The workingman's advocate., 1872-10-26

|
leave home, and what are You doing
(which Of thess questions shall an
swer first r. said Lionel, laughingly.
Answer them cOnsecutiVely, if yol
if you please, put in the other, with mocl
gravity.
"Well, said Lionel, 81 have been her,
about three months l left home sbou
four months ago, and am working rs por
ter in q Wholesale store on LaSalle street
there
"You left home four months Agol'
yes"
Anything strange transpiring in Silver
vile whey you left
Nothing Of importance, answered the
boy.
"I suppose all the folks were then wellr
said Richard, feeling bound i'll courtesy to
ask, not that he particularly cared.
The boy replied III the affirmative, and
then casually asked Richard if he had seen
a man named William Hunter.
Richard said he had not but continued,
why do you ask 7"
Why, you see, said Lionel, "a man
named Hunter left Sllvervilie some twenty
odd years ago, for California, and about
siA months since he returned to Silverville,
one day, hearing Of the murder Of your
father he said he had pretty good idea
who it Was that committed the foul deed.
Well = said ArLyght, quickly, and not
without a touch of tiercenuss IN the tone
Well, pursued the boy, when Hun
ter was questioned further, and more
directly and polntedly, he eyaded straight
forward answer, and said he did not like to
lmphcate or compromise any one on cir
eunstantial proofs He also said that the
man whom he supposed guilty Of the act
had relatives in the vicinity Of Silvervile,
and as they were honorable, upright peo-
pie, he did not wish to say anything that
would lnjure them in the estimation Of
their neighbors.
- But where is this man = asked Rich
ard, with savage earnestness.
" suppose he is in California" answered
Lionel The reason asked if you had
seen him." he continued, twas because
Hunter said he was going to visit Chicago
before returning home, and l thought it
might be pnssible that you had met him. ="
Would to God | had, said Richard,
fervently. "but alas, was not here at the
time
These words were spoken slowly, sadly,
regretfully and ere the cadence fioated
into the tomb of silence, Richard was
buried within himself After few mo
mcnts he came back to the hard real pres
ent, and spoke quite disconnectedly spoke
as II the mind were endeaVorlng To grasp
the nane vanishing form Of half-born,
unrealized thought
Hope, murdered hope Fate inexora-
HI. fat. tha .aa1aai,, H.n.l tho an,lvna
If life, panacea of man inirmIties, baffled
again, the substance gone, the shadow
alone remains, to mock and haunt me
You must excuse me, Lionel, he added,
AS he noticed the boy staring at him with
wide dlsterded mouth and surprised dilat
ing eyes for you see, he resumed,
" ever since reason dawned upon my soul
| have lived, As it were, i'll an atmosphere
exclusively my own | have ever felt
around Inc weird, unreal strangeness,
The air breathe seems unpregnated Ur
laden with the essence Of a something not
Of this world 1t has entered into my very
soul, and by its potent power power |
teel but cannot describe filled it, blended
with it, made it q part of it's own mysteri-
business. | beheve-t t,el-that the disem-
bodied spirit of my murdered father is ever
with me, around me, Icithin me A voice
from the fAr-of shores Of endless time
seems to ring increasingly in my ears, rev
erberates and resounds through my brain,
vibrates in my heart, pulsates i'll my veins;
and though inaudibie to the external
senses, to the inner hearing Of the soul it
sounds louder than the continuous roar of
tropical thunder-ever, ever repeating that
one terrible word, Justice, justice. Deep,
deep i'll my soul, enfxed by the stern hand
Of unrelenting fate, are three incandescent
barbed arrow w-heads-father, mother, sister
all gone. These arrow-hea1s are burning
out MY existence, drying up the fountains
Of my life. Nothing will cool or extract
them but justice TO my father, justice to
that wife whom he 50 sweetly, devotedly,
divinely loved-that mother whose idol
was-my boyhood's god. whose memory
even now is my souls hope, and the only
snother Of my misfortunes T; justice to that
sister whose baby arms were torn from my
neck, whose weeping, supplicating angel
face, and outstretched, imploring hands,
see now plainly as the day she was rude
ly wrenched from my embrace forever, for
ever, Oh, God -
The poor fellows heart leaped up to his
throat and choked further utterance He
sank abstractedly and involuntarily into a
chair, covered his face with his hands, and
wept even as a child. Yes, this great
strong man wept and so forcible and con
vulsive were his sobs, that Lionel was not
only alarmed, but was terrified he trem-
bled and shook like a man with the palsy
He tried to soothe the weeping man, but
when Richard became himself again he had
to soothe the boy, as he was crying even
worse than himself had cried.
"Come, come, Lionel, you must not
weep for me. 1t is all over now. You
called up the "reminiscences which over
powered me We will not refer to them
again. You had better leave me to myself
for short time-but stay moment do
YOU know this mans address in Califor-
MIA n
"I can obtain it by writing home,' an
swered Lionel.
II should like it very much if you would
be 80 kind"
"Why, Of course will, and won't waste
any time either. | will write tonight" p"
answered Lionel As he left the room.
Richard paced the floor in grim silence.
ne IElou W DrliiS HIS IAlhu W OOnA Oh euS
future Of his fellow toilers, but failed. His
thoughts, try how he might, would not
settle upon anything. He picked up the
evening paper and endeavored to read, but
after running through q whole column he
was unable to recall single sentence, or
tell what it was all about His mind was
so densely filled with one all absorbing
thought, that for the time being, all else,
whether cogitative or imaginative, seemed
but the shadow Of dissolving chaos. His
whole being was frozen into one sin
gle idea. He heard nothing, saw nothing,
was conscious Of nothing but his own
wron.s, which, like mighty sea, caused
and fed by worlds of dissolving sorrow,
forever seethingly boiled and foamed
around him. He threw the paper aside,
picked up book, copy of Shakespeare.
| He opened il mechanically and these word,