Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1880-12-11
BY EDWARD F. cAHtLL.


well, scarcely-in that sense. l sup
pose he considers me an Insignificant little
chit, and he does not look like man who
cares to fetch and carry"
"Isuppose he does not care for the re-
wards accorded for carrying brown paper
packages. He is more of master than a
servant"
81 guess he never bothers himself about
anything more sentimental than money or
mining shares, said Gertie, with quiet
glance at her hostess.
Talking of shares" said the latter,
g He dropped me line about the Old
Judge stock before he left. .
They are still going up, | see"
Yes, and no one knows when they will
stop I wish l could see him, for am
getting frightened they are going SO
high"
"oh, everyone says they are only begin
ming to go up. and that there is ne telling
when they will stop"
Eyes; but consider for moment.
They have gone from Al to SO in lees than
four months, and it seems as if it was more
than they could possibly be worth"
"oh, that is nothing, if the reports of
the experts be anything like true"
Aye, but are they true? When l con-
slider that if | were to sell out now, 1
would be rich, and could leave this drudg
cry forever; it almost drives me mad.
son, well, my few shares are not worth
selling yet, said Gertie. "With you it
may be different, but should advise you
to wait until you see him-that is, if you
think he is acting squarely by you"
eff thought he was deceiving me, I
believe l could kill him" she Kissed with
concentrated fire.
"Oh. Mrs. Harlay p cried Gertie " for
shame But then, of coarse, you didn't
mean it,
1t may not be pleasant picture, but is
true one. There is nothing moro unsexing
to womanhood than the hard contact of
dollars and cents, and when to this is su-
peradded the excitement of gambling, they
are ready to 60 to greater lengths than the
other, more phlegmatic sex. Their more
highly-wrought feelings and emotions are
more susceptible to the pleasure of success
or the pain Of failure. l believe that when
a woman is given up to the pursuit of gain,
she can be harder and keener in the exac-
ton of her pound of flesh than any Shy
lock OF them all. They are rarely able to
see more than one side OF case (Portia to
the contrary Notwithstanding, and are IN
able to perceive that the man who has
failed to meet his engagements may have
something to offer in his defense after all.
So they chatted until dinner time
gathered together the various inmates of
the house. There was Mrs. Blake and
Gertie, with Charlie Gould in attendance.
There was Frank Dawiish, the curb
stone broker" and his fair young wife. a
curious, nomadic couple, these last, with
scarcely any local habitation and not a
very good name, at least, SO far as he was
concerned. Living altogether from hand
to mouth, but always living well, going
into the best society, or at least the best
imitation of it, and wearing the newest
clothes, they presented a most remark
able financial puzzle to the eyes of their ad-
miring friends, who wagged their heads
wisely and averred in mysterious phrase
that Frank was a rustler." He had failed
in business in the city,. and, having sold oil
his furniture and everything else which
benefcent law exempted from the clutches
of the Sheriff and those pampered rogues,
his creditors, he and his wife took to living
at hotels and fashionable boarding houses,
and he went on ''the street" He was
blessed with agreeable manners and a
pleasant presence, with an uDfaIling reser-
voir of talk, and, in fact, was master of all
the weapons needed by those who make
their living son the outside" If his
talents were now called into exercise to
wheedlea dun and now to entice possible
buyer, out of whom he hoped to earn fat
commission, he was equal to either fortune.
There, too, was a young man who was
introduced to Charlie as Mr.. Holmes (com-
monty known as Jack Holmes), the editor
of the BasSoon, weekly paper of advanced
views which aspired to be apostolic rather
than historical in its labors. OF fine,
manly appearance, with broad, open brow
and clear, unshriaking eyes, he was the
very reverse of Dawlish in most things,
whose only point of contact with him was
chronic inability to say where the money
for the next collection day was to come
from. Dawlish stigmatizad him tbehind
his back, of course, for in society we do not
e say things to each others facesl, as d
dirty communist who was doing his utmost
to break down the prosperity OF San Fran
CISCO" which, when translated, meant that
Jack Holmes considered stock gambling
the greatest curse OF the Pacific Slope, and
that he was uneeasing in his denunciations
of It, and of the political knavery IN high
places. If asked to characterize Dawish,
Jack would probably have called him, edi.
torially, "a vile jaekal who scented carrion
for the wolfsh monopolies which fatten off
the poor" We all know that calling names
is more effective than argument; We are ac-
customed to handy the terms g communist"
and monopolist. without very clearly
understanding or caring to understand the
meaning of the words, and we simply use
them as convenient expressions OF COM
pressed ill-will for everyday consumption.
In fact, it is a difficult matter to deduce
from the outgivings of our modern orscles
whether il Is more sinful to be poor or to be