The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1893-07-07
BUSTED" BLAKE.
How q Fortune Fell to His De-
serted Widow.

The outcome has shown that Busted"
was not radically bad. But he was
wretchedly weak Of will to reject an
opportunity Of having another drink
with the boys-or with the girls-or
with any body 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 tn take his
orders. He was rated jolly good fell
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:
'I hereby christen thee Busted"
The title stuck. Blake, through con-
tinued impecuniosity, lost all shame OF
1t in time; lost, too, his self-respect,
and his wife. Mrs Blake, 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
ings, 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 woman and took woman'a
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 TherG
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 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
desk in the ante-room. l 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
A.;-ol ~ xoe;t;o,, dra,, orb fcy 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 q 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 mo
good to himself or anyone else" He
acquired the raggedness, the impu-
dence, the phraseoiogy of the vagabond
class. He would hang on the edge of a
party of men drinking together in front
of bar on the slim chance of being
counted in" when the question went
round, ''whatl you have?" He was
perpetually being impelled out of sa-
looms at foot race speed by the officials
whose function it is In barrooms to
substitute an Questionable persons
room for his company
One winter Sunday morning he slept
late upon bench in q pubic square
awakened by An officer, he rose to 60.
Hazy In head and sti6 In joints he
sligh&ly staggered He heard behind
him the cooling laugh Of q child. He
looked around. It was himself that
bad awakened the infants mirth-or
that strange something which precedes
the dawn of Q sense Of humor in chill
dren. The smiling babe was In Q child's
carriage, which . plainly dressed wom-
IN was pushing. He looked at the
woman. II was his wife, and the pref
ty child was his own. a4i
He walked rapidly from the place,
and on the same day he decided to
leave the city He had herded with
vagrants Of tho touring class Tho
methods Of free transportation by
means Of freight trains and free living
by means Of beggary and small thiev-
cry in country towns were no secret to
him. he walked to the suburbs and at
nightfall he scrambled up the side of a
coal car in train slowly moving vest
ward
Mrs, Blake and the child lived in q
fair degree Of comfort upon the moth
-er's wages, but often the mother shud-
dered at thought of what might happen
should she ever lose her situation at the
photographers.
Consumption had its hold on Busted
Blake when he arrived in the mining
town called Get-there City, in Kansas,
one evening. Get-there City had not
gotten there beyond single struggling
street Of shanties, but it had acquired a
saloon, although liquor selling had al
ready been forbidden in Kansas.
"Busted" Blake, with ten cents in his
olothac antarad tho sa1oon and asked