twoice as manny who hev left school wid no jawbs in soight. ■ ’Tis someting loike whin we hev a change av Govermint, an the parthy that wins appints 1000 av its frinds to awfices, an dismisses 500 av the other fellahs. Thin, av coorse, i the do R. of of at R. i see all thim— afi the An the fellahs that hev been given jawbs kape halierin that tonnes be improvin. ’Tis a qua re wurruld. Yers till shpring comes. Timothy Hay. TURNBERRY COUNCIL May 20h, 1936. Moved by J, Breckenridge and Wilton that we hold the Court Revision on the Assessment Roll 1936 on Tuesday, May 26th, 1936, 3 o’clock in the afternoon. Moved by J. Breckenridge and Wilton that we give the contract for the crushing and spreading of the gravel to.George Schultz at 25 cents per yard in bin and. 8% cents per yard mile for minimum 2500 yard; 1& inch round screen 8 feet long. Work to- be commenced the first of June, 1936. Carried. The following accounts were paid: On Two. Roads $196,45; Sundry ac­ counts $199.78. Moved by H. Moffat and J. Breck­ enridge that we adjourn to meet at Bluevale on Tuesday, May 26th, at 1 p.m. W. R. Cruikshank, Clerk. R. Grain^ Reeve. “Recompense injury with justice, and recompense kindness with kind­ ness.”—Confucious. .Minutes of Council meeting held in Bluevale April 6th, 1936. Members all present. Moved by R. Wilton and H. Mof­ fat that the minutes of last meeting be adopted as read. Carried. The following letters were receiv­ ed and read: J. C. Monteith, Petrolia; Dept .of Indian Affairs, Chippewa Hill; Dept, of Public Affairs, Toron­ to. Moved by R. Porter and H. Moffat that we extend the time for the Col- __ lector to return the Roll of 1935 to at West End Bridge—WALKERTON MONUMENTS at first cost Having our factory equipped with the most modern machinery for the exe­ cution of high-class work, we ask you to see the largest display of monu­ ments of any retail factory in Ontario. All finished by sand blast machines. We import all our granites from the Old Country quarries direct, in the rough. You can save all local deal­ ers’, agents’ and middleman profits by seeing us. E. J. Skelton & Son ITALIANS CAPTURE DESSYE aerial view of Dcssye, head- ians, shown as the city was bombed 145 miles by aeroplane from the cap­ quarters of 'Emperor Haili Sellassfe, with l,009 explosive incendiary bombs ital, Addis Ababa. Which has been captured by the Ital- several months ago. Dessye is only f