Alpena weekly argus. [volume] (Alpena, Mich.) 1871-1893, 1890-01-01
HERO OR COWARD.
The Tragic End of Paul jennings
One Romance.

Nature had undoubtedly intended
Paul Jennings for hero-a condensed
hero, for he was but an insignificant
looking little man; all the more disas-
trous was it, therefore, when one heroic
moment came in his life, and he failed
to act as heroes are commonly sup
posed to act; all the more melancholy
was it that his name should be handed
down to posterity as that Of a coward.
1t needs but step from the sublime
to reveal the ludicrous so narrowly are
antitheses divided, and in his case it
was not his fault, and scarcely to be
wondered at, that the world, failing to
recognize in him the heroic, should fly
TO the other extreme, and stamp him a
coward by way OF sealing its own
blindness.
He was hero in his own way, but
his was kind of self-sacrifice to which
all were accustomed, and which needed
advertising before it could become
popular.
Paul Jennings, barrister-at-law, was
wealthy man, comparatively speak
ing. All wealth is comparative, and
that his was more than he wanted made
him rich. Jennings-little Jennings,
as his friends patronizingly called him
had formerly had the credit OF being
fool; that was in the old poverty
stricken days, though; now, in these
days OF his success, it was only the ex-
ira dull of comprehension who failed
70 see that his foolishness was but
vailed wisdom, that his quietness came
not so much from lack of, as from SUI
perabundance of, brains!
He had not always been rich. There
had been a time when church mouse
would have cut him as a beggar. He
had passed through one of the Bit
terest trials that poverty can impose
on the sons of men, and now, at five
and-thirty, he stood as little jennings,
hard working, earnest and sincere. A
nan with his whole life subordinated
10 one fixed belief-a hermit by in
,lination, but never in the rear when
duty lay ahead.
AS a man of means he had many ac-
luaintances, and but one living friend
Sydney Greg.
Sydney had been his first friend in
;he old struggling days; they had come
together by the law of opposites.
Sydney was q cynic and pessimist
Paul an idealist and an optimist; and
aow. TO complete the contrast in ma
ierial things, Paul had become rich
while his friend remained poor, and
clung to his poverty as convenient
soil in which to nourish the roots Of
cynicism.
Neither knew what 1t was that he
liked In the other. 1t is doubtful, in
deed, whether either would have ac-
knowledged that there was any thing;
but from the day when they first met
and had a dispute, friendship was
founded, and when later their feelings
found vent in the expressions "Jen-
uings, you're fool" and "What a
brute you are, Greg"-that day the
friendship was cemented, lifelong and
unchanging.
They used to say then that Paul
Jennings was mad. Every one knew
1t and said so. Sydney Greg was mad,
with this differences: no one recognized
1t, and no one said so. Between these
two forms of incipient madness lay a
world Of intermediate degrees, but
they grasped hands across it and so
found life more tolerable.
Twelve years ago Jennings. then
newly awakened to the responsibilities
OF life, had found himself cast on the
world with an invalid mother and four
sisters 10 keep, and profession which,
far from supporting him, needed sup
port itself. 1t was characteristic OF
him In those days that he never looked
ahead to invent a threatening future.
but lived In each day with renewed
vigor. That was the happiest, and at
the same time the most miserable.
period OF his life, for extremes always
run in pairs. On the dark side there
was grinding poverty, needing his
every effort 20 fight against IL; on the
bright side was Hclcn Forsyth.
Wien they bccame engaged, Helen
knew US we'll us Paul that tho prospect