The Cleveland leader. [volume] (Cleveland [Ohio]) 1865-1865, 1865-09-08
DAILY LEADER
JOHN SMIIH,
BIZ ORPHEUs C. KERR.

John Smith sat at bis table, in the loves
depths Of q dreamy coal mine, and helped
himself to come pork and beans, / know
not what there wAs war down in the black
recesses Of the mans hidden soul 10 make
him want sc much pork and beans. I look
into my heart TO find an answer TO the
question, but nc answer comes. Providence
does mot reveal all things TO us Ia II mot
we'll 1t should be so2
de was q hard, iron looking, adsmsntine
msn. His eyes were glowing furnaces for
the crnelbles of thought You felt that he
sa" you Whea he looked at you. His nose
was like q red Gothic tower built amidst
broken singles of sullied snow, and his
mouth was the cellar Of that tower. His
halr was of the sort that r. sists q comb
You have seen the same sort on the heads
OF men Of great thought. 1t is the tangled
bush IN which the goat of Thought loses
itself
John Smith hiccupped as he helpedhim
self to some more pork and beans. He did
not notice that the foot which he had semi.
consciously placed on a pale EickIy child,
was beginning TO move. But it did move,
and there craWled from under it the shape
OF q diseased dwarf of ~womsnhood. This
timid, pallid thing upIitted itself to its
bleeding feet and nestled 70 the side of
John Smith. 8
"Y'o las been separated by un speaking
space from dis humble leetls place for some
hours longer than zs bosom could uneom-
pisiningly indure-y'o hsve."
The child meant to say, in its coarse.
brutal, unlettered way, that the man had
been absent Loo long.
John Smith helped himself to some more
pork and beans. He was a man, you know,
and could not answer without deep thought. /
He took his knife and wiped it thoughtful
ly upon her head, and Then sawed off a
sickly yellow curl When he placed that
curl on the same plate with the pork and
beans, its coils seemed like those of some
golden snake.
"Girletts," said he, with the ring ofiron
in his tones, "why is it that the beasts
never want to marry2 God made them az
he made us yet they never ask priests to
them slaves to each other"
The sickly little waif cringed closer 10
hat i~nscrutable great heart which under
laid a sOul of eternal questioning. She
.'huddered like q wounded hog, but could
not answer. An inward fever was de-
her.
The man took some more pork and
"Girletts," he said, almost fercely,
The beasts teach me a lesson but 1 will
dare not, shall not heed it. 1 want a
lomej my heart demands some one to
york for me; to support me. 1 am weary
f labor, and want some one to labor and
oil and suffer for me, and do my washing.
love you. Have me"
The atom of womAnhood contorted her
iseased features into the pale twist of
gony, and her bosom besYed with stormy :
like the side of q tortured and
hoking brute. Falling to the ground, she
and struggled and kicked eonvul-
lvely, as though seized with some inward ?
ang. Then she rose slowly to her shat
sred little feet and drew an old cupboard
the middle of the wretehed cave and beat .
er head against it. |
1t was the child's first taste of that great J
of perfect love which woman is
Oomed to share with the thing called
an. Y
"Y'osre indulgingin secret exclamation,
the expense OF my ssir heart !,
The child meant that he was laughing =
her.
John Smith helped himself to some mora
and beans, and sat back in his stern,
chair. What were his thoughts as he
oked down on that miniature fragment.
womanly humsnity2 Perhaps he thought l
st there might be angels way up in
sven just like her. Bright sersphs, with Y
by eyes, and silver wings, and golden
rps and just such pale, haggard, gaunt
nken, bleared little faces.
'Girletts," he said, al hereby make thee
ne. Take some of these pork and