Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1882-10-29

AAN0 0AesAAAy ~V q s"AASA HAA>SeS A4SoA
Investments.
Such horrible Life could not long
continue without giving extreme evi-
dence of it's results. Baston gradually
grew thin, paIlid. dry and mortuary in
complexion and feature. His hair and
mustache began to be visibly sprinkled
with gray. His nose ard chin sharpened.
his hands grew tremulous, deep wrinkles
appeared about his eyes and cheeks, and
underneath the former the skin assumed
dali, lead-colored look. In a word,
the decadence of life, falling upon his
soul, affected his body, and, though only
two and thirty, he bore more marks Of
age than a healthy man should at two
and-ffty.
The brandy that he took, neverthe-
less, did its work upon his physical sys-
TEN. The point of his nose became Evid,
and minute purple veins meandered just
beneath the surface of the skin. His
eyes lost the humidity chat gives those
organs their brightness and glitter.
Always clean-shaven and scrup1lously
elegant in bis attire, he still had the air
Of descending man, going swiftly and
surely to ruin worse than death.
After play he dined-almost always
aione-m the restaurant of the CONVEX
sation Haus, and in the evening loitered
about the lobbies of the theaSers. Al
though, as have said, every one knew
him, it was rather to avoid than to seek
his companionship. This, however, pro-
duced no more effect upon his spirits
than any other outward circumstance.
Having no belief in, or love for, human
ity, human sympathy was as much a
matter of Indifference as human hate.
This extraordinary and fearfully alb
normal condition is happily rare. Few
spirits are so originated as to suffer a
blight which may be termed, perhaps, a
spiritual death, except through longer
and more persistent agony than most
men ever have to undergo. Baston,
however, was of the sensitive kind. He
had placed his whole life in one pas
sion and saw everything through the
medium OF that passion. Hence, when
cruelty disiliusionne, he decided at once
that all women were like Maggie Lowell.
To fippant nature. such thorough
disenchantment seems impossible; but
only because the thoroughness of the
enchantment seems equally sc.
With less evenly balanced intellect,
Baston would undoubtedly have taken
! his ew0 life; but where the souls vitali-
ty is already gone there is little tempta-
ton to sef-murder. So he lived on,
mechanically, and his weary hours were
only marked by the evil and unwhole-
some incidents of the gambling tables.
A heavy, dun fog lay upon the bosom
Of the Hudson, yelling its shores from
sight, and making the vessels that lay
motionless in the stream look ghostly
and distorted. The sounds of the city
and the noise of sailors at work came
confusedly and indistinct over the water.
/ The swift, smooth tide flowed down past
the piers and slips where deep, dark cur
rents eddied round and round among the
piles. bearing fragments OF drift straw,
! wood, bottles and buoyant rubbish
! that went bobbing about in circles for
awhile, until, gaining the stream, they
hurried, fast and silent, down the river
to the bay and out toward the bread
ocean.
| A light breeze occasionally waited the
heavy mist hither and thither, dis
closing for q moment a gray sail Of a
schooner or the high, black hulk of a
frigate, which faded away again on the
instant, like the phantom ships Of old
nautical traditions.
From the western shore of the harbor
the mufded and distant sound of OARS
rafting in the row-locks and splashing
In the water indicated the course of q
row boat. An old and dilapidated seine
skif, rusty and greasy, speckled with
fish scales and worn by rough usage,
crept slowly out from Communipaw and
threaded its way among the countless
stakes of the shad nets that bristle above
the surface of that portion of the bay.
It was rowed by father and son, lanky,
tow headed, brown faced men, with
hairy arms and hands mis.shapen from
constant pulling at the oars and net
ropes. Rough of manner, uncouth OF
gesture, low of ambition and slow OF
comprehension, these fishermen, never.
theless, had q full share Of the natural
kindness of heart and human sympathy
that characterize the humble every.
where. They worked together in storm
and shine, and shared their gains and
their bread, without the pickering that
so frequently mar the relations between
more cultivated men.
Rowing from stake to stake, they
hitched up the net, ring. by ring, and aa
soon as o fish appeared above water,
hanging by the gills in the wide meshes,
removed it and placed it in bed of eel.
grass on the bottom of the boat.
"Taaten up that line little more,
Jenny" said the father, in o rough
but good-humored voice ''the net says
here"
"Hold on by that stake, then, till ]
get for'ard. Seems to me it's darned
heavy this mornin'."
"Can't you hist it? Here, gi' me 6
holt onto it.
Jenny had, In fact, been pulling will
all his strength of thew and sinew t.
raise the net where it sagged down by
the stake, but in vain. His father
strong arm was brought to bear also, ani
after tug OF two and a "now then 7
the net began to arise, bat slowly ani
heavily.
"There's big ketch, guess. tt
time we had some luck anyhow"
The old man did not reply. Hi.
practiced eye, piercing the green trans