Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1883-08-07
Gales ano Sksttkes.
IN An ELEVATOR.

PIC b0tus anu tucJ sdiu 81 Dccdust uc was
very diffident. This was constitutional
with him. His mother had been an easily
agitated girl. shrinking from conta It with
strangers, and John. her oldest child was
diffident to a painful degree. This diff
dence resulted in positive awkwardness.
because the boy was quick and bright
intellectually, and, once acquainted with
people, was easy and graceful even in
their presence. He had rare, attract
i've face, quick TO express the swift play
ing emotions of an extremely sensitive ma
ture. and strangers were, a rule,
drawn toward hin with a tenderness con-
trolling them they could not understand.
The coming of such people always agi-
tated the boy without displeasng him.
and their going relieved him while it
grieved him. He was thus peculiarly
relieved In his relations to other people for
while his face attracted them. his manner
discouraged any near approach
It was thought at first that this diffidence
would disappear as the boy grew older
and understood the demands of society
fed as he grew older. but it could no
more he made to disappear than the boys
enthusiastic love of pictures ard music.
gravely discussed the question whether
or not this peculiar trait of character
would not forever impair his usefulness
a. man. In the mean time the boy made
astonishing progress in his studies at
school and in his reading at home. He
stood in advance of children older than
himself. who were the very opposite OF
diffident. This made him puzzling and
contradictory character to the people. but
they did not excuse him for his one fault
IS they called it, and his requirements
brought him no special reputation because
he could make no well organized display
His difiidence stood in his way. and moth
ing could rouse him to overcome it. He
would execute an order or resent an insult
on the instant. but after all he was only
bashivl John Pringle.
Many very good people sneered at the
boy as weakling, and others. provoked
beyond endurance. advised that he be
punished. They argued that he was stub
born. and that whipped beyond the line
once he would forget his bashiulness and
be like other children. John in ali these
years had two staunch friends-his mother
and the old family physician. He often
disappointed them, but they always ex-
cused him.
John became man and required a
mans ability in action. People could not
understand it. but nature had in some way
suited her growing and developing pro
cesses to his peculiarly and there was no
denying the fact. he was a man. Another
surprise awaited the people-John chose
to commence life in Chicago, the very last
place, they thought, for Young man of
his upcnliuritias In sraf
people who had always insisted that he
should be whipped out of his diffidence
losing sight OF him, ceased to worry about
him and ceased to annoy his mother by
impel tinent suggestions and cruel prophe-
cies. John Pringle in Chicago was al
ways standing puzzle to them They
talked about the case and laughed as they
asked:
what will the boy doP What can he
do in such a place P''
Johns life in Chicago was answering
these questions very much to his own sat
isfaction and his mothers He was still
controlled by an involuntary, shrinking
constituencies. but this hardly ever inter.
fered with his business. The same quality
that made him good scholar at school
made him successful business man in his
little way among men who were the very
princes of business men.
As an observer outside his special bust
ness field, John was not practical. He
lived quietly ut a pleasant boarding
house, knowing little about the city, and
without learning anything about his fell
low boarders. He dressed well, he paid
his bills regularly. he conducted himself
with prOpriety. and the boarders knew
little about him. He was always referred
to as the quiet young man in the corner
room, third floor, and entered no further
than mere reference into general con-
versation.
John was content to be left alone. He
thought at first that he was to be persecu-
ted BY young lady boarder who sat near
him at the table. He prided HIMSELF lit
tie on the assumed GOODNESS that drove
her from him or that checked her impulse
to become acquainted. He was sure she
was an actress. and that the young man
who sat beside her was unduly familiar
and her lover. After an interval of some
months, the simple fact that the two were
husband and wife. and that the lady's adj
vances toward him had been instigated by
her husbands suggestions that the young
man was homesick. forced itself upon
him. and caused him to gnash his teeth in
selt-censure. But he made mistakes in
regard to the relations to the others with
out mending his ways. He built on first
impressions an ideal picture in which he
assigned persons and place situations in
the general grouping and he continued to
dream about them on this basis, never
caring for facts. and therefore never i'm
pressed by them.
John feared persecution from another
quarter. His employer had known his
mother when she was girl, and was con.
stantly sounding her praises. This en-
ployer. John knew. had daughter who
was spoken OF by gentlemen as sprightly,
vivacious, and self-possessed. John dis
liked to meet self-possessed people, and
yet he admired them. He fancied that
this young lady would meet him,
that she would make an effort to become
acquainted. that he would be invited u
the house and make . hundred blunders.s
and that all these blunders would be ps-
raded BY the sprightly young lady in her
Conversation with her many gentleman
friends. Once fancied. John assumed this
q true, and resolved to war against fate.
He met he young lady iirss seated in :
carriage with her father and mother. and