All Bedlam Courses Past (part one hundred twenty-three)

All Bedlam Courses Past

Chapter Five

Collecting Debts

(part one hundred twenty-three)

A tabloid had been shown to Rowan by more than one person. So he printed.

It calls itself the Flagstaff, a publication of the type that hatches like a mayfly, to flit away overnight. We can only, in charity, hope the story is meant for satire, one of those fine shavings that hews so near the parent tree as to bandy with libel.

The writer of the article, in guise of his cowardly pen-name: “A Hoosier”, might wish, in the manner of dishonest men, the settling of some petty grudge by the stirring of a hornet’s nest; the hornet in his wrath to search in vain for any exposed flesh to sting.

But, that readers of the Beacon not be fooled by falsehoods represented as News, from foreign towns such as Cincinnati, Rowan would quote the story in full [under title: Tobacco man willing, spirits weak]

A well-to-do farmer, of an Indiana city along the Ohio River, is held to cavort with the occult. The gentleman’s explorations are taken under the priesthood of a Mr. Ebrach, famously a Professor of Transcendentalism; also Master of a curious institute in this same city, which, as the locals report, is patronized by many a wealthy exotic. Alas, the floating spirits offer poor advice, for our tobacco man has suffered a string of business failures, in pursuit of a certain railroad scheme. Bankrupted once; soon to be bankrupted again? —but yet in possession of a few neighbors’ assets, with which he may speculate. Luckily for the gentleman’s solvency, he holds a seat in the Indiana legislature. It is rumored (whether apropos or not) that he had fathered a son prior to his marriage.

Rowan acknowledged the trickiness of the defense he felt obligated to mount. One scarcely could name the name that came to mind—that would be to do the blackguard’s work for him…

Papa could not name the name of whomever had called Rowan’s work to his notice. The Beacon lay on the desk of his town office, circled and arrowed in red ink. His clerk’s visitor’s register showed only a lunch delivered from the Columbia Hotel.

“Mr. Kinaelty will want the original,” Mother said. “Mr. Rowan will have something to prove there. But…is it likely he’s made the story up?”

“Which story? Sounds like that conscience of his touched on everything.”

Mr. Kinaelty visited Rowan in person. “Your publication makes a claim, sir.”

The office sat devoid of lamplight; under the window, Rowan’s face showed pink and moist. His stirring to rise, or to moderate the angle of his cant, took moments.

At last: “Point to me one thing that’s libelous.”

“The claim, Mr. Rowan, is that you have acquired a newspaper. One published in Cincinnati, entitled the Flagstaff. I will write you a receipt. I see no difficulties for you unless the article you quote fails to exist.”

132

Bedlam

All Bedlam Courses Past (part one hundred twenty-four)

(2024, Stephanie Foster)