The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1893-01-14
SOME ODD STORIES.

go
by His Satanic Majesty.
copyright, 1893, by American Press Associa-
tion.l
At certain public banquet ! was set
Town to respond to the toast, THE Press"
Ind in order to convey an idea of the great
Expense connected with running an unprof-
table paper told the following, as nearly
rs can remember
Pat Moran was an Irishman. When he
landed in New York soon after the decla-
eation of peace with England in 1915 all his
personal effects were done up in red hand
ferchief, locked with pin.
Pat Moran was young Industrious and
thrifty. After having been year in Amer
lea he had saved up enough money to send
for Shela Moore, the girl to whom he was
sugaqed, and to furnish a little cottage, to
which he took her as his wife the day she
landed
From carrying he'd Pat Moran worked
his way up until he became bricklaycr,
and then he planned and studied tilj he
had mastered the building business and
became his own employer and contractor
There are men who, like Midas of old,
turn into gold everything they touch, and
Pat Moran was one of them. He invested
his savings in real estate, and while still on
the sunny side of middle age he was locked
upon as a rich man, and even the banks
considered his word as good as most mems
bond.
A few years after his marriage a son was
horn to him. This was his only child, and
he was consequently loved and spoiled.
Sarsfield Moran was handsome lad, and
under proper training he might have devel
oped into nearly as good a man as his IA
TIER, for work and poverty are often great
blessings to youth.
Overestimating his own defective educa-
ton. Pat Moran determined that Sarstield
should be no end OF fine scholar He and
his wife forgot, if indeed they knew, that it
requires quite as hard work to gather
knowledge as it does to gather fortune,
.'Sarsfield will be an illigant, eddycated
gentleman" That is what the husband
and wife said one to the other as they sat
with the cook before the kitchen fire, while
their boy was up stairs in the parlor with
his gevernsss and her company.
The child was quick to take the parents
at their own estimate. and while still quite
young be began to regard them as his in
feriors. When old enough to go to college,
and his classmates came to see him in vacar
ton, his father and mother held aloof and
dined in the kitchen, while the son enter
tanned his guests in the fine apartments up
stairs.
When Sarsfeld Moran was twenty-five
his parents died Of the cholera, which was
then epidemic in New York city.
With such bringing up it was impossi
BILE for Sarsfeld Moran to be educated
either mentally or morally. The great
wealth OF which he found himself sole own
er, and to which he had not contributed a
dollar, became his ruin.
He bought yachts and race horses, in
dulged in gambling and every form OF dis
sipation, and in this riotous living he had
the energetic and sympathetic aid OF COM
panions Of both sexes
And SO the young man for some years
moved wide swath down the meadows OF
pleasure At length his lawyer told him
that he must let up, for he was not only
spending the revenue, but was also eating
into the principal But Sarsffeld laughed
and increased his dissipation, if that were
possible.
To such living there could be but one
end. Soon the young man had to sell his
yachts, horses, furniture and jewelry, and
when this was seen the friends ~ OF at
fuence began to fall away.
One night-it was the last of the old year
-Sarsfeld, who had just dined on the pro
ceeds of a pawned overcoat, went down to
the Battery, and with the collar of his thin
coat turned up stood at the end of pier No.
1 and saw the ice foes groaning where the
tide came in and the current Of the Hudson
went out.
He took a last look at the lights behind
him, and was about to take the plunge that
would rid him of himself forever when he
felt a light hand on his shoulder. He
turned and saw beside him a tall, slender
man, with black, curled mustachios, a Ro-
man nose, a luminous, handsome face and
cloak over his shoulders, which the night
wind blew out into the semblance of wings.
Don't do that, my boy!' said the
stranger. Il want you to go on living and
helping me-"
How can fellow live without money!"
groaned Sarsfield. And he made as il he
would leap, but again was restrained by
the man.
"Do as l ask you for fifty years, and l
will promise you all the money you want.
Of course am sure of you in the end. but
there is no man on earth who helps me as
you can. But the night is cold. Let us step
into the Washington hotel and have cigar
and bottle of brandy. l can't stand a
cold climate"
The stranger led Sarsfeld to private
room in the neighboring hotel and ordered
brandy and cigars. After they had drunk
Ihe stranger produced a paper and said,
"Sign that, and for fifty years you will find
| money in your pocket whenever you need
it,"