Weekly expositor. (Brockway Centre, Mich.) 1882-1894, 1893-04-28


and an easy chair in front of blazing
fire.
must have dozed off and slept a
great deal later than l expected, for
| woke with start to find the fire
almost out, and the lamp very low. /
was not alone in the room. Seated in
chair by the expiring embers of the
fire was one of the most pitiable OBJ
jects that J I'd ever seen.
In the thin-pinched cheeks, the
shrunken form and the shabby gar
ments | had difficulty in recognizing
my quandom acquaintance, the once
jovial major.
The melting snow ran in little
rivulets from his clothes and formed
pools of water upon the floor, and
icicles glistened in his bristly gray
mustache. One shaking hand held
battered brown derby, the other was
thrust'into the semblance of a pocket
in his seedy great coat
He explained in rambling way
how he happened to DO there. BY
some instinct he had found out where
/ lived, and finding the door only
partially closed had found his way in
and sat patiently there waiting for me
to wake up. His story was of the old
threadbare type The story old as
Adam of mans weakness, of a gen.
eral descent into the pit of degrade
tion from which one gambler in
thousand is digged. The evening
games of poker had been exchanged
fer the more open and deadly fascina-
tions Of the professional gambling
house.
His face had become as familiar to
patrons of Hankins' (then in it's
zenith) as that of the city hall. Be-
coming at last too penniless and
shabby to be granted admission even
there, he had drifted from one TO an
other of the smaller and less reputa-
BILE gambling houses that flourish in
Chicago. When fortune smiled he
dined, when she frowned he starved.
Possessed always of one idea. Follow
ing the same insane will-o-the-wisp
that has lured thousands TO destruc-
IL
that should enrich him at a stroke,
he lived out his miserable existence.
His wrctched story was followed
by an appeal for money, just enough
TO give him another start, as a loan
to be repaid when he brought off his
coup lie left the house an hour
later with money in his pocket; once
only saw him again.
1t was Christmas Eve; late as the
hour was, the streets were still filled
with people. 1t had been an excep-
tionally mild winter, and drizzling
rain fell. The sidewalks, sticky with
hall-melted snow. made walking any.
thing but plea ant. Quite as much as a
matter of precaution as anything
else, for | was in one OF the lowest
and most dangerous parts of the city.
took to the middle of the road.
had arrived at quiet and little-fre-
quented street: not soul was in
sight The noise Of my footsteps on
the sloppy stones was the only sound
that broke the silence. A sudden,
turn brought me close TO the river.
A small crowd had gathered there,
and Joined them. In the center of
the group lay dark indistinguish-
able mass dripping with water: a
policeman knelt beside it, As tho
crowd slightly separated pushed ny
way to the front. and saw that the
object was body just taken from the
river.
At that moment the policeman
raised his lantern and the light fell
full upon the face of tho corpse.
Swollen and bloated beyond descrip-
ton. were the features: sodden with
water and reeking with the river
slime, dead for several days" said
the policeman as he allowed the head
to fall back and rose from the GROUND.
The friendly darkness hid the body
from view. The glance l had had
was sufficient, l had taken my last
look at the major.-Chicago Inter
Ocean.