Picture Play Magazine (Sep 1921 - Feb 1922)

The Revelations "I mean the sort of crooked contest that brought me to New York in the first place — people never have knovi^n about it because I changed my name and told a different story about my coming here, but I'm going to tell the truth now," she went on, her hands clenched tight in her lap. "You ran it in the particular scandal sheet you were interested in then, and you held out glowing promises of what would happen to the girl who won. Girls everywhere sent in their photographs ; I saw them afterward in your office, most of them still wrapped as they had been when they came to you. "I don't know why you picked my picture as the winner ; there were prettier ones sent in, I know. Perhaps it was because the Connecticut town where I lived was near enough so that you could run up there and see what I looked like. "Anyway, I won the contest and came to New York. And — oh, I can't tell about what happened then !" She broke down and buried her face in her hands as the sobs refused to be choked back any longer. But a moment later she gained control of herself and went on, only now her eyes begged him to understand all that lay behind her words. "He could have been prosecuted under the white-slave law, if I'd only known it," she said. "I didn't know that, of course ; I just knew that somehow, unbelievably, a horrible thing had happened to me, and that my whole life was ruined. And if it hadn't been for the shame of the thing, I would have gone throughout this country warning girls. "Oh, I know that most contests are fair," she broke off as Bingham tried to protest. "Any magazine or newspaper of any standing wouldn't run one that wasn't straight. I know of several girls who got started that way and have made good, too. But I was too much of a greenie to know the difference between a regular pub of a Star's Wife 61 lication and one that appeared, and then disappeared just as suddenly, and didn't have any standing. I'd heard wonderful stories of other girls who had been helped by winning contests, and so any contest looked good to me. I suppose you can't run those any more, Jack. People must be wise to them by now. "I tried to go back home after I'd been in New York ■ a while — as soon as I could get some money I tried," she went on, still talking to Benito. "But I couldn't stay there; maybe my face showed that something was wrong. I was just a kid, even then, you know ; I wasn't old enough for the fight I had to face. "So I went back to New York, and — well, you know the rest of my story after that. And now " She rose, and, with a sudden effort, straightened up, almost majestic for a moment, and faced Bingham. "I think you won't ust the little rehearsal which you interrupted for copy, will you. Jack?" she asked quietly. " 'Tisn't so very long ago that you brought me to New York, after all, and I hear that you're to be married in a few days and try your hand at breaking into society ; your fiancee wouldn't care for this little story probably." "Oh, cut it, Mary !" he cried, hurling his cigar into the fireplace and rising. "You know that that old stuff would finish me with her, and would make a dirty mess if you told it to her. What's the idea, anyway?" "Just that you'll lay off on Sally and Hugh," she answered. "If you told the truth about them it would be perfectly harmless — but you wouldn't tell the truth, and we all know it. So is it a bargain — I'll ,keep still if you will?" "Oh, sure," he growled, picking up his hat and starting across the room. "But you've killed a good yarn," he concluded as the door slammed behind him. I know that if this had happened in a story the ending would have been dift'erent. Mary's story would have