Waterbury evening Democrat., 1893-07-05
|" BUSTED" BLAKE.
How . Fortune Fell to HIS De
serted Widow.

was not raQ1cdlly DAD nut NO "@S
wretchedly weak of will to reject an
opportunity of having another drink
with the boys-or with the girls-or
with anybody or nobody.
In the DAYS of his ascendency, when
he was young and newly-married
architect, he was buyer of drinks for
others. Walters in cafes We'd with each
other in showing readiness to take his
orders He was rated jolly good TEL
low then. No one would have supposed
it destined that some fine night leer-
ing bar-room wit should reply to his
whispered application for small loan
by pouring a half-glass of whisky upon
his head and saying:
II hereby christen thee Busted.
The title stuck. Blake, through con-
tinued impecuuiosity, lost all shame of
it in time; lost, too, his self-respect,
and his wife. Mrs. Blake, a gentle and
pretty little brunette, had welded him
against the will of her parents She had
trusted, for his safety, to the allure
ments of his future, which everybody
said was bright, and to his love for her.
The years of fearful nights, the plead
inps, the reproaches, the seesaw of hope
and despair, need not here be dwelt
upon. They would make an old story
and some of the details might be shock
ing to the young person. They reached
a elimination one day when she said to
him:
You love drink better than you love
me- have done with you"
She was n woman and took q woman's
view of the case.
When he came back to their rooms
that night, neither she nor his two
weeks old baby girl were there. Then
he knew how much he loved them and
how much he had underestimated his
love.
She did not go to her parents There
was a very musty proverb that she
knew would meet her on their thresh-
old: You made your bed; now lie on
it." Her father was n man of no orig
inality, hence he would have put it in
that way.
She got employment in photograph
gallery, where she made herself useful
by being ornamental, sitting behind a
desk in the ante-room. ! know not
what duties devolve upon the woman
who occupies that post in the average
photographers service; whatever they
are, she performed them, and with the
wages received managed to care for
| herself and child.
The next day he made a Herculean eff
fort to pull himself together. He OBJ
tanned a position as draughtsman from
one who had known him in his re-
spectacle period, and he went trem'
blingly and sheepishly to call upon his
wife and child.
The consequence Of his visit was re
union, which endured for two whole
weeks. At the end of that time she cast
him off in utter scorn.
How he lived for the next two years
can be known only to those who are IA
miliar through experience with the ex-
istence of people who ask other people
on the street for few cents toward the
price OF nights lodging. By those
who knew him he was said to be INC
good to himself or anyone else" He
| acquired the raggedness, the impu
dence, the phraseology of the vagabond
class. He would hang on the edge of q
party of men drinking together in FROM
| of bar on the slim chance of being
counted in" when the question went
round, "whatn you have?" He wa
perpetually being impelled out of sa
| looms at foot race speed by the officials
II "LOS6 AuhSN4OA ~ 40 ~ DaAAOAo ~
| substitute an Objectionable personh
room for his company.
One winter Sunday morning he slep
late upon a bench in a public square
Awakened by an officer, he rose to go
Hay in head and stiff in joints h
slightly staggered. He heard behinC
him the cooling laugh of a child. HI
looked around 1t was himself tina
4 ~
that strange something which precede
the dawn of a sense of humor in chill
dren. The smiling babe was in a child
carriage, which a plainly dressed won
an was pushing. He looked at tn
woman. 1t was his wife, and the pref
ty child was his own.
He walked rapidly from the place
and ON the same day he decided T.
leave the city. He had herded will
Migrants of the touring class. Tn
methods of free transportation b,
means of freight trains and free livint
by means of beggary and small thiev
cry in country towns were no secret +
him He walked to the suburbs and a
nightfan he scrambled up the side of
coal car in a train slowly moving west
| ward.
L
fair degree of comfort upon the moth
er's wages, but often the mother shud
dered at thought of what might happe
should she ever lose her situation at tn
photographers
Consumption had its hold on Busted
Blake when he arrived in the minin
town called Get-there City, in Kansa.
one evening. Get-there City had nc
gotten there beyond q single stragglin
street of shanties, but 1t had acquired
saloon, although liquor selling had q
ready been forbidden in Kansas
Busted" Blake, with ten cents in hi
clothes, entered the saloon and aske
in an asthmatic voice for as niue
whisky as that s um was good for.
While awaiting 4 response his eye
turned toward the only other person
in the saloon-three burly, bearde
miners Of the conventional big-hattet
big-booted and big-voiced type. Abov
their heads and against the wall wa
this sign, lettered roughly with cha,
coal under a crudely drawn death
head:
Five thousand dollars viii be pal
by the undersigned to the wido W of Ii