The Daily clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1866-1888, 1868-06-06
Tommy Tucker and his Fiddle.

|
last OF the Iraueler, and old ls1y with
| two bandboxes, ard man in the cor.
ner W tn his hat pulled over his eyes.
Tommy opened the door, peeped in,
besitated, looked into another ca,
me hack, gave his little fiddle
shove on biz shoulders, and walked in.
Eli, little Tommy Tucker
Plays for his SUPPER" a4
shouted young exquisite, lounging on
the Platform IN tan-colorcd coat and
lave der kid g'oves. ~,
20, kids, you're there, are you?
We'll, I'd rather play for it than loaf
for it, / had." said Tommy, stou'ly.
| The merchant shot a carel. IS glance
over the top of bis paper. at the sound
of this petit dialogue, al d the old lady
smiled benignIy; the man in the corner
neither locked nor smiled.
| Nobody would have thought, to
look at that man in the corner, that he
was at that very moment deserting
wife and five children. Yet that is
precisely what he was doing.
A villain? O, no, ii at is not the
word. A brute? Not by any means.
Weak, unfortunate, discouraged, ard
selfish-as weak, unfortunate, dscour
aged people are apt to be; that was
the amount of it. His panoramas
never paid him for the use of his halls.
His travelling tin-type saloon had
trnndel led him into sherif7s hands
His petroleum specula'ions had crash
| ed like bubble His black and golden
sign, 81. Harmon, Pho ographer," had
swung now for nearly year over the
dentists rooms, End be had the pat.
ronage of precisely six old women and
hree Labies. He had drifted to the
theater in the evepings-he did not
now care to TT member how many
times-the fellows aeked b m, and il
ma1e him forget his troubles; the nexl
mo. ming his empty purse would cape
at hiG, and Annie's mouth would
culver. A man must have his glass,
too, on Sundays, and-well-perhaps
| a little oitener. He had not always
been fit to work after it, and Ann;e's
mouth would culver. 1t will be seen
at once that it was exceedingly hard
on man that his wife's mouth should
quivpr "Confound it'll why don't she
cry? These still women aggravate a
fellow beyond reason
We'll, then, the children had been
sick; measles, whoop.ng cough, scar
letina, mump', he was sure he did not
know what rot; every one of them,
from the baby up. There was med-
cine, and there were doctors bills, and
there was sitting up with them at
n;ght-their mother usually did that
| Then she must needs pale down herself
like poorly finished photograph; all
her color, and roundness, and sparkle
gone; and if ever man liked 10 have
a pretty wife around, it was he.
| Moreover, she had cough, and her
shoulders had grown round, STOPPING
so much over the heavy baby, and
her breath came short, and she had q
way of being tired. Then she never
stirred out of the house, he found ut
a. out that one cay; she had no bonnet,
and her shawl haG been cut up into
| blankets for the Glib. The children
had stopped goi''g to school; "they
could not buy the new arithmetic"
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
pawning one of the bureaus. Anne
had had purple rings under her eyes
for six weeks.
He would not bear the purple rings
and quivering mouth any longer. be
hated the sight of her, FIR the sight
sturg him. He hated the corn cake
and the uutaught children. He hated
the whole dreary, dragging, needy
home TIE ruin of it doggtd d him like
a ghost, and he should be tie ruin OF
it as long as he stay, d in it. Once fair
| 10 lid of him, his sc,l ing and drink
ing, his wasting and ia ling. A"nie
wou'd send the children to work, and
find ways to live. She had energy
aud invention, and plenty OF it, in her
young fresh days, before he came
across her life to drag her down