The Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1877-1885, 1884-01-28
Miss Nolan, are you engaged"

miss Nolan, are you engaged?n
She raised her beautiful ewes and
transfxed him.
''No, I'm not" she said, blushing
rosy-red. sob, Colonel. l think YOUR |
awful.'
He hadn' 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 fance, |
the daughter of a wealty mine-owner of |
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 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 NeTS to corroborate its state
ments. This evidence was generally
regarded as conclusive.
Meantime another trouble had arisen
All of the employees of the office had,
as matter of course, fallen violently in
love with the lady reporter, and this be-
| got q GOODNESS and mistrust among
| them which eliminated IN the pressman
| smuggling the city editor with an ink-rol-
| ler, 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 a
body, and their places had to be filled
by migratory and irresponsible charac-
| tor w C Il,
ed times, overdraw their salary and then
gently and almost imperceptibly fade
| away.
The News had long since ceased to
| pay expenses; enormous paper and ink
bills accumulated, and Ricd began to
seriously mediate flight. One after
noon, while sitting in his deserted
counting room, he happened to see that
the display advertisement of Golden
berg, the clothier, was running longer
than the contract time, and, as hardly
anybody advertised then, it hadn't been
noticed before; 50 he turned TO the
speaking tube, and yelled up to the
foreman:
"Say, Charley, kill Goldenberg to-
day. He ought to have been dead last
week.
| Miss Nolan listened appalled,. and
tn n slipping on her dolman ran over
to the store and contidantially told her
best young man that kied and his fore
man were making il up to murder Mr.
, Goldenberg. He felt It his duty to tell
the old man, who lost no time in gel
ting out a warrant for both of them to
bind them over to keep the peace
Nearly all of Dolores was in the court
room, and when Miss Nolan was placed
on the witness stand she told her story
in such simple, straightforward, child
ish way that it carried conviction, at
least Reds COMPLETION, with it.
''lt's Il satanic lien' roared the
Colonel, when he was sworn, forgetting
his modesty and everything else in his
desperation That wretch has fallen
upon me like blight and made hide
Gus, barren desert of my life! printed
four thousand papers before l saw her,
and now the NeaoS has scarcely more
circulation than a last years corpse in
the cold and silent tomb" He paused
} for breath, while the cour. fined him
fifty dollars for contempt, and then
went on: ''She has branded me as 8
maniac, stamped me as drivelinQ
idiot; my friends avoid me, and seldom
, or never offer to shake me for the bee:
As TO this last monstrOus falsehoOd, the
remark she referred tt concerned an adj
| vertisement, your honor, a plain, un.
vanished display advertisement, arC
was cOuched in technicality rs limo
cent of bloodshed as the flowers o
May"
The foreman said he didn't lei eve
he cared to say anything. lie also re
! marked that he was not hog, and haC
: faint glimmering idea when he haC
| enough.
. Is that all the tefense you have I,
. oher?' inquired the Judge.
. 81 IT is, sir, gasped the Colonel.
= ''Then, sir. the Court finds YOU
= story prepoSteroUs. and binds YOU owe
in the sum Of $1,000 to preserve tn,
peace and dignity of the State Of Colora
do
!" Then came an awful crash in Ried'
:. affairs. Creditors swooped down lik
= cormorants, and the NeWs' outfit wa
y disposed of piecemeal to the job office
. by the Sheriff. The Colonel tore h
" hair, and. for time, was demented il
i earnest. He dlucid intervals, however
- and in one of them gave bond and fle,
between two suns.
! Nearly year after met him in Den
- yer 1t was most unexpected. H
looked old and seedy, and his coat wa
pinned in several places where the but
q tons had given way; still he seemed t
~ De living a life of glorious ease. W
talked Tor upward Of an hour on oil
times, and then he excused himself
saving that his wife would be expectin
"A him home
" ." Your wifel'' / exclaimed, in aston
" ishment
y, ~ Yes" he said, composed}y: don
~ YOU remember her-hee Nolan. III
~ fact is" he dropped his Vol e lower
10 ''she is working for q society rape ere
: and supporting Us both y
e He started away, and then turne
III round and cried out in a hOarse, wild e2
u ultation: Revenge! mo boy, revenge.
D. -TeraS Sittings.
=; =, Didn't Want 1'llreader.