The Portland daily press., 1878-07-13

upon this matter of apparel, "but it doesn't
count, with all its gaudy feathers, it can't
sing worth a cent. 1t looks well, but its mu-
sic is the most abominable noise l ever heard
and | have boarded in a house where they
kept melodeop,' he added with a conclu-
sive toss of the head.
Like most printers, "Ol1 Noah" was a
good deal of cynic, though his cynicism
was so closely woofed with subduing sim
certify that it was very difficult, frequently
quite impossible, to tell where the one left off
and the other began. As have said, he
looked upon life as play, and he was fond
OF reciting Shakespeare's "Seven Ages" in
support of this idea. cts all right" he
would argue, "as long as you don't care.
That's the whole secret. Ignorance is bliss,
much that bothers people, and if you're
bothered you can't enjoy the show, don't you
see? 1t isn't altogether unlikely. let me tell
you, that well-behaved dog, asleep in the
sun, and sure of bone for his dinner, isn't
better off than we are, with all our wisdom
and all our doubts" And yet he reverenced
wisdom, am sure, and respected all honest
opinions, and think that away down in his
heart, lurked quiet faith in the saving
power OF virtue but doubt if he believed
very much in the naked moral strength OF
uuLldu udtuTc. kuOW uo OuCo oOACiy ell0u
my patience in that regard. l was telling
him how George Insley, known to both of us
as a hardened specimen of the printer-toper,
had taken the pledge and was manfully keep
ing it; and after had finished, with the as.
surance that Insley had not tasted liquor for
nearly six months (he subsequently shot
himself, poor fellow y he dropped his head a
moment, and then looking up with an in
credulous smile, said quietly:
There was some truth in those Arabian
Nights stories, then, after all ?"
Slngularly enough, too, his skepticism was
confined to his own sex; singularly, say, for
s'It was Eve that the snake had to charm
and betray," he was accustomed to put it /;
"Adam fell as matter of COURSE" This
was little sophistic, to be sure, as much of
his logic was apt to be, but the sentiment of
| it was SO knightly that it readily won him
| credit among his critical fellow-printers, even
| at the expense of some disloyalty to their
| own personal sense of masculine superiority.
He had been in love, once in his life, this
| tattered prodigal, and the venture had not
been what could be called complete success.
he told me all about it, of his own accord,
one restful night as we sat on the bridge at
| the foot of Kansas avenue, listening to the
culver of the cottonwood foliage, and watch
| ing the river slowly gather the shadows to
| its tawny bosom. He was religiousiy sober
| that night, tor wonder, and felt that it
| mast have been some subtle witchcraft of the
atmosphere, rather than the few $3.50 re-
| marks we had just been exchanging about
Phil. Reade's marriage with the winsome lit.
| tie singer, Minnie Beals, that so suddenly
drew his eyes away from the water and out
| into the vague perspective beyond the oppo-
site shore, and sent his thoughts backward
with a bound, as it were, to the rich days
| when every sky was blue to him and every
| sound rapture of harmony.
''She was good, solemn GIRL" he began,
Sand think her intentions were honorable
| all the time. I know, now, that she was not
handsome, for her eyes were crossed slightly,
and her cheek bones were high, and her chin
had retiring turn-the face didn't Justify
| you understand her hair inclined to
redness; but she was as beautiful to me, then,
| as flower, and I loved her very dearly. /
was holding the 'ad.' cases on the Quincy
Herald, in Illinois, at the time. and saving
some money every week. l was expecting to
be man of family, you know. had fixed
in my own mind what kind of house we
would have, where we would buy our grocer
les, how the children would look and what
we would name them There were to be sew
eral of them, all girls), and hundred other
things that I'm ashamed to think of now.
But it was all very real to me then, I tell you.
Not that ever spoke to isabel-pretty name,
wasn't it ?-about such matters. 0 no. We
were very sensible pair of lovers, I assure
you, and our courtship was painfully correct.
There was none of the syon bright orb nom
sense about us. We weren't bit spooney.
We didn't turn the light down, nor hold each
other hands, nor say darling Not any.
Once, only once, put my arm around her
waist, and might have kissed her, may be,
but she looked squarely into my face and said
You forget and that was all there was of it.
] used to wish sometimes that she would be
little more demonstrative-one gets tired
of mere words, you know, in takes of that
kind-but perhaps perhaps it was better as
it was"
He paused and pressed his hands to his
forehead, as if he feared the sweet memory
would slip away from him in his talk; and
l sat waiting for him to proceed, busying my
self meanwhile with thought of a certain
June-cheeked Juliet to whom l had myself
played Romeo, and whose half-forgotten i'm.
age his idyl had strangely restored to me
there in thu pensiVe starlight.
"Well," he continued, directly, eve were
very happy-too happy, Cap.-too happy. If
there hadn't been quite so much or it, it
truth is, was so happy that had to do
something TO tone it down-to loosen the
quoins, you might say-and took to drink
ing like fish. I couldn't have helped it to
save my life. Perhaps if she had acted a lit
tie warmer towards me, and could have
caressed and kissed her-been little more
ambrosial, you underestimate would have
made difference with me. But don't
know-I don't know"
he relapsed into silence again, and there
was only the dull fretting of the waters about
I, .;1u - l. Al
until, after severa minutes, he resumed
rapidly now, and with apparent anxiety to
have done with the subject:
''She bore with it month after month, as
patiently as a nun, but she couldn't stand it
always, of course, and so she told me, at
last, not in anger, or buntly, but with firm
ness, and yet sadly, thought, that the time
had come for us to part. 1t would have
choked me to speak, even if speaking could
have done any good, which it couldn't; so I
simply took her hand a moment-it trembled,
calm as she was-and bowling, went away.'
He paused once more, and l was on the
point of rising, supposing he had said all he
had to say, but he motioned me 10 remain,
and went on talking. "After that, lay sick
long time-eight weeks, they told me-wth
some Internal sort of fever, and the money I
bad saved went to the doctors. I pulled
through, Of course. Men have died from
time to time, and worms have eaten them,
but not for love- l don't know how it was,
bus when I got up again my brain seemed to
be kind Of incoherent,-' you might
say,-and couldn't get steady work, and f.
nally they began to whisper around about
sending me to Jacksonville, that's where
the crazy asylum is, you know. Then I
braced up, and the first dark night, jumped
the town without saying a blessed word to
anybody, and since then,-well, you know
the rest, or good deal of it. But you didn't
know-you would never have guessed it if 1
hadn't told you that it was too much happi-
ness made me what amp"
With this last paradox, he turned partially
aside, and l noticed that he was fumbling
his clothes as if in search of something-to-
bacco, I presumed. Presently, he drew out
from some inscrutable hiding place an old
creased and rumpled leather pocket-book,
and took from it faded sprig of cedar, and
handing it to me, said, with that CLASSY, Gym
ical smile had seen so often: "There's rose
mary, that's for remembrance. Pray you,
love, remember" Then he told me Isabel
had given it to him once, standing by the
gate, and that he had carried it through all
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