Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1890-07-26
CALISTEO'S CRIME.
BY FOREST CRISsET.

The death of the last and dearest Of
earthly kin left me with little heart for
the normal pursuits of life, together
with fortune ample for the gratitics-
ton of every within which might, In the
bounds of nature, occur to one who had
lived the life of 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 town should have been
able to exist within seventy miles of the
great pushing metropolis, Twas scarcely
able to believe You may be certain
that l took the first train out of the
little back town capital, although [
would scarcely be able to reach my
hotel, in the city, before midnight.
There was Just enough suggestion of
domestic comfort in the dimly-hghted
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.
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, l fell to
vaguerizing upon the probable, and
then upon the possible fortunes of
those who lounged in the seats about
me.
What was to do with this great for
tune, a mere fraction of which had
heretofore sufficed to keep my temper
ate wants supplied? And why should
a lonely and weary man-now unloved
and unloving more of phys
ical comforts than had the abstemious
student? What would that man or
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. 1 did not under
stand it; and more than half feared
that 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
portunity. And will you hear that
cry? VIII you search it out, and
deliver the despairing one, although it
should 60 quivering up in the black
ness of midnight? At first 1 tried to
dismiss such inward questionings as
foolish and intangible. But no; not
until had made candid, affirmative
answer, without mental reservations,
did find anything like relaxation from
the unexplainable tension into which I
had been drawn. What did it mean
I could not tell-yet was quite certain
that it had meaning, which time would
make clear. The train suffered various
delays and by the time we had reached
the city, it was well into those morning
hours Just beyond midnight, which are
darker and stiller than the central hour
itself. My forbidding mood had been
softened and dispersed, somewhat, by
an hour of refreshing slumber. 1
derived a sense of cheer from buttoning
my coat tightly about my throat and
thrusting my hands deep into the
pockets of nv overcoat. Not a little
of my journey lay through an i'll
favored and ill-Savored strength of low
tenements. Like many another con-
sentative night-pilgrim, journeying
through an unlighted portion of great
city, I took the middle of the street
and plodded forward with quick and
even pace. 1 knew every step of the
way.-and knew the ill-report of it, too
bat notwithstanding that, and also the
fact that the darkness was so nearly
total that l could scarcely distinguish
the outlines of the frame tenements on
either hand, 1 was not so depressed nor
so painfully excited as when In the
lighted tram. So cheerful had my
thoughts become that 1 did not notice
that 1 was passing the largest of the
tenement blocks, where crime and
soualor huddled closest together. But
now remember it distinctly. Ny feet
had fallen into step with the lines of q
ouint old love song which was humming
itself in my head, for the first time In
half score of years. 1t ran something
like this:
For Will marry my own love,
NY own Lowell My own Lowell
HFcr ! Will marry my own love;
~For true Of hearts is -
l3y foot was descending on the time
of the final word @she" when the dark
ness and silence was pierced with a cry,
"a woman's cry-that went quavering
ND through the darkness like light
ming flash. 1t seemed to me that could
see that CRY. But the silence and the
darkness which closed in about that
piteous shrek seemed more terrible, II
possible, than its most penetrating &C
cents. When my senses were sum
GENTLY returned to permit me to realize
where was standing, the first thought
which came to me was my sacred obi
CATION, pledged to the self-within-my'