The Louisiana Democrat. [volume] (Alexandria, La.) 1845-1918, 1886-12-01
IN TIE MIDDLE WEST.
A Story of Life in the Great
Mississippi Valley.
BY ALVA MILTON KERR.
COPYRIGHT, 1856, BY THE A. N. KELLOGG
NEWSPAPER COaPANY.1
CHAPTER XVI.-CoNrINuEp.


"To please Joel Whitney, said the
old man, with an oath. He keeps
him on the bench through the influ-
ence of the ring. so that some one
smarter than Ashman can't go through
The judgeship to Congress, for Joel is
darby working for that himself, teeth
and toe-nail. / guess you can see
about how the land lays, and about
the size of the sea of suds you've got
to navigate before your ideal will have
fair sailing"
John Earring said nothing, but con-
tinued to walk up and down with his
brows knit and his nostrils set. The
old lawyer put on his hat and went
out, and, as he descended the stairs, he
clawed the air viciously, and said, with
sort of nasal yawl: Yah! there'll
be hair after all, bristles as big as cat
tails!n
John Earling walked on into the
night with the future before him. He
was sending his heart ahead of him
with his hopes, desires and inclina-
tons feeling about in that great, dim
region. much as clear sea-water might
enter and feel about in some long,
shadowy, grim and rock-strewn cave.
Ever and anon he dropped his thoughts
into his bosom, and he felt, whatever
might come, whatever he might suffer
OF blight, or poverty, or bitterness at
the hands of fortune, he never could
be craven trickster to win her smiles.
All the tides of his nature set the other
way. How could he bear to be kind
OF pensioner on the injury of others? A
sort of almoner at the doorway of mean
ness! No; if his conception of manhood
must be reversed, his ideals of purity
and honor be broken, he would aban-
don the line of life he had chosen. He
and the ground could at least be honest
with each other; and he thought again
OF the pillow. Labor might be brutal
lzlng, as some fine souls had held, but
ne doubted if 1t could be as vitiating as
towork in cloud of strife and evil. He
would 60 forward at any rate, and he
swore in his heart, there in the dark
ness, that if events should at last force
him the width of hair from the line
OF honest conduct he had lain down,
Ahe would abandon his profession for
some simpler field Of action. He would
De honest, he would be just and up
right, he would be man, in spite
OF the vipers, vapors, snares, pitfalls
and avarice of the time; and he went
out into the starlight with his fists
clinched and walked away beyond the
limits of the town, feeling his heated
neart beat steadily in presence OF the
majesty and beauty of the clear cool
night.
Over him the heavens were open to
avast height and sown with God-quar-
RED silver, about him the smell OF
flowers, and below him the river, di.
Viding the meadows like a road OF
phosphor. How paltry thing life had
seemed an hour ago! How evil thing
almost, when he had been close upon
the marrying game man had made Of
1t! Now. how divine! How above 9th
er earth-iife the life of man seemed
when he stood alone in presence OF the
smoothly moving universe with his cal
against the woodworking heart Of
silence!
Musing so, he heard at length the
courthouse clock boom family the
hour of midnight, and he turned bach
and went homeward across the tleldi
with his hair blown back from his brow
oy the sweet winds. and his feet among
the diamonds made by the marriage o
the moon and dew. AS he came to the
edge of the town he looked up quickly
Is. II some influence had suddenly
touched him, and cav that he was be
lore the old attorneys house
ne stopped . moment ant