The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1890-06-01
JOHN LONG.

JOHN LONG.
4 hnd been . bitter summer for John
Long, At ieast II ought 10 have been. II
49, miserable career, indeed. that he re-
EorBed, il he east his eye backward over
Ai5 lite. After he had thrown away sew
o4oi years and considerable money AZ col
}okp. and bad wasted some months in
ts1eIness Office he had employed himself
~ campaign speaker In far of state
Gsxt On one side. but finally on the other.
Altar The election. when he had used all
IL money he had made and all he could
bQxTOWs ~ hone, he had tramped 10 Cincin-
uofi, for miles and borrowed . hundred
dollars ni his uncle. Then, with haruui-
4caSnm chum, he projected magazine.
The prospectus was brilliant; after the
Gf1t numhey the editors left the city. John
Going home and the chum into sanctuary
- develop sonae new scheme.
The new scheme developed. IL took the
1hnpe OF school for boys--the Kentucky
classical college. IL was to be called. The
cbum aforesaid furnished the capital this
time. John procured the degrees Of d. NJ.
and Fh. D., they got out glowing cata-
1oxue, and the Kentucky classical college
Gpened with fine prospects on September
III BY October l two boys had come.
They we're graduated with honors on the
q, and the faculty got home as best it
~ been home all summer. To
I'D not been idle. lie had laid
l6ugh Europe. which he pro-
~ after the fashion Of Bsyard
px letters home 70 defray ex-
6respondcd with ali the leading
& somehow had not succeeded
k any sufficiently to get IN adj
{ which TO start Then, too, be
4 the Great Western Library
ch Institution read. criticised.
up MSS. for would-be authors
bet such literary work. This
the prospectus announced.
kgas never called upon 10 do
roming very apparent thing
Long was mo account" And
.(DW Is we'll enough none realized more
l1nn ~ that he WAS visionary, impractical
~, and iasy; he laughed 1t his own
ochomoe. and had no faith in their success.
Ut ~ vowed he would starve before he
would work like other men. II ever he had
. SERIOUS moment he must have despised
1imself; yet do not know that he did.
He seemed TO piqus himself on his lack
81 what We call common sense; he avowesi
hluneIf brother to fools: he used 10 say
that like Lamb, his sympathies we're with
the foolish virgins and the man who built
a. az h 2: upon 81, the sand o., have known
eeat Or Tor dinner 1t IN uptown hotel.
when he knew he would have no supper
and no bed at night.
II John Long had had the genius of Poe
o. Goldsmith. you might admire him. We
expect fmprovidence as 10 common things
In men 81 genius, but John was only a
commonplace fellow never did = brilliant
thing that ! know of. He might have
made 3 successful man. as men go, be
was, perhaps, as bright as the average, but
at certain point i'm his life he failed TO no
impressed with the prasticalness of living,
and went Off into idiing and dreaming.
- Now. there WAS Arthur Brooks. The
two BOYS had fair start in life, | really
balieve John was the more clever: bat Ar
thur always got on best. John wss . dis
appointment. even when lac was "A eov, and
Ii vas so through all his life. lie lacked
the element of success.
John and Arthur were great friends
they grew. out OF boyhood together. and
were loyal To each other rs young men
yes. even after they became rivals for the
affections of Lucy Harris. What on earth
had become of what little Wit John Long
had. when he thought OF entangling any
woman la his own miserable existence |
do not know. But Lucy undoubtedly
liked him. You do not care Ia know how
81 all living beings. John poured
how tender and good she was to him. You
suight like to know that she Was beautiful.
With bcwitching face and true eyes, and
al that could be asked for in lovely elrl.
Al. they were good friends, John aud
Lucy, and they talked OF those things that
hardened most heavily their foolish Young
hearts; the mystery OF that life into which
they had been flung and that frightened
them when first they we're awakening 10 H.
tho awfulness of life and of the seeptef of
life. And so John grew 10 love the sweet
girl with ell his heat 1t Is little enough
good that can be said OF John Long, but
his life was the better that he carried
through il always pure love for Lucy.
He never told her of IL. Ii Is not 60 he
doubted that he would have been foolish
enough 10 have done SO; bat one evening.
when he was home the last time, she told
him as she would have told her brother Of
her hetrothal 10 Arthur brooks. IL Was
not TN she was through that the realixa-
ton Of what IL was 90 john flashed upon
her. And John told her he woala so
away. And in the starlight she hsted M
her lace for his kiss.
John left that very night II may Ne that
after that he would have hket 10 have
mM40
verr upon him. lie wandered about the
south for few months. perSnading him,
sslf that he Was studying the race question.
and that presently he would write series
81 magazine articles that would ssartie the
country. Finally be hroaghtup at Atlagt..
With his money gone. OF course. he has
Is look for work then. and. with unusual
rOod luck, he managed to gei position on
one OF the morning papers
II would have been strange II he bad
held ID longer than four months, and be
did not Ii vas early one morning IN o.
toher. nitcr hts own work was up, that. IS
he az 81 the telegraph editors table. las
eve was caught by a special whach had i'ssi
come in. lt Was the story ~ the naFgeg
OF William Harris. the father Of Lucy Tie
had been foand dead, and ey poiSea \
dlspute Z pecuilev viii, and other e1rssas.
stances in161natang motive. pointed 70 TIE
newly married husband CT Lazy Harris
as TIE murderer. Arthur Brooks bad eeea
arrested. and Was nov in the county jail
The dispatch spoke OF the snoshetess tai
oa.lsnshinr. aud said the lssl vas sn ed
one and not strong, John Long easily
pictured the violence with which TIE esd
love iog Rraoks would iaEa iaso az over