Richland beacon., 1888-03-17

with this, and with his warped figure
md curious gait, he reminds one O.
some satyr translated from the groves OF
fable to New Yo:k, and invested in the
livery of the time. The Youngsters about
the tables in tn, cafe view him with,
perhaps, not unnatural Gu: 10 ,ity, thouoh
they must know him well enough by
this time, and tell many stories about
him which, doubtless, do not suffer by
the license Of tho Imagination. The most
eloquent and significant story that |
know about him is one in which ] saw
him act his part with my own eyes,
1t was after the theatre. was cross
ing Madison Square on my way from the
Lyceum to supper The night was keen,
and white with moonlight which, aided
by the electric lights, made glare in
tenser than that of day. Huddling on
the benches in TIE Park, some homeless
creatures, men and women, were steal
ing scrap Of broken rest from the vigi-
lance of the guardians Of the peace. In
| the open space around the fountain |
saw my man in brown, walking at his
usual gait. The shadows of the trees
made a wall of hlackncss all around him.
lie stopped, and l saw that man had
emerged from the blnckness and tccosted
him. When CAME upon them, so close
in passing that | might have touched
either with my hand, | noted that there
was an amazing resemblance between the
two, that left no doubt as to their rea-
tionship. They must be brothers, and,
with almost equal certainty, twins; but
while the one bore all the marks Of
abundance about him, the other was
branded by the al. .ectest poverty. This
man had been speaking in loud and
angry voice, and as came up with them,
the other admonished him with a warn
ing, "Ssh."
'"Why should hush," cried the
| shabby man; II have nothing to be
ashamed of. did not rob my brother
Of his money, and send him to the bad =,
did II"
He had raised his voice as passed on,
with an evident intention to have it
reach my ears. The man in brown said
something which did not catch, and
the other called to HE to stop. l kept
on my way, of course, and an hour later
! saw the brown man climbing the steps
| of the brown house, while a squalid
shadow Of himself 5kulked at The nearest
corner, watching him with white fury
in its face and red anger in its eye,
that meant murder as plainly as If the
word had been branded on the frowning
brow.
For some weeks thereafter / rarely
saw the man in brown, AMI | saw him
daily, without this menacing familiar.
As he shambled along, his sordid other
self limped close behind him. Neither
seemed to give any attention to the
other, nor did the man in brown bctray
any special annoyance at the dogged pur-
suit of which he was made the OBJ .ect. But
there was wicked spark in the hazel
brown eyes that could be easily trans
lated to mean trouble. That the little
drama would have found tragic climay,
l had begun to feel sure, when, one after
noon, fate stepped in to prevent it. The
brown mans shadow, in the middle of his
chase, fell into fit. He foamed at the
mouth, and writhed in commissions, and
howled incoherent cur es till the police
carried him off to hospital, where, two
days later, he died. The newspapers an
nounced it in a paragraph, Stating that
he hid heen the black sheep of al old
Knickerbrockcr family: that he had been
cast off by his relatives, and had served
a long term in State Prison for forgery
The man in brown paid for his funeral,
and, no doubt, viewed it as rare bar
gain; for several days there was visible
nj tO, nd
he appeared to pursue his daily routine
of existence with a renewed zest.
Then dark change came over him.
Was it because, in the dim solitude of
his sealed-up house, some spectre that he
would not have had come to haunt him?
1t looked SO. He prolonged his excursions
about the street far beyond his usual
hours. He commenced them earlier. and
dragged them to such wcarisome extremes
that you would sometimes SEE him taking
coach late at night, worn out by hi'
uneasy tramp. Ills old man servant
began to follow him about, as if the
necessity of some supervising watchful-
ness had declared itself, and he would
dow and then break out in snatchcs of
disjointed speech, and emphasize them
with odd and unreasonably violent
gestures that made even the people
longest acc stoned to his appearance
stare in wonder.
A week ago / sat in the parlor of one
of our big club houses, with friend.
Cutie crowd had filtered into the room
from dinner, until it was well filed with
lounging and chatting groups. A little
brs.le in the hall did not attract any at
tention, and the hum of conversation
was uubroken when the man in brown
appeared in the parlor doorway. Behind
him could see the servants of the house
gathered in a group and watching him
curiously. He stood for a second on the
threshold, and then came in. In a fash
the placid flow of small talk was silenced.
One old member growled in voice
audible throughout the room: "Wei',
I'm blcssed!" and the man in brown
salutcd him by name. He made no
answer. but stared stonily at the visitor.
So did the others to whom the man in
brown nodded or spoke as he shambled
down the room. At the farther end he
passed out through the doorway leading
into the dining room, and such buz-
zing filled the air at once as made ample
amends for the stupefaction that had
preceded it. There are members of this
club who are not saints, by any means.
Among them are hard livers, desperate
glmestcrs, men of unclean lives, and
those at whose doors grave charges Of
dishonesty lie. What must be the offence
of this man, then, when. upon his first
visit to the club for years, the whole
club cuts him dead,
1t is a gloomy story indeed; the story
OF family feud that cut in both direc-
tions, like two edged sword-the story