The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1890-04-22
SEARCHING FOR jim.
How an Old Settler Succeeded in
Finding His Son After Many
Months.

The search began in May and ended
in November. 1t was made within
the four walls of a country newspaper
office and through the medium of its
exchanges. No Exchange fieudn has
bored me since that search, for Ihave
always remembered that perhaps
there was even in the person whom |
detested a sorrow or a longing that
made his actions warrantable.
l first heard of Jim when one May
afternoon, the doors and windows
being open and the s'copy" rustling
in the breeze, a bent. white haired
settler entered the Weekly Palladium
office.
you paper fellers git each others
papers, I1spose?" he asked timidly.
yes, sir; we exchange with one an
other.n
''Could We let a person see some er
yer papers? I'd pay yer for it" he
added; as if afraid that he was asking
too much.
'Oh, that will be all right" / re-
piled, as | piled fifty or more ex-
changes before him.
Eye see, Pm lookin' for Jim,n my
visitor said, apologetically, as he was
adjusting his steel-bowed spectacles.
Jim, my son. We came West two
years ago an took up a claim. Twas
pretty hard work, | know, an Jim
was high-strung. Bein' the baby of
tn family, he he'd ben petted a good
deal, an workin' come hard on him.
Ibid he run awaygn I queried, wish
ing to appear sociable and interested.
mo, that's the worst of it.; / drove
i'm away. | got mad at i'm one day
cause he wouldn't mind an | told i'm
to clear out. He went an / ant seen
i'm since. I'm thinkin' I'll find some
thin of i'm in the papers-you fellers
seem to write up everythin'.n
With that he began to look through
the local columns of the journals
before him. 1t was an hour before he
had finished his task and laid by the
last one with a sigh.
I'll look ag'in next week" he said
sadly as he departed.
The next week and the next he was
there, each time chatting with me and
revealing more of the longing for a
chance of reparation for his harsh
ness.
All through the hot summer months
he vas faithful to his task, and /, too,
began to feel an interest in the missing
boy and look for his name in the
papers that went through my hands.
October, with it's Indian summer,
had gone. The prairies had taken on
their robes of brown, and nightly the
prairie fires cleaned in a ragged line
at the far horizon. Then November.
On the third Saturday my visitor
came through a bitter, clustering
wind, and his hands looked white and
pinched with cold.
The tears dimmed his glasses as he
took up his task as usual. He had
gone about half through the pile of
papers when he suddenly Strengthened
up, brushed the page out smooth, and
fixed his eyes intently upon it. He
handed the paper to me and | read
IA stranger giving his name as
James Meserve was found in the
depot this morning sick. He is
scarcely more than a boy, but seems
to have had hard lines. He says he
has friends in Kansas, but will not
give their names. He was taken to
the Merchants Hotel, where he is be-
ing cared for by the city authorities
The paper was published in a small
city in Northern Iowa and was dated
three days previous.
1--WE found him!" calculated the
father gladly. Tin goin' ter get
him!'
That night he left for his sons side,
and in a week the two alighted from
a train, the father joyous and happy,
the son pale and emaciated.
AS they rode over the prairie to-
ward the old mans claim he called
back to me:--'Come out an see us
some time.n
/ did so shortly afterward, and as
we sat up to the well-supplied table,
though our chairs rested on the bare
earth and the walls of dug-out We're
around us, / found as happy a host as
presided in any palace in the land.
The old man bent his white head
and in fervent tones thanked the
giver of all good for the return of his
boy-thanked him in such words as
only the full heart can prompt.
CHANGING to one side l saw tears
drop from Jim's eyes upon his plate.
Jim vas found in more senses than
one.-Detroit Free Press.
NJ n--r--