San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1892-02-05
Glow have you found life, kind or


less indifference is cruelty"
"But Indifference, want of sympathy,
must have been positive relief after
the aggressive cruelty of your younger
days"
Sand what have you been doing,
Richard?'
Everything that Yankees do-digging
last"
Odd talk this may seem, to hold with
an old friend. Ten years apart! We
ought to have met in merrier mood. We
might, if we had parted with happy
memories. But it was not So Youth
had been harsh season to Brent. If
fate destines man to teach, she COM
peis him to learn-bitter lessons, too,
whether he will or no. Brent was
man of genius. All experience, there
fore, piled itself upon him. He must
learn the immortal consultations by prob
ing all suffering himself.
Brent's story is short one or long
one. 1t can be told in a page, or in
score of volumes. We had met fourteen
years before in the same pew of Berkeley
College chapel, grammars by our side
and tutors before us, two well crammed
candidates for the freshman class. Brent
was a delicate, beautiful, dreamy boy.
My counterpart. l was plain prose, and
needed the poetic element. We became
friends. | was steady; he was cratic.
l was calm; he was passionate. was
reasonably happy; he was totally miser-
able. For good cause.
The cause was this; and it has broken
weaker hearts than Brent's His heart
was made of stuff that does not know
how to break.
DR.. Swerger was the cause of Brent's
misery. The Reverend DR.. Swerger was
brutal man. One who believes that
God is vengeance naturally initiates his
God, and does not better his model.
Swerger was Brent's stepfather. Mrs.
Brent was pretty, silly, rich, and
widow. Swerger wanted his wife pretty,
and not too wise; and that she was rich
balanced, perhaps a little more than bal
anced, the slight objection of widow
hood.
Swerger naturally hated his stepson.
One intuition of Brent's was worth all
the thoughts of Swerger's lifetime. A
clergyman who starts with believing in
hell, devils, original sin and such crudi-
ties can never be anything in the Nine
tenth century but tyrant or nui-
sance, if he has any logic, as fortunately
few of such misbelievers have. Swerger
had logic. So had the boy Brent-the
logic of true, pure, loving heart. He
could not stand Swerger's coming into
his dead fathers house and deluding his
mother with black fanaticism.
So Swerger gave him to understand
that he was child of hell. He won his
wife to shrink from her son. Between
them they lacerated the boy. He was
brilliant fellow, quite the king of us all.
But he worked under cloud. He could
not get at any better religion than Swer-
gers; and perhaps there was none better
or much better-to be had at that
time.
One day matters came to quarrel.
Swerger cursed his stepson; of course not
in the same terms the sailors used on
Long wharf, but with no better spirit.
The mother, cowed by her husband,
backed him and abandoned the boy.
They drove him out of the house, to go
where he would. He came to me. gave
him half my quarters and tried to cheer
him. No use. This bitter wrong to his
love to God and to man almost crushed
him. He b1ooded and despaired. He
began to fancy himself the lost soul
Swerger had called him. saw that he
would die or gomad; or, fhe had strength
enough to react, it would be toward
hapless rebellion against conventional
laws, and so make his blight ruin.
hurried him off to Europe for change
of scene. That was ten years ago and
had not seen him since. | knew, how
ever, that his mother was visited by COM
Functions; that she wished to be recon-
ciled to her son; that Swerger refused
and renewed his anathemas; that he bull
lied the poor little woman to death; that
Brent had to wiring the property out of
him by long lawsuit, which the Swer-
gerites considered an unconstitutional
and devilish proceeding, another proof
of total depravity. Miserable businessl
1t went near to crush all the innocence,
faith, hope and religion out of my friends
life.
Of course this experience had ten
dency to drive Brent out of the common
paths, to make him a seer instead of
doer His fortune made him independent
He could go where he pleased.
This was the man who rode upon the
iron gray horse. This was the Indian
esque Saxon who greeted me. 1t put
color and poetry into my sulky life to see