The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1892-11-25
THAT POOR STICK.
A Story OF the Cholera Epidemic.
From the Nel1 York TImea

III AA-<1NhhhAIs Nbdb mary DennllR 0F8t
began 60 doubt. She had been so happy in
her love, for ever since childhood Mai.
Herbert Knox had been her hero. His ten
years seniority bad only served to shield
him from the criticism Of companiouship.
Her Judgment was just nurtured by infer
eDce. not by knowledge. and the majors
gallant bearing had been an agreeable
stimulant. 80, when he had met the Dem
nings in Switzerland, and one night when
the lake was proudly saying, 'See the
moon is here. where my love should be,
within my throbbing bosom" and the out
line OF the Matterhorn against the
horizon was like monolith 70 truth,
Mary's heart had leaped a mighty amen
TO the Eyes" that her tremulous lips had
hsped as the major had pressed her TO him.
and had told in his simple, manly way how
futile life was to him without her, and how
he had followed her from their distant
hume TO confess his need. Joyous indeed
had been Mary, when the next morning, at
the breakfast table, her father through one
of his milestone jokes had revealed the truth
10 their party. And when Joe Palmer,
after having coughed violently and upset
his coffee, had shambled hastily from the
room, she had laughed with the others at
the majors remark that Joes mother had
shown more faith than prudence in at length
Ioosing her apron strings.
And Joe Palmer had rushed up to his
quarters and behind bolted doors had
stamped up and down the floor in q rage
which found no expression until he had
paused before the pier glass and
had studied his tall, angular, IN
couth form, his long white face, with
fierce eyes, contrasting comically with SEN
sitive lips, his shirt front bedabbIed, and bis
clothing so evidently intended for some
other man, and then he too had laughed.
Not very pleasant laugh. either, for a
young man to utter who possessed health
and wealth and intelligence, and whose
welfare was the the only and
constant solicitude Of widowed mother.
Yet 1t was this very concern which Joe
now blamet as he looked back over
his life. He knew that it had been peren-
NAL jest among his neighbors and friends,
that it had deprived him of the harsh dis
cipline which makes boys manly, and had
gained for him the name of q mollycoddle
He remembers ed that while Herbert Knox
had dashed by on horseback he had been
trundled by his nurse; that even while little
Mary Dennlng had climbed fences and trees
and had gathered flowers through the fields
he had not dared 10 stray from the graveled
walk de realized that while those who
should have been his comrades had grown
up with purposes and responsibilities which
breed selt-reliauce, ne had been tended even
unto early manhood within the dollhouse of
maternal anxiety. Was it a wonder that
when shame had released him he should
seem different from other young men, he
who had never run a race, nor PLAYED ball
nor fought quarrel to a bloody endl Was
il wonder that he was strange and diff
dent and awkward, when the only ways
that he had been taught were those ways
that every one, including himself, despised?
Was IL indaad he
thrifty, energetic townspeople. finding him
so unlike themselves, should relegate him to
the limbo of ne'er-dO-wells under the suffi-
cient accusation of being a Door stick9
They little knew that he bad darling pur-
poses, ambitions buried, but buried Ia his
heart; that he longed to be an influential,
powerful man among men, commanding
respect. forcing com APPLIANCE with his views.
They little knew that he dreamed of a
home which should be the hsppiest home in
all Aberdeen, since the queen of its women
should there reign. They deemed him a
hunk of q boy, the spoiled child Of doting
mother, who, II he developed acuteness
enough to take care of the wealth which
surely would be his, would surpass kindly
interest.
An unhappy life, filed with reveries that
never were realized, with regrets that al
ways had a cause. How could he hope, how
could he act, when everything he said aud
dHA EcouAbOl III Io6Ts anu you H6 QdQ De-
heved that Mary Denning knew him, was
able to discern intention in awkwardness,
and beneath uucouthness to see tender,
sympathetic heart. And so when she had
gone 70 Europe with her people he had
overcome the fearful opportunities OF his
mother. finding shame in so fecile victory,
and had joined their party in Switzerland,
being tolerated, 80 he felt, as a harmless
creature, out of respect for old-time init
macIes.
Ass for the wild hopes of the journey
thither On his arrival he had found Mai
Herbert Knox in full possession Of the field.
What was there for him to do ex ept to
accept the inevitable and take his place as a
camp follower i'll the preseno 50 of such con-
queror? For the major had always been
the beau ideal of impossibilities to poor Joe.
Handsome, athletic, graceful, his bearing
meri ed the title which local militia had
given him. A fine, manly appearing fellow,
truly, carrying mis- straight SIX feet of Drawn
and sinew as deftly as a court page; affable,
yet dignitied, approachaole, yet asking
''qui viveF through his earnest gray eyes,
which the firm lines of his mouth warned all
to answer.
And so Joe had chung TO the Dennlngs in
miserable uncertainty, which he knew to
be all too certain, until the blow had fallen,
and then he had coughed and sputtered
coffee and stumbled to ms room to continue
No one cared for him nor believed in him,
except his mother. and alasI IL was the
image of her own credulity that she
worshipped Poor womanl She had meant
to be so good to him. The least he could do
was to return to her, and since she found
her chiefest delight in petting, TO let her
pet in defiance of all banter. Others who
we're composed and gallant, to whom an
emergency WAS a triumph, not an after
mate of self-reproach, might aspire to the
nobility Of word and deed; what concern
could one have with such station whose
beard was scraggy and whose left foot
turned In when walking,a
Joe, therefore. decided that he would re-
turn with the trump ant Dennings. Even
If Mary could never be bis, it was far more
comfortable to be miserable in her presence
than away from her, and whether he inop-
portunelV grosned or guffawed it was all
one to them; he was only Joe, and they dis
covered onplacencv in his endurance.
Perhaps they never noticed it, for he him
self was una ware of it; but Joe's thought
fitness rounded many of the sharp edges Of
travel for them. He was accomplished
nngutst-he must needs have learned some
thing in his idleness-and then, of course,
ne wasn't sought after as the major was by
all the young tou lsts whom they met, and
SO he had abundant time to manage we'll