New Ulm weekly review. [volume] (New Ulm, Minn.) 1878-1892, 1886-01-20
POOR DICK WARRINGTON.


q scholar, who had won honors at
Cambridge, and was regarded as one
of the best men in q college at that
time unusually rich in promise. He
had just seen one familiar companion
OF his in the old days pass into the
New Law Cathedral, outside whose
gates he was lounging. The famous
Judge gave a glance at the disreputa-
BILE loafer &c he went by, but never rec
ognized him; if he had done SO, he
would probably have spoken, for he
was kindly hearted man. But this
very fact made the reprobate more
bitter. II his old friend had cut him,
there would have been some ground
for declaiming against the hollow
ness Of mankind; but Dick Warrington
knew we'll enough that he himself had
sunk out OF recognition, but ones own
worthlessness is not SO cheeringa sub
Iect of meditation as the worthless
ness Of other people.
He pondered over neither, but only
gazed moodily after the retreating fig
.s1re of his old comrade, and then
turned and sauntered into Long Acre.
He was nearing his:lodgings; they lay
in dingy court half q mile away,
when it occur1 ed to him that he had
forgotten his mission. He had come
out, with the idle good nature that
seldom deserted him, to buy wine for
his landlady' s husband-dying the doc
tors said, ofconsumption. Dicks quar-
terly pay had just arrived from the
Social Hearth, for he contributed to
that shady serial, which is u base
imitation OF the Family Herald, with
none OF it's virtues and with all it's
vices. The Family Herald, indeed,
has few uices; for it is an excellent
periodical, and you may obtain from
Che editor, for nothing, advice on any
earthly subject you choose to consult
him upon, which advice will always be
rterse and definite, and improving.
Also you may find essays on politics
land social science therein, if you are
1ntellectual-essays that inspire one
with a wish that the editor OF the
Family Herald were happily controll-
ing the destinies Of our empire instead
of the too patriotic cliques which con-
strol it at present. While, as for the
Eales-but this is no place to rhapso-
die, even over the Family Herald.
Warrington was on the staff of the
! Social Hearth, which is, as everybody
knows, a foolish and vulgar periodi-
cal, whose CRITICISM of life'' is not
worth twopence. 1t paid very badly;
but he contributed more Or less to
several other journals; OF which Bow
Bells was the most respectable. It
was a marvel how he with his talent
could write badly enough to suit
some of these editors. He said ittook
practice; but on the whole he succeed
Jed admirably, and the stories and ar
sticles he furnished to the public show
ed better than anything else how far
he had fallen. And yet there was q
battered remnant Of nobility in him,
hardly conscious of it's own existence.
AS some old picture may lie long
in dark lumber room hidden behind
great masses Of rubbish, till a
Kindly hand opens the shutter,
lets IN the fresh air and the sunshine
and disperses the piled-up lumber, a
chance touch shakes away the cover
;Ing from the forgotten picture, scat
zfels it's dusty veil, and, hardly dimmed
by years, It's beauty CLEANS into the
Hight again-a Turner, a Velasquez.
SO the spiritual virtuoso may come
across strange treasure trove, acts OF
chivalry, OF self-forgetfulness in the
most unexpected quarter, dear to his
heart as the Elzevirs to the biblioma-
MAC. We were human Elzevirs once,
may be; but like the shabby volumes
sthe book hunter filings aside with dis
dain, we have been very much cut
down.
Dick bought the wine and returned
aeisurely to hlslodgings. Hestole cau-
tionsly up the dark, crooked stairs into
the marrow passage, and as he
traversed it a strange thing hap
pened. Through the venerable,
ancient air Of London lodg-
5zng house that landladies always
sseemto fancy improves with keeping
and indeed, it does require q certain
fine mellowness wherein are combined
the essence Of many different doors
there came to him the scent Of hello.
brope. With it returned the memory
of q day when. his sister had been to
visit him, and with her one OF hel
friends. q beautiful light-hearted CIR
whom Dick had cared for with tran
ssient boyish passion. He had bought
bouquets for them, and among flow
.ers he gave to his sisters friends was
3 sprig OF the dim, gray purple bios
som.
He did not pause to wonder why
the old scent came back to him in this
widely different atmosphere, butpass
ing on entered the invalid's room
Mrs. Hartley was not there, but h,
saw, standing by the bedside, q cir
dressed in the garb Of a privat,
sisterhood with a cluster OF flow
ers at her brooch. Her figure wa
slender and graceful, and he could Sc
readily enough that she was q lady
His acquaintance included seyera
women who had taken the ''craze TO
humanity and typhus fever" as he II
reyerently expressed it, and Iris Ender
by's presence did not astOnish him