The herald., 1894-01-01
CAME TO AN END AT LAST

humiliation to the woman who, with
her head bowed upon the table
in front of her, was weeping hysterically;
the lawyers were hurriedly packing up
their papers, and the crowd was reluct-
antly fling out OF the heated gas lit
court room into the murky atmosphere
of winters evening.
Davis, bundling his papers together,
turned and looked at the woman and
hesitated; then. without waiting for me.
as he usually did, hurried out, savagely
pushing his way through the expostu-
lating crowd.
Davis and were both doing courts at
that time. he for one daily and for an
other, but for all that we were friends, |,
perhaps, nis only one, ne my best. That
was how realized had two tragedies
to witness that day-a woman's and
mans.
Davis had drifted into journalism,
principally from lack of ambition and
energy to do anything else. His people
were wealthy, and socially influential,
but these had long ago cast him off, and
for eight years Davis and myself had
daily signe d the detail book in our sep
arate Offices.
What the immediate cause OF his
downfall was l never asked him and he
never told me, but he did tell me some
thing of his circumstances.
He had been pretty tough lot. and
L.. l. i 4 <.fe hi m
recital.
His confidence in me was such that
be did not hesitate to speak freely. He
seemd to take grim sort OF comfort In
barring his innocent ideas to me, and
painful as the rec itsl must have been to
him. it was doubly 60 to nee.
1t was such recital rs burned into
the memory and showed what poor
devils go through with in their fight
with the world.
was told in such graphic language
that more than once, when he lapsed
into communicative moods, made some
excuse to change the subject or to get
away from him.
He had taxed the patience OF his
relatives to the breaking point, and
when at the height of his follies-and it
must be acknowledged of his vices-the
crash came and he found himself ruined,
fl nancially and morally, he met and
loved the woman.
1t might have been the turning point,
for he saw his danger for the first time,
and the food OF self condemnation
which scared his strangled conscience,
was bitter a hundred fold from the
knowledge that his redemption cams
too late.
She was poor, and he, renounced by
his people, dunned by creditors, and
with the consequence of numerous fol-
lies crowding upon one another, found
himaelf helpless.
Had the woman been stronger. and OF
different type. he might still have
found his savior, bnt unluckily for him
his idol proved purely clay, and although
che told him. with many tears. she
would break her heart, the prospect of
/ poverty proved stronger than her love,
and che gave him up to sell herself later
on to a man who married her, az he
bought his dogs and horses, to beat
and illtreat them.
For long after THE Davis's only idea
was to drown remembrapce. In the
weak ere ature he had loved he saw a
goddess, and out of the poor material
had formed an idol, which, for him.
had never been broken. Stung by the
thought of what might have been, he
sank lower and lower, until he reached
the lowermost depthe of degradation
then some remnant of self-respect as
serted itself and he forced his head
above water. 1t was about this time l
met him.
The next time he saw the woman it
was in the court room. The divorce
case had crested considerable attention
on account of the wealth and standing
OF the hus band and wife, and both Davis
and | had been told to spare none of
the sensational features.
But the most sensational feature of
| the entire proceedings was known only
! to him ard me.
| Utterly unaware of the identity of the
parties, we entered the court room, he,
with smile on his face, which froze on
nis lips as he saw who she WAS.
And there he sat throughout the day,
listening to the recital of the vile
| abuse the woman he loved had
undergone, obliged to copy every
detail, even to the trivialities of her
appearance and demeanor, while all the
time his brain was whirlihg aud his
| hands eager to clutch the throat of the
man, who not content with the evil
already done, aought to besmirch and
defame her in the crowded court.
How he ever got through it he could
never tell. 1t was week before the
end came, and for that time he was a
stranger 10 his usual haunts, reappear-
| ing every morning to take his place at
the reporters table with the rest OF us.
And think Davis in some measure
equalized things. Free scope had been
given us ell in the reporting
of the case, and the trial proved the
most sensational OF the year. But Davis
outdid us all. The attorneys afterwards
declared that it was the morning-that
won the fight, and gave the weeping
girl her freedom, and no wonder, for the
paper in the person of my friend was
fighting for the woman he loved.
1t was Davis who spent day and night
in ferreting out the evidence which over
whelmed the improved charges of the
i huahand. IL WAS Davis who brought to