The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1867-10-18
TOMMY TUCKER AND HIS
~. - Fiddle. =" 80

of the Dareller, an old lady with two
handh0xss. and O manih the corner with
his hat pulled over his eyes.
Tommy opened the door, peeped in,
hesitated, looked into, another car, came
back, gave his little fiddle q shove. on
his shoulders, and walked in. 81, ~, 90.
| ''Hi, little Tommy Tucker
Plays for his supper"
shouted young exquisite lounging on
| the platform in tan -colored coat and law
Lender kid gloves. ss -..s,yy---
| 80, kids, you're there are you Well,
Pa rather play for it than loaf for it, l
had" said Tommy, stoutly.
The merchant shot u careless glance
over the top of his paper, at the sound
of this petit dialogue, and the old lady
smiled benignly; the man in the corner
neither looked nor smiled.
Nobody would have thought, to look
at that man in the corner, that he was
at that very moment deserting a wife
and five children. Yet that is precisely
what he was doing.
A villiani o, no that is not the word.
A brute Not by any means. Weak,
unfortunate, discouraged, and selfish
dS Ntdh, anu
people are apt to be; that was the
amount oft. Hispanoramas neverpaid
him for the use of his halls. His trav-
cling tin-typo saloon had trundled him
into a sheriff7s hands. His petroleum
speculations had crashed like bubble.
His black and gold sign, ~. Harmon,
Photographer" had swung now for
nearly year over the dentists rooms,
and he had the patronage of precisely
six old women and three babies. He
had drifted to the theatre in the even
ings,-he did not care now to remember
how many times,-the fellows asked
him, and it made him forget his trOu-
bles; the next morning his empty purse
would cape at him, and Annie's mouth
would culver. A man must have his
glass, too, on Sundays, and-well-per-
haps little oftener. He had not al
ways been fit to work after it and An
nie's mouth would quiyer. 1t will be
seen at once that it was exceedingly
hard on man that his wife's mouth
should quiver. "Confound it! why
couldn't she scold, or cryl These still
women aggravate fellow beyond rea-
SON."
VIGIL, Iueu, udu oCSh
sick; measles, whooping cough, scarle-
tina, mumps, he was sure he did not
know what not; every one of them, from
the baby up. There was medicine, and
there were doctors bills, and there was
sitting up with them at night-their
mother usually did that Then she
must needs pale down herself like a
poorly finished photograph; all her color,
and roundness, and sparkle gone; and
if ever man liked to have Il pretty
wife about it was he. Moreover, she
had cough, and her shoulders had
grown round, STOPPING over the heavy
baby, and her breath came short and
she had way of being tired. Then she
never stirred out of the house-he
found out about that one day; she had
no bonnet, and her shawl mad been cut
up into blankets for the crib. The chill
dren had stopped going to school;
"they could not buy the new arithme-
tic" their mother said half under her
breath. Yesterday there was nothing
for dinner but johnny cake, not large
one at that. Tomorrow the saloon
rents were due. Annie talked about
pawai1g one of tine bureaus. Annie
had had great purple rings under her
eyes for six weeks.
He would not bear the purple rings
and quivering mouth any longer. He
hated the sight of her, for the sight
stung him. He hated the corn-cake
and the untaught children. He hated
the whole dreary, dragging, needy home.
The ruin of it dogged him like ghost,
and he should be the ruin of it as long
as he stayed in it. Once fairly rid of
him, his scoldinga and drinking, his vast
ing and failing, Annie would send the
children to work, and find ways to live.
She had energy and invention, and plen-
ty of it, in her young, fresh days, before
he came across her life to drag her down.
Perhaps he should make golden for
tune, and come back to her some sum-
mer day with a silk dress and servants,
and make it all up; in theory this was
about what he expected to do. But if
his luck went Westward with him, and
the silk dress never turned up, why,
she would forget him, and be better OFT,
and that would be the last of it.
So here he was, ticketed and started,
fairly bound for Colorado, sitting with
his hat over his eyes, and thinking
about it.
"H-m-m. Asleep" pronounced Tom
my, with his keen glance into the cor
ner. "Guess Tll wake him up"
He laid his cheek down on his little
fiddle-you don't know how Tommy
loved that little fiddle-and struck up
a gay, rollicking tune:
~ care for nobody, and nobody cares for me-
The man in the corner sat quite still.
When it was over he shrugged his shonl-
ders. .r
"When folks arc asleep they don't
hist their shoulders-not as general
thing" observed Tommy. "We'll try
another"
Tommy tried another. Nobody knows
what possessed the little fellow, the lit
tie fellow himself least of all; but he
tried this:
We've lived and loved together
Through many a changing year
1t was a new tune, and he wanted
practice, perhaps.
The train Jared and started slowly;
the gloved exquisite, waiting hackmen,
baggage masters, coffee counter and
station walls slid back; engine house,
and prison towers, and labyrinths OF
tracks slipped by lumber and shipping
took their place, with clear spaces be-
tween, where sea and sky shone through.
The speed of the train increased with
sickening sway; old wharves shot past,
with the green water sucking at their
,,;ars. +ba o;ty sbifted bva and ont of