The Globe-republican., 1890-11-26
REUBEN BARABeAS.

REUBEN BARABeAS.
sSix,y per cent" said Reuben to my lord.
ITO save Your honori IT'S not much 70 pays
I'd make only fifty if could;
But mo .eys scarce. and LIES lottery,
And your old father may outlive his son.
You can't afford il: Well no more can
Afford to run the risk on lower terms;
And IL you can t you can't; and 80 goodbye
Nv lord looked angry, but was young and rasn.
And fingered on his seat, and bit his LIP.
And launched at Reuben words OF hate ana
scorn
With fearful meanings Put he signed the
bill
And TOOK the hard won and degrading cash;
Hard.won. but lightly parted with in bets and
play.
And jewelers. and milliners accounts
For the Aspasia OF the passing hour
That held his fancy and his purse IN tnrail
Till his mind ehanged-or hers, more likely
STILL
In favor of some lever fool than he.
That night, in bed, Barabbas had q dream
Half-waking and half-sleeping, As he tossed
In feverish restlessness, after feast
Too gross and heavy for his body's health,
And draughts too many of the sparkling wine
That fraudulent traders sell for Veuve
CliQuot-
Pleasant TO sin. but poisonous to quah
His unquiescent brain was filed with
thoughts
That haunted it b. night as well as day;
or gold that he had cluiched, and bills As
That he had Strengthened out and piled IN
sheaves.
To ripen INTO guineas in their time.
And placed beneath his pillow ere he slept
10 dr..ned no Iahored in the mines of hall
Naked and feeble with golden crown
Firm fixed upon bald and shiny skull.
With weight nsunerable; vainly he strove
To cast it from him In the agony
That burned into his brain. right through the
bone
Fixed to his ankle by golden chain
He trailed golden bali, as round and huge
As the death-dealing bombs that iron ships
Belch from their ponderous and gigantic jaws
To battle hostile fleets and ornaments,
And NOW down men as mowers NOW the corn.
This he drew after him at every step,
Goaded by frantic fends with golden prods
Down to the Internal everlasting mines,
To WELD the pick-axe on the stubborn rock;
Scourged II he stopped moment in his toll
By grinning devils, eager and alert
Fair murmuring streams Of limpid water ran
Trickling beside him; but whene'er hs
stopped,
AZ oft he did, to gulp the cooling draught
The treacherous liquor thickened into gold
Grapes in ripe clusters. or what seemed like
grapes,
Hung. red and white. from overhanging vines;
And when he plucked them to refresh his
mouth,
And bore them to his palpitating lips,
Some devilish trick would harden them to
gold.
The hooking hends that followed at his heels
W golden M
Until the blood drops trickled to his feet
As hard as hail in hyperborean storms,
Rafting like pebbles on the burning ground.
He yelled for mercy. But the insatiate fends
Then they cried Halt" and threw him fierce
ly down,
Back-broken, on the hard and Scorching mari
And harnessed him, as il he were a mule,
With golden chains, and yoked him to vain
Cumbrous and huge, high piled with granite
rocks,
Through which the internal nuggets peeped
and shone
In the full radiance that illumined hell,
And made him drag it. But his limbs for
bade.
Until a storm OF blows came pouring down
On his nude shoulders and his sinewy loina
And Roaded him to action. It endured
But for one hideous moment, till he fell
Unconscious and exhausted. When he woke,
With shrieks of pain, he found himself alive
Upon the earth which he had done his best
To turn into a hell for other men.
When sense returned he raised himself in bed
And took one long. long gulp Of water pure
That stood beside the couch, and thought the
draught
Was worth more gold than usury ever
scraped
Out of the pockets of despairing fools
Since cruel usury became q trade.
Barabbas still has chambers near Pail Mail,
And carries on rs briskly - before
His profitable business. Clients come,
In tempest Of their need and recklessness
To clamor for his brief and perilous aid,
For sake of pleasure in the passing day,
Bought by the woe and vail Of future years.
Sixty per cent Is still his minimum:
AS for his maximum, why, that's as wide
As the vast oceans and his vaster greedl
But fate is just. and daily makes him feel,
Acutely rs he felt 1t in his dream,
That gold is not the chief Of earthly good;
That health and strength, and wholesome
appetite,
And sound refreshing sleep and human love
Are worth far more in honest poverty
Than all the treasures mother earth conceals
And food distresses him. Rheumatic psngS
Torture his bones, and natural forces fail
To do the commonest behests Of life.
Sixty per cent! Alas! il i've per cent
OF all the common blessings of mankind
Who labor honestly for daily bread
Gould be his portion, he'd be rich indeed.
Fate hath her methods with the evildoers;
With her right hand she pours them out the
wine,
But with her left puts poison In the cup
Or from her seeming favorites takes away
More than she gives. This truth Bafabbas
feelA
The rich Barabbas, envied Of the poor:
And will not cease to feel IL until death
Kindly dismisses him, without his gold,
To the oblivion Of the living tomb
And the Futurity that lies beyond.
London World
THE HOUSE OF PERINE.
A Little Child Set in the Midst of
Them.