The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1892-01-01
THE CANDIDATE.

Seng was forty-five years of age, and one
of the most painstaking students of his
time of life to be found in Picking.
For the past thirty years he had regular
ly entered his name in the great civil serv-
ice examinations which take place through
out the empire. Hard indeed had he striven
to qualify hanself for the honor of official
employment; but he was, alas, by nature
rather dull, and year after year he was I'M
successful. For awhile he never got out
of the last thousand of the ten or twelve
thousand candidates who aspired as he as
pired.
Time went on, however, and by the help
Of the most untiring assiduity he began,
toward the middle of his life, to be regard
ed as a promising student. If he contin-
ued to progress in the same ratio. there
was yet some likelihood that ere he was
fifty he might meet with his reward.
Seng was the more stimulated to perse-
we're, inasmuch as he was not at ease in
his home circle. His father was dead
His mother was blind and of an unamiable
disposition. Indeed, she was more than
unamiable; by some alteration of heart
she began to scoff at her son and upbraid
him for his deficiency of intellect She
also behaved very badly indeed to her
daughterin-law, the Students wife.
Herein Seng appears to have shown
some indiscretion. He married girl with
enchanting teeth and eyes but next to no
brains This was a manifest contravention
of the natural law, which impels Il dull
man to seek a clever wife and an intel
1ectual man mere doll of girl for a help
mate. 1t would have mattered less-even
if it had not been a positive convenience
had not Nine. Seng las we will call the
old lady, Songs motber) become much in
capacitated by her blindness. AS it was,
she desired daughter-in-law whom she
could rely upon to do everything connect
ed with the house, from buying rice to
busting the domestic ef1igies, as well as to
be infinitely patient and long suffering
under the abuse and even blows which she
loved to bestow upon subordinates.
Songs wife, however, was not such
girl She suited Seng, and Seng suited
her, because he was at all times fairly civil
toward her. She took the greatest posi-
BILE care of her teeth and daily washed her
eyes with a celebrated perfumed water
warranted to preserve their brightness.
For the rest, she was content so she could
avoid her mother-in-law'S voice and the
cane with which, latterly, in her old age,
the blind woman was often wont to pursue
her. Vain was it for Seng, in response to
his mothers complaints, to dole forth moral
maXims for his wife's improvement. The
copy book phrases were excellently spoken,
but they fell on unfertile soil. And, more
over, when Seng perceived through his
spectacles how snow white were his
spouse's pretty teeth, and with what an at
traCtlve ulster her eyes sparkled toward
him, even he was, more often than not,
tempted to caress when he meant to scold.
This sort of thing eXasperated the mother
in-law UNNECESSARILY. Latterly she became
very bitter, and would run amuck about
the house with the cane in her hand, beat
ing this way. and that, and calling her
daughter-in-law many opprobrious names.
The girl would stand in an alcove and /
watch the old woman's proceedings quite !
calmly, and without either the wish or the /
thought of haunting her. But, when the |
swish of the cane approached in her direc- /
ton she would gently step through the /
window of the alcove, not forgetting even
10 bolt it from the outside, lest an accident /
should happen. The old woman would .
continue her malevolent rushes TO and fro 4
until she was exhausted. Then Seng's (
wife would return, and, with soothing .
words, try to assuage the poor blind crea-
lures animosity against her; and when /
she was more than commonly exhausted /
She would take her upon her knee as if she (
were a baby. and rock her until her strength
and Indignation had recovered themselves
Such scenes as these became very COM
1,,s -
% tears more than once, and he might
have been heard muttering to himself a
tring of precepts enjoining the duty of
ilial love and forbearance under all cir
But there can be no doubt
Ill this agitation at home affected his
,hances at the examinations His depres-
ion was something terrible when the lists
scared, and he realized that he had
gained no ground-or as good as none
turing the previous twelve months
When Seng reached the ripe age Of forty
MS mother died. This was sad blow 10 the
Door man. Not that he would have been
nconsolable for his mothers loss in itself.
or he had schooled himself into the assur-
ance that she had long exhausted the pleas
lres OF existence. But, as a matter Of
act, with her vanished the means Of the
household support, 1t was an iniouitous
hing The old woman. from mere spite,
had bequeathed such estate as she had to
he heads Of a certain pagoda on a hill
'ver against her house. They were 10 build
ler a line tomb, with south aspect. on al
'ther neighborirg hill. 10 keep her memory
green Tor a period.
Never WIS there such a hand and extra
ordinary calamity. il was Of kind, too.
hat smote poor SenG in his tenderest part