The Cincinnati daily star. [volume] ([Cincinnati, Ohio]) 1875-1880, 1880-03-27

allegorical images were conjured upon
the mind of the would-be lawyer and
poet, unaware of what was yet in store
for him. He at once took Blackstone as
his model, and was wont to sweeten and
solace his hours of legal study by throw
ing off poem or two, anon an ode, ded-
icated, like Jean-Jacques Rousseau's-
to posterity, and no less destined to the
dead letter office; anon poem to cousin
Maggie, in which there was sure to be a
good deal about brotherhood of men,
and the sisterhood of women, and every
body's duty in life, and about his own
reasoning powers in particular. Jack
was rather believer in women's rights,
and went pretty constantly to meetings
where he heard a great deal of talk in
shrill feminine voices, and great deal
of shril feminine abuse showered on the
head of any one who kaprened to dis
agree with the speakers. Jack always
came away from these meetings with
strong feeling of mental and moral re-
freshment; it seemed to him as if the
good time of brether-and-sisterhood and
the reign of science and all the rest was
coming very near indeed. In politics
Jack was benign sort of Communist,
and was very anxious indeed te see all
the possessions of everybody else shared
about according to the truest principles
of Fourier-about whom he knew very
little-and other advanced thinkers.
There was one topic that interested Jack
very much, and that was the question of
hygiene as applied to his own digestion,
for he was always very careful as to what
he ate and drank, and thoughtfully con-
sidered whether anything was likely to
agree with him or not before he ventured
to partake of it.
In appearance Jack was in no wise
different from the average young man of
three or four-and-twenty, and he was
was never conspicuous in his dress, which
was always carefully ill-made after the
newest and most approved style. Such
was Jack before his conversion took
place.
This great event in Jacks life came to
pass in this fashion. He went one night
to the theater. This was rare occur
renee with him, but the play was one of
a series of Shaksperean revivals in which
a successful actor was startling London,
and Jack felt bound in honor to the ma
tional poet, about whom he talked a
great deal, although he did not read him
very often, to patronize the performance.
From his modest seat in the dress circle
he stated with all the earnest grav-
ity of unfrequent theater-goers upon
the stage, whenever, which was rarely,
his eyes were not fixed upon copy OF
the play which he had brought with him,
and from whose pages he followed the
observations of the actors with a touch
ing pertinacity. At the end Of one of
the acts he went for stroll in the lobby,
and was gazing with ingenious interest
at everything and everybody, when his
attention was suddenly arrested by a
singular figure. This was young man
of about his own age, who was leaning
languidly against pillar, with look of
utter indifference upon his face. The
most conspicuous thing about him was
his hair, which he wore very long,
and in rather tumbled condition, ow-
ing doubtless to habit he had of fire.
quently passing his hands through it, as
if to assure himself that it was there
still, and had not departed, in common
with SO many poetic illusions, in the
hard realities of the world. The young
man was clad in evening dress, and it
had never occurred to honest Jack that
it was possible to do anything with these
garments Of night that could make one
suit differ from another, but now he
learned the contrary. The alterations
were not very many in themselves, but
as whole they constituted a distinctin-
dividuality of their own.
ITO BE Continued