Lancaster High School - Mirage Yearbook (Lancaster, OH)

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A Jfontlfaa Effort Chapter I. About one hundred miles from the mouth of the Neuse river in North Car- olina lies the little town of Hutton, whose chief industry is cotton milling. For many years the inhabitants of the beau- tiful little town have worked in the great mills which have grown up there. One day in the early spring of 1880, a freight crept slowly into the yards from the north and after much shifting about of cars, the train-crew left for their homes. A few minutes after the men had withdrawn a young man well built and neatly dressed, with black curly hair and great dark eyes, on whose face sorrow had already left its indeli- ble stamp, dropped from the door of an empty box-car and disappeared in the direction of the business section of the town. A little over a year previous Harry Brown had held a Hue clerical position in one of the large brokerage offices of Wall street. He received a fairly good salary hut the care of an invalid mother added to his own expense, made the ma- king of ends meet sometimes a difficult task. Then, too, the doctors informed Harry that the only chance for his mother’s life was a change of climate. At this news Harry was heartsick, for he realized that without the change his mother would undoubtedly die, but the expense of such a trip was so great that it was beyond their means. Day and night he worked trying to figure out how it could be done. Unexpectedly his chance came. A wealthy client of Har- ry’s firm dropped into the offiice and left five thousand dollars to be used in pur- chasing bonds. The money was turned over to Harry to be put into the safe, but instead Harry, to save bis mother’s life, broke the eighth commandment. The next day Mrs. Brown left for Florida and Harry became a fugitive from justice. But his plans had been well laid and he easily escaped the police net that was stretched to catch him. Some- how the bad news reached Mrs. Brown and the shock of learning of Harry’s embezzlement caused her death. After his mother’s death young Brown left New York and for fear of the police, traveled by the side-door Pullman route. After two weeks of traveling in a box- car we find Harry with a couple of hun- dred dollars in his pocket, leaving the box-car at Hutton. Inquiring of a small boy where work was to be found Harry entered the office of the superintendent of the Hut- ton combined cotton mills, where he ap- plied for work, stating that he was a New Yorker, out of work. When asked what he could do, he told the superinten- dent that his specialty was clerical work. He gave his name as Jack Clark, by which name he was afterwards known. Being short of good office men the su- perintendent hired Jack, (as he will now be known) as his private secretary, and arranged for the young man to live at his home. The great mills never closed, working in three eight-hour shifts each day, and

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LANCASTER HIGH SCHOOL

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Jack spent most of his off-hours in the mills learning all he could about the work and the machinery. He received an excellent salary and the greater part was used in purchasing stock in the mills. In his home life he was constantly thrown in the company of the superin- tendent’s daughter Ruth Jackson, and the inevitable result followed. He found himself daily loving the beautiful girl more and more. He fought the love with his whole being, for he realized with a dread that cannot be expressed that at any time that wonderful system called the New York Police Force, might find him and take him back to pay the penalty for the wrong doing. Chapter II. Five years passed quickly by and a feeling of safety began to steal over him. More and more openly he showed his love for Ruth and found to his great joy that his love was returned. By this time Jack had worked up to the position of assistant superintendent. When a few months over the five years had passed, Ruth’s father died. At the next annual meeting of the stock-holders, Jack hav- ing acquired enough stock to be a di- rector secured the vacancy left by Mr. Jackson’s death. The directors knowing that Jack knew more about the business than any one of them, gave him Mr. Jackson’s position as managing-director or superintendent. Of course, after this stroke of good luck the new superintendent did what any other sound-minded young man would have done in his place. He pro- posed and was accepted. The date of the marriage was not definitely set, but it was understood between them that the usual year of mourning for Mr. Jackson should be observed. In preparation for the coming event of his life Jack built a magnificent home on the top of a small hill overlooking the city. On the third floor of his new home Jack arranged a room expressly for his own use which he whimsically called the torture chamber. It was a perfectly fitted gymnasium and every morning and evening he spent, an hour on the horizontal bars, with heavy weight fastened to his ankles in order to increase his height and in other ways change his Bertillion measure- ments by which the New York Police could identify him. When the year had passed he had increased his height two inches and felt perfectly safe from dis- covery. His wedding day passed and he set- tled down in quiet home life. Vine years had passed since Jack had embezzled the five thousand dollars. Long ago he had sent the money back to the brokers, sending it from Richmond and now he had no fear. Chapter III. In central station, New York, Detec- tive Chief Barnes sat musing over some papers before him. They were the re- ports of the Brown embezzlement case, showing that all his best men had failed to locate the defaulter. At last he rang 10 a bell. Almost immediately an orderly answered. “Send in .Tones.” The orderly vanished to reappear with a tall, lanky, red-haired man who shuffled into the room, nervously toying