And yet, with all the consciousness of his loyal backing, he was considerably upset to read in the _Herald_, on the very morning that he took control of his property, a seven column streamer headline which leaped out to threaten him. "SUNDAY THEATRES AND AMUSEMENTS MUST GO!"--MIX Prominent Business Man Turns Reformer THEODORE MIX CHOSEN TO MANAGE CAMPAIGN OF LEAGUE Pledges Enforcement of City Ordinances to the Letter His first reaction was one of bewilderment, and after that, one of consternation. His friend Bob Standish tried to laugh it off for him, but Henry hadn't a smile in his system. "All right, then," said Bob Standish. "Go see the judge. He'll tell you the same thing. Mix's nothing but a bag of wind. He's an old blowhard." "Maybe he is," conceded Henry, soberly. "But I'd be just as satisfied about it if he blew in some other direction." Henry took the paper to Judge Barklay, who had already seen it, and made his own deductions. "Oh, no," he said, "I'm not astonished. When a man's in hot enough water, he'll cut up almost any kind of caper to get out. There's only two kinds of people who ever go into these radical movements--great successes and great failures. Never any _average_ folks. I'd say it's a pretty good refuge for him, and you drove him to it." "Well--does he mean what he says there?" "Not too much of it. How could he? If he does half he says he will, he'll lose his job. The town would be as pure as Utopia, and there wouldn't be any League." "How about the ordinance he quotes, though?" "Oh, _that_ ... it's Ordinance 147. It's so old it's toothless. The City Council doesn't quite dare to repeal it--nobody's sure enough, these days, to get up and take a chance--but they don't want it enforced, and they haven't for ages." Henry frowned. "That's all right. But suppose they did arrest somebody under that Ordinance? What would you do?" "Fine 'em, of course. I'd have to. But I've never had such a case that I can remember. There haven't been any arrests. It's an understood thing." "Yes, that's fine--as long as everybody understands it the same way. But maybe Mix doesn't--or Aunt Mirabelle either." "Oh, I shouldn't worry much." Henry continued serious. "Oh, I guess I can sleep nights all right without any paregoric, but what right have _they_ got to butt into the only day of recreation the working people have? If their immortal souls hurt 'em as much as all that, why don't they go off and suffer where they can do it in peace and not bother _us_?" The Judge laughed quietly. "Whence all this sudden affection for the working man, Henry?"