The Brookhaven leader., 1884-01-31
Folks began to shun him on the street

shake their heads sadly and walk away,
leaving him speechless with rage Ruin,
the Eclipse remarked. was the only
thing that stared him in the face, and
then plea antly called the attention of
the police to the fact that crimes might
be committed in the lonely and deserted
| business Office of the NeIUS, and nobody
find out about them for weeks and
weeks.
As the advertising columns shrank,
Miss Nolan grew in proportion into n
hldeous nightmare that pursued Ried
in his waking hours and haunted him
| in his dreams. She was Ike an "Old
Man of the Sea-" who had settled down
upon him, and he spent solid months
trying to think how on earth he co Id
get rid of her. A hundred times he
started upstairs to discharge her, when
that horrible mOde-tv would get the
best of him. He would think of her in
nocent, cOntiding look, and her rosebud
mouth, and then speak back into the
countin@-room. Once he nerved him
self to do the deed, and rot as far as her
desk, and blurted out:
"Miss NO'an, are you engagedP"
She raised her beautiful eyes and
transfiXod h m.
"No, I'm not" she said. blushinr
rosy-red. "Gh, Colonel, think you're
awful"
He hadn't strength enough to correct
her misunderstanding and she spread
the report, in her confidential way, that
he had been on the point of a declara-
ton. This reached the ears of his FdHre,
al ,,H s
the district, and she dropped him note
to the effect that they would hereafter
meet as strangers.
Two dreadful months slipped by.
Ried had sunk into a state of hopeless
despair, and every day the Eclipse called
the public to witness that something
should be done, or he might do violence
to himself or others, and simply pointed
to the Ae}cS to cOrrobOrate lis state
ments. This evidence was generally
regarded as conclusive.
Meantime another trouble had arisen.
All of the employees OF the Office had.
as a matter of course, fallen violently in
love with the lady reporter, and this be-
got GOODNESS aid mistrust among
them which eliminated III the pressman
slugging the city editor with an ink-rol-
Ter. and the book-keeper declaring that
he would work no longer in the same
office with so depraved a wretch as the
foreman. Then they resigned in
body, and their plares had to be filed
by migratory and irresponsible charac-
ters, who would get drunk at unexpect-
ed times, overdraw their salary and then
gently and almost imperceptibly fade
away.
The NeaoS had long since ceased to
pay expenses; enormous paper and ink
bills accumulated, and Ried began to
seriously mediate flight One after
noon, while sitting in his deserted
counting-room, he happened to sec that
the display advertisement of Golden
berg, the clOthier, was running longer
than the contract time, and, as hardly
anybody advert sell then, it hadn't been
noticed before; so he turned to the
speaking tube, and yelled up to the
foreman:
''>ay, Charley, kill Goldenberg to-
day. lie ought to have been dead last
weekn'
Miss Nolan listened appalled,, and
tn n slipping on her dolman ran ove-
to the store and confidrntially told her
best Young man that Ried and his fore
man We're making it up to murder Mr.
Gold, nberg. He felt it his duty to tell
the old man, who lost no time in get
ting out warrant for both Of them to
bind them over to keep the peace
Nearly all of Dolores was in the count
room, and when Miss Nolan was placed
on the witness stand she told her story
in such simple, s raj ghtforward, child
ish way that it carried conviction, 1T
least Ried's conviction, with it.
slt's a satanic lier" roarcd the
Colonel, when he was sworn, forgetting
his modesty and everything else in his
desperation. "1hat wr,tch has fal en-
upon me like Bill hit and made hide
Gus, barren desert of my life! printed
four thousand papers before | saw her,
and now the NeicS has scarcely more
circulation than a last years corpse in
the cold and silent tombm He paused
for breath, while the court fined him
fifty dollars for contempt, and then
went on: 'She has branded me as a
maniac, stamped me as a driveling
idiot; my friends avoid me, and seldom
or never offer to shake me for the beer.
As to this last monstrous falsehood, the
remark she referred to concerned an adj
vertisemeRt. your honor, a plain, un-
varnished display advert sement, and
was couched in te unhealthy as inno-
cent of bloodshed as the flowers of
May"
The foreman said he didn't tel'eve
he cared to say nything. lie also re-
marked that he was not a hog, and had
a faint glimmering idea when he had
enough.
"IS that all the defense you have TO
offer?' inquired the Judge.
1T is, sir, gasped the Colonel.
"Then, sir, the Court finds your
story preposterous, and binds ' ou over
in the sum of 5000 to preserve the
peace and dignity of the State of Colora-
do"
Then came an awful crash in Ried's
affairs. Creditors swooped down like
cormorant., and the NeUs' outfit was
d sposed of piecemeal to the job offices
by the Sheriff. The Colonel tore h s
hair, and. for aSime, was demented in
earnest. He had lucid intervals, however,
and in one of them gave bond and fled
between two suns.
Nearly a year after / met him in Den
yer. 1t was most unexpected. He
looked old and seedy, and his coat was
pinned in several places where the but
tons had given way; still he seemed to
- l;,;nnr life Of OlOriOus ease We