Dodge City times. [volume] (Dodge City, Kan.) 1876-1892, 1884-10-30

roughs," saucily.
Miss American, you are trifling with
me-" Indignantly. "Kittie, will you be
my wife if promise you to abandon to-
bacco?"
"Ye-s, when you have given it up for
good and ALL" she replies doubtfully.
l attempt to ratify our bargain with a
kiss, but she is too quick for me, and up
in arms in an instant.
Well, i can afford to wait.
We slowly wend our way homeward,
and / am feeling supremacy happy, for
is not my kittie as good as engaged to
me?
l think it wisest to keep my heroic
resolution secret from Basil and Bessie,
so leave my pipe and pouch in their
accustomed place.
"Fill up your old pipe, and come out
on the porch, Dick; [ want to talk with
you about the last scribble of mine, "
Basil calls out to me after supper.
But CURLY decline, greatly to his sur
prise, and seek the seclusion of my
chamber, where pace savagely up and
down, trying to get the better of that in
satiate appetite for the weed nicotian. l
seek my couch early but Morpheus re-
fuses to be wOoed. | toss, tumble, fret
and fume, and finally, about three o'clock
in the morning, arrive at the conclusion
that l love my pipe more tervently than
l love Miss klttie American. l steal
cautiously down stairs, capture my meer-
chaum, and returning to my chamber, /
enjoy long, lazy, delicate smoke.
''Oh, drug more potent to soothe my
fretful nerves than the far-famed mar
cotic of the Orient! l revel in one long
continuous dream of delight, but my ap-
petite is no sooner satisfied than 1 am
seized with a terrible remorse. / have
broken my promise, and have shown
myself to be a miserable weak man.
sit upon the edge of the bed and calmly
think the matter; finally arrive at the
conclusion that stimulant must be oppOs-
ed by stimulant and satisfied with this
theory, | get into bed and fall peacefully
asleep.
In the morning after breakfast sally
forth and procure bottle of the best
brandy can find. This stuff, | agree,
will drown my insstiate thirst for TO-
bacco, as am not in the habit of using
stimulants of this character. ] can cas-
lily dispense with it when it has accom-
pfished my object. l take the liquor to
my room and indulge in it more or less
during the day. | astOnish Bessie and
Basil in the evening by appearing crab
bed and sour and talk in boisterouS,
incOherent manner.
remain more or less under the influ-
euce of brandy during the whole week.
] have so far realized my condition that
/ remain away from Mrs. Americans en-
tirely. Finally, Basil tells me / am fast
going to the bad, and Bessie implores
from certain ruin. i send for the doctor,
who doses me with bromide and fixes
me up all right" as he terms it, and L
return to my pipe again.
90 to see Kittie and eXpostulate
with her. try to reason with her; but
it is all of no avail. She only replies to
whatever l have to say
81 told you l did not believe you
could abandon it. You are too much its
slave"
1t is evident she despises me for being
so weak. ! return home heavy-hearted,
and despairing, and seek solace and SYM
patty in my old meerschaum.
One morning a bright idea strikes me.
/ take my pipe and pouch and walk
about three miles te the summit of a
high hill, vulgarly called "Goose's Hill"
l sit down on an old stump, take fare
well smoke, deposit my pipe and tobacco
on the stump, and return home. | am
sorely tempted during the day, and dur
ing the night also, but l hold steadfast
until the next morning, when my feet
bear me against my will in the direction
of "Goose Hill" and fall from grace
again.
Thrice in the space of three days l
take that absurd journey, and then l
give up. l 60 to kittie and tell her CAM
didly that l have overrated my strength,
that it is impossible for me to abandon
the habit, that even the physician,
on account of my intensely nervous
organization, advised me not to
attempt it unless did so gradually and
that it would be matter of months,
perhaps years; but she remains i'm
pregnable SO far as argument is con-
cerned.
"Why will you not abjure that absurd
vow, dearest kittie?" / exclaim, 81 will
not smoke in your presence any more
than do now, or not at all, if you so de-
sire it."
| AND why Will you not aDanOOn that
absurd habit" she answered me.
"There is no earthly use in our arguing
this question" she continued. IF you
do not give up tobacco, you must give
rue up."
"Kittie, do you not love me?" ask as
"dernier" resort-a final appeal to her
heart and affections.
"You know do, Dick" she confesses
the rosy color mantling her cheeks; 'but
if you love your nasty old pipe better
than you love me, / can never marry
you. My resolution is unalterable."
Before she is aware of it, catch bel
up quickly, kiss her passionately upon
the lips, and rush out of the house.
reach my room, know not how, hurri
eddy pack my valise, rush down stairs
tell my astonished sister that important
business in connection with our proper
ty at the North, demands my immediate
presence there, kiss her goodbye, and
hurry away.
/ Before can scarcely realize it am OF
the cars, being whirled away toward New
jersey, disappointed lover, and dis