Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1890-07-11
CALISTEO'S CRIME.
by FOREST CRISSEl.

BI iOIkESl SIAlSS1Il.
The death of the last and dearest of
earthly kin left me with little heart for
the normal pursuits of life, together
with q fortune ample for the gratltica-
ton of every whim which might, in the
bounds of nature, occur to n who had
lived the life of a student and recluse.
The particular hour which Witnessed
the last legal formality conveying to me
the unwelcome fortune, found me in
the dingy courthouse of a certain
county seat near Chicago.
That so dull a town should have been
able to exist within seventy miles OF the
great pushing metropolis, l was scarce y
able to believe. You may be certain
that l took the first train out of the
little back town capital, although l
would scarcely be able to reach my
hotel, in the city, before midnight.
There was Just enough suggestion of
domestic comfort in the dimly-lighted
car and relaxed attitudes of its inmates
to warm me into a desire for contact
with the emotional and human, the
home-like and the cheerful side of life;
and this feeling was intensified by the
reflection that | no longer had a direct
claim to those qualities in any human
breast.
l settled back in my seat, drew my
travelling cap over my eyes and essayed
to sleep. But to no avail! My thoughts
ran on, and on, and on. From musing
on my own strange fortune, 1 fell to
vaguerizing upon the probable, and
+lo,, ,o +bo ,,occ;I1o fovf,noc &c
those who lounged in the seats about
me.
What was [ to do with this great for
tune, a mere fraction of which had
heretofore sut1iced to keep my temper
ate wants supplied? And why should
q lonely and weary man-now unloved
and unloving-demand more Of phys
ical comforts than had the abstemious
student? What would that man OF
that woman do, if my legacy were his
or hers? Perhaps each had some cry
ing need. The thought, strangely
enough, startled me; the words CRYING
need" rang in my ears; and the engine
screeched them at every stop and cross
ing. This queer, fanciful mood was
wholly new to me. I did not under
stand it; and I more than half feared
that I was physically, if not indeed,
mentally i'll. Crying need?" Who
is in distress-such great dis
trees that they cry out, wild, and loud,
and piteously? 1t grew upon me:
This awful thought of, somewhere in
the universe, a great despairing i'm
p%ortunity. And will you hear that
cry? Will you search it out, and
deliver the despairing one, although ii
should go quiyering up in the black.
ness OF midnight? At first 1 tried tc
dismiss such inward questionings as
foolish and intangible. But no; no1
until I had made candid, affirmative
answer, without mental reservations
did 1 find anything like relaxation from
the unexplainable tension into which
had been drawn. What did it mean
I could not tell-yet I was quite certain
that it had ameaning, which time would
make clear. The train suffered variou
delays and by the time we mad reached
the city, it was we'll into those mornin,
hours just beyond midnight, which az,
darker and stiller than the central hou
itself. My forbidding mood had bee
softened and dispersed, somewhat, b,
an hour Of refreshing slumber.
derived q sense Of cheer from b%uttonin,
my coat tightly about my throat an
thrusting my hands deep into tn
pockets of my overcoat. Not a littl
of my journey lay through an i'll
favored and ill-savored strength of 10,
tenements. Like many another cor
sentative night-pilgrim, %journeyin
through an unlighted portion of a grea
city, 1 took the middle of the stree
and plodded forward with q quick an
even pace. knew every step of til
way.-and knew the ill-report of it, toe
but notwithstanding that, and also til
fact that the darkness was so nearl
total that [ could scarcely distinguis
the outlines Of the frame tenements O
either hand, l was not so depressed nc
so painfully excited as when in til
lighted tram. So cheerful had m
thoughts become that 1 did not motto
that 1 was passing the largest of til
tenement blocks, where crime an
squalor huddled closest together. Br
now I remember it distinctly. My fee
had fallen into step with the lines of
quint old love song which was hummin
Itself IN my head, for the first time j
half a score Of years. 1t ran somethin
like this:
For I will marry my own love,
My own love! My own love!
For ] will marry my own love;
For true of hearts is -"
Ny foot was descending on the tim
of the final word "she" when the darl
ness and silence was pierced with a CT,
"a woman's cry-that went quaverin
up through the darkness like a ligh
ming flash. Itseemed to me that I coul
see that cry. But the silence and I'll
lor1-,ao, ,rl:oI o1o,ol " ,1o,k A.,