Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-05-22

! 1lShlS 80 Oul l. see III next IN q place Una
is very far away, and it is even more beau
tiful than before, for the evil has gone ou
of it Another face is looking down into it
a young, pure face. The faces meet ant
kiss, and, as his lips touch hers, the blooc
mounts TO her cheeks and brow.
see the two faces again. But 1 canno
tell where they are or how long a time ha
passed. The lads face has grown little
older, but it is still young and fair, anC
when the woman's eyes rest upon it ther,
comes a glory into her face so that it is lik,
the face of an angel But at times tn,
woman is alone, and then 1 see the old evil
| look struggling to come back again.
Then l see things clearer. / see the room
in which they live, 1t is very poor. An
old-fashioned piano stands in one corner
and beside it is a table on which lie scat
tered fumbled mass of papers round ar
inkstand. An empty chair waits before the
table. The woman sits by the open window.
She seems TO. be sitting there, for a long
while. From far below there rises the
sound of great city. Its lights throw up
faint beams into the dark room. The smell
of its streets is in the woman's nostrlls
Every now and then she looks toward the
door and listens. Then turns again to the
open window. And l notice that each time
she looks toward the door the evil in her
face shrinks back; but each time she turns
to the open window it grows more fierce
and sullen.
Suddenly she starts up, and tn ere is a
terror in her eyes that frightens me as L
dream, and l see great beads of sweat upon
her brow. Then, very slowly, her face
changes, and l see again the evil creature
OF the night. She, wraps around her an old
cloak and creeps out. 1 hear her footsteps
going down the stairs. They grow fainter
and fainter Then it seems as if door were
opened, so that the roar of the streets
rushes up into the house and the woman's
footsteps are swallowed up.
Time drifts onward through nv dream
Scenes change, take shape and fade; but all
is vague and underlined, until, out of the
dimness, there fashions itself long, de-
serted street. The lights make glistening
circles on the wet pavement A figure,
dressed in gaudv rags, sinks bv, keeping
close against the wall. Its back is toward
ME, and do not see its face. Another fig
ure glides from out the shadows. L look
upon its face, and l see it is the face that
the woman's eyes gazed up into and wor-
SHIPPED long ago. when my dream was Just
begun. But the fairness and the in
nocence are gone from out of it,
and it is old and evil, like the
woman's when 1 looked upon her last.
The figure in the gaudy rags moved slowly
on. The second figure follows it, and over
takes it, The two pause and speak to one
another as they draw near The street is
very dark where they have met, and the
figure in gaudy rags keeps its face still
turned aside. They walk on together, side
by side, in silence, till they come to where
a tlaring gas lamp hangs before a tavern;
and there the woman turns, and 1 see that
1t is the woman OF my dream. And she and
the man look into each others eyes once
more.
In another dream that 1 remember, an
angel Cor a devil, I am not quite sure
whlch) has come to a man and told him
that so long as he loves no living human
thing-so long as he never suffers himself
to feel one touch of tenderness toward wife
or child, toward kith or kin. toward
stranger or toward friend, so long will he
long will all this worlds affairs 60 we'll |
with him; and he will grow each day richer
and greater and more powerful. But if |
ever he let one kindly thought for living |
hing to come into his heart, in that mo- |
nent all his plans and schemes will topple |
lown about his ears; and from that hour |
lis name will be despised by men, and then
orgotten.
And the man treasures up these words,
or he is an ambitious man, and wealth and |
anne and power are the sweetest things in
Ill the world to him. A woman loves him
md dies, thirsting for a loving look from
llm; children's footsteps creep into his life |
md steal away again: old faces fade and |
lew ones come and 60.
But never a kindly touch of his hand rests |
IN any living thing; never a kindly word
comes from his lips; never kindly thought |
nd in o1l
ioings fortune tavors him.
The years pass by, and at last there is left
o him only one thing that he need fear-a
hild's small, wistful face. The child loves
.lm, as the woman, long ago, had loved
lim, and her eyes follow him with hungry,
look. But he sets his teeth and
urns away from her.
The little face grows thin and white and
me day they come to him where he sits
eiore the key board of his many enter
rises, and tell him she is dying. He comes
nd stands beside the bed, and the cbild's
yes open and turn toward him; and as he
raws nearer her little arms stretch out
oward him, pleading dumbly. But the
mans face never changes, and the little
rms fall feeblv back upon tie tumbled
overlet, and the wistful eyes grow still.
nd woman steps softly forward and draws
he lids down over them; then the man goes
ack TO his plans and schemes But in the
light, when the great house is silent, he
teals up to the room where the child still
les, and pushes back the white, uneven
leet.
"Dead-clead," he mutters Then he
axes the tiny corpse up in his arms, and
olds it tight against his breast and kisses
he cold lips, and the cold cheeks and the
title cold, stiff hands.
And at that point my story becomes i'm
ossible, for dream that the little dead
hid lies always beneath the sheet in that
uiet room, and that the little face never
hanges nor the little white-robed limbs
ecay.
l puzzle about this for an instant, but
BON forget to wonder; for when the Dream
airy tells us tales we are only as little
hildren, sitting around with open eyes, be-
ewing all, though marveling that such
lings should be.
Each night, when all else in the great
ouse sleeps, the door of that room opens
and the man enters and closes
behind him gently. Each night he draws
way the white sheet, and takes the small.
cad body in his arms; and through the
ark hours he PAGES softly to and fro, hold
lg 1t close against his breast, kissing it and
-oonlhS 10 IL, IKE mother to her sleeping
aby.
When the first rays of dawn peep into the
'om, he lays the dead child back again,
Id smoothes the sheet above her, and
eals away.
And he succeeds and prospers in all
lings, and each day he grows richer and
'eater and more powerful.
JEROME K. JEROME.
d..