The Russellville Democrat., 1889-10-17
HERO OR COWARD.
The Tragic End of Paul jennings
One Romance.

Nature had undoubtedly intended
Paul Jennings for a hero-a condensed
hero, for he was but an insignificant
looking little man; all the more disas-
trous was il, therefore, when one heroic
moment came in his life, and he failed
TO act rs heroes are commonly sup
posed to act; all the more melancholy
was it that his name should be handed
down to posterity as that of coward.
1t needs but step from the sublime
to reveal the ludicrous SO narrowly are
antitheses divided, and in his case ii
was not his fault, and scarcely to be
wondered at. that the world, failing to
recognize in him the heroic, should fly
to the other extreme, and stamp him a
coward by way OF sealing its own
blindness.
He was hero in his own way, but
his was kind of self-sacrifiee TO which
all were accustomed, and which needed
advertising before it could become
popular.
Paul Jennings. barrister-at-law, was
wealthy man, comparatively speak
ing. All wealth is comparative, and
that his was more than he wanted made
him rich. Jennings-little Jennings,
as his friends patronizingly called him
had formerly had the creditof being
fool; that was in the old poverty
stricken days. though; now, in these
aays Of his success. il was only the eX-
ira dull of comprehension who failed
70 see that his foolishness was but
vailed wisdom, that his quietness came
not so much from lack OF, as from SUI
perabundanee of, brains!
He had not always been rich. There
had been time when a church mouse
would have cut him as a beggar. He
had passed through one of the bit
terest trials that poverty can impose
ON the sons of men, and now at five
and-thirty, he stood as little Jennings,
hard working, earnest and sincere. A
man with his whole life subordinated
10 one fixed belief-a hermit by in
elinatiou, but never in the rear when
a duty lay ahead.
As a man of means he had many ac-
quaintances, and but one living friend
Sydney Greg.
Sydney had been his first friend in
the old struggling days; they had come
together by the law OF opposites.
Sydney was a cynic and pessimist
Paul an idealist and an optinist; and
.l.f tl, 81 In
terial things, Paul hal become rich
while his friend remained poor, and
chung 20 his poverty % convenient
soil in which 10 norrish the roots Of
cyuicism.
Neither knew what it was that he
liked in the other. 1t is doubtful, in
deed, whether either would have ac-
knowledged that there was any thing;
but from the day when they first met
and had dispute, a friendship was
founded, and when later their feelings
found vent in the expressions "Jen-
nings, you're a fool" and What a
brute you are, Gregn--that day the
friendship was cemented, lifelong and
unchanging.
They used TO say then that Paul
Jennings was mad. Every one knew
il and said so. Sydney Greg was mad,
with this difference: no Que recognized
it, and no one said so. Between these
two forms Of incipient madness lay a
world of intermediate degrees, but
they grasped hands across it and so
found life more tolarable.
Twelve years ago Jennings, then
newly awakened TO the responsibilities
OF life had found himself cast on the
world with an invalid mother and four
sisters TO keep, and profession which,
far from supporting him. needed sup
port itself Ii was characteristic OF
him in those days that he never looked
ahead to invent a threatening future,
but lived in each day with renewed
vigor. That was the happiest, aud al
the same time the most miserable,
period Of his life, for extremes always
run ia pairs. On the dark side there
was grinding poverty, qeeding hi.
every effort 70 fight against it; on the
bright side was Helen Forsyth
when they became engaged, Heller
knew Is soil a. Paul that the pFospec