Radio and television mirror (Jan-June 1941)

■ In each life there is a ruling passion. In Torchy's it was a hopeless love, in Ned"s it was fear, in Rose's a burning desire for independence. But only the Guiding Light of Five Points could bring them all to happiness LATE on a pring afternoon, when the thin sunlight slanted down over the grime encrusted walls oJ I'n i Points, i " Eluthledge liked to real foi a while in his study. He didn'l leep Hi iv sal there, ' along the arms of his old fashioned aii pillowed again il its woi n leather kini ii uggling with " p "in i ol i Ii , of ex l nee, "i the soul. i in, thing Dr Ruthledge believed, as he believed in the existence of God ' ii destiny thai mah u brothers, Worn ■ lone ... ... , Bui -ii'.; not sei the iiuiii ..I those ii.ui linei To th ii own ' >■) I .< e ky. for Intern i i. ,-. is han . that she had learned anything from hei Ith i !hai ii ' lun wenl in i ahunnii Ul i I'lli . .,.,. her i ii to keep it ;it home. She seemed completely indifferent to the baby; to her il represented only a burden ii which she must free herself. From Rose, Dr. Ruthledge's thoughts turned with a pang to Ned Holden and his own daughter, Mary Ruthledge. Once — and that 10 long ago — his dearest wish had i» in thai these two might be ied. But now he was con i hi ill Hint marriage between them would be a mistake, even a sin. And there was nothing he could do to keep them apart. Torchy, Ned's wife, was his last hope, and now she was gone. "I know Ned never loved me," Torchy told him the day before she i San Francisco. "lie liked me, he was grateful. Hut he kept on loving Mary. So I'll just go i won i divorce him, and I've told him I wouldn't. Bui any time -e me, he can." then, Ned had moved to a furnished room in Five Points, leaving lb, apartment he and Torchy d in a bettel pari ol tl nst her fathers wishes, saw a great deal ol him ween Ned and the man who had been almost a foster-father to it n up. er to ins fellow-man, but even his blind him to adfastly refused to mother, the v ■ Torchy was smiling, sure of herself "If, very good ^ I'citv for me to be seen with my husband— isn't it, Ned?" called herself Fredrika Lang. He ! would not cast out from his heart the hatred for her that he had first I conceived when he learned that she had abandoned him as a child. Ned's newspaper columns and the radio broadcasts that he had recently begun— they, too, were things Dr. Ruthledge could not condone. In them he preached a philosophy of selfishness, glorifying this evil so subtly and cleverly that he was doing immeasurable harm. Milium.. of listeners and readers believed him, unwittingly let their minds be poisoned by him. Already, although he had been on the air only a few weeks, the name of Ned Holden was famous from coast to coast. If Dr. Ruthledge had needed further proof of Ned's own selfishness —proof that he practiced what he preached— it was found In his relationship with Mary. It did not seem to matter to him that he was breaking the heart of Torchy, who had loved him so deeply, nor that his frequent public appearances with Mary were causing spiteful talk in Five Points and the rest of the city, nor that he had become the cause of a rapidly widening breach between Mary and the father who adored her. For tin time in her life Mary was disobeying Dr. Ruthledge. He asked her not to see Ned, and she refused. It would have been far better, Dr. Ruthledge thought sorrowfully, if Ned, when he first (led from Five Points, had never returned. He sighed and slowly got out ol the chair. At the window he stood and looked out, for a moment, at the busy life of Five Points. Across the street Mrs. Kransky was standing in the door of her shop, looking old and sad. It was a shame, I >i Ruthledge reflected, that Rose had never learned how impossible it was to find happiness for herself by making others who loved her unhappy. . . . A few blocks away from the parsonage, Life, that undiscouraged teacher, was preparing to give Rose Kransky one more, final, lesson. She sat in the office of the nursery where she had placed her child, talking to the matron. The cheap patent-leather of her purse felt greasy under her nervous fingers. "Those people that were in here — the ones that said they might like to adopt my baby — do you think they still feel the same way?"