The Warner weekly sun. (Warner, Brown Co., Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1885, 1884-02-22

a slep hat If you were alive you would re-
oret to morrow I went on, with benevo-
lent persistence, (yous see thatthe fellow had
pre-. empted the only really eligible bough
in fne Wood.1
when you are dead it vllI be too LATE
to change your mind.
You speak TO Inc without knowing what
misfortune has happened to me-"
II can guess it.
mo, you cannot guess it. Sir, d woman
that | loved; a woman whom"
And he went on to tell ME his story,
which, singularly enough, was precisely
like mine. This coincidence made me
pause a moment to collect my thoughts.
II see, " said Charles, Che told me in The
course Of his painful story that his name
was Charles,) that your silence ~justihes
me.'
"By no means" I cried. (You will OBJ
serve that it would not have been dignifed
FOR me to abandon at once my former posi-
tlon on the subject of suicide.) There is
nothing whatever in all that you have told
me to justify you in taking your life. Come,
nav friend, " said ], becoming really interest
ed in the case. come, let us reason the
matter out. Why should you complain be-
cause you have been unfortunate in love?
Don't you know what the poet says?
The lot of girls was to deceive
Since winter first was snowy.
Women nave been false to their lovers from
all time; women will be false to their towers
to oil time"
"But no woman has ever been SO false to
her lover as this woman was 10 me-"
Lots of 'em have"
mo: none could be-"
"But / tell you thousands OF 'em have. /
know one whose conduct towards-towards
IN intimate friend of mine was-.--. Why
should you kill yourself because one pretty
woman has played you false? Seek another
one-a prettier one"
"In vain, in vain, he groaned, she was
the only woman in the world that | cared
for: the handsomest woman in all Paris,
sir"
20, bosh. / know of a hundred hand
somerand more tender than she ever could
be. You may think IL the first moments of
soreness that there are no other women
in the world, but in a month from now
yoG'l be prepared to admit how silly it was
10 entertain such . thought"
Ny eloquence seemed so convincing and
my position SO sound that it was a pleasure
10 me to listen to myself. / went on:
What good will it do you TO hang your
self? Tell me, if you can, what useful pur-
pose can be subserved. Either the woman
has a heart or she has not. If she has nc
heart-'
.She has none-none."
'Of course she has none. Therefore
your death will only be agreeable to her
will only fatter her. Tt is a big advertise
ment for a woman to hive a man kill him
self on her account. What will the public
sav-the boys? They'll say, Charles was
IN ass. Yes, Charles, everybody will say
you are a silly ass, and everybody will be
right in saying So"
| waxed eloquent, in foint OF fact, for
some moments it had occu red to me thai
I was arguing my own case, pleading for
any own life. / heaped fact upon fact add
I'd arguranat TO argument, with such earn.
| estness and closnsess of reasoning that my
friend Charles at last fell into my arms and
cried, You are right, you are right; bid
me do whatever you would and l will
obey"
All right" said /, 'let us go and get
some breakfast"
I brought him back to the Golden Lion.
/ was terribly hungry.
The table at which we seated ourselves
was neatly set, and aided ones appetite by
its snowy linen, its glittering glassware, its
golden brown ~loaves, its yellow butter.
When a thick and juicy stea with pota-
toes lad been served mp to us, tapping our
prisoned nostrils in the elysium of its ap-
petizing oders and stlining our knives with
vermeif essence, and we had tasted our
6rst glass of remarkably particular Bor-
deaux, we were rapturously silent, but our
| speaking eyes said-nay, shouted. well,
life isn't such a bad thing after ALL"
If | hadn't met you, said Charles, reach
ing across the table to squeeze my hand.
IF hadn't met him, " / thought, as I
returned his cordial grasp.
1T was the most remarkable piece of
luck / ever heard of, he continued; i
don't suppose that a human being goes
through thai copse twice in il month"
i remained discrettly silent.
But / say, you know, he went on, as
IL a sudden light has flashed upon him,
what were you doing in that lonely pert
| Of the wood at that early hour Of the morn
ing?'
4 could not help blushing guilty..
@Ycu were going TO hang yourself,
| too"
Il was-upon the very same tree. Here's
tho rope l had in my pocket.
The best joke l ever heard OF" said
Charley, as we clinked our glasses.-From
the French.