The morning call., 1894-01-14

.: But why yours when the name is
.Dobbs?" l asked.
Why, you see. | am the man who IS not
= Dobbs. There are two of US on each story
When l came l was pODdering sadly on
the necessity of dOorplate in so large an
apartment-house when it suddenly oc-
Cured TO me that as DObbs had one,
there was no need of my having one. Inc
elevator would leave my friends at the
right story. and then, seeing that the name
on. this door was Dobbs, they would
know. of course, that the only other door
was mine. Simply not being DObbs saved
me the expense Of q uoorplate. See?"
Van Austen mad been the first friend
had stumbled upon after landing from the
Ftruria. He had asked me to come down
home with him, not to dine, for he made
no secret of the fact that he never dined;
but to have a glass of beer id Van Austen
cut-glass Deer-mug We had wended our
way uptown to a shabby apartment house
: in a shabby street, and as we entered the
elevator Van Austen had said mysteri-
ousIy to the boy, Up" which l found
meant that we were to be taken to the
roof. AS we stepped out Van Austen eX-
planed:
q have no view from my rooms. you
see so when | have visitors that l wish to
impress l always bring them up here first.
Not that there Is much of view here. so
far as scenery goes; 1t is all rOoftops and
chimneys. But there is so much of il that
it Las certain dignity of its own. Queer,
isn't it, that great deal of anything is
picturesque in its way? / hate a sun
flower; could not endure even an EN-
brOideTed one unless 1t were convention
allied out Of all resemblance to its proper
self; but | have never in all my life seen
anything in the floral way so magnificent
as the great acres at the West, with mil
lions upon millions of the blossoms, per-
fectly gorgeous Ia such mass. It's some
thing like my life, you know; there Is so
much of nothing that the whole effect OF II
ia not undiguitled. Shall we walk down?
Itisn't far. | find it true that there is
always room at the top for peotle who
can't afford the grander apartments on the
lower floors. 50 l am living on the sew
enth"
and talking busily as we both walked
down the stairs We had both forgotten 10
notice how many Of stairs we had
descended till Van Austen glanced at the
: little dOOrplate on the story where 1t sud-
denly occurred 10 take our bearings. with
the result mentioned.
We crossed the little hall to The oppO-
site door, which Van Austen opened with
a latchkey. Familiar as l was with the
mans ways | was not surprised at the
sudden transformation of the scene. The
street bad been shabby, the apartment
house was shabby and The apartment evil
IDENTIFY consisted of dull, little, ugly rooms,
in themselves extremely shabby; but they
were crowded with the beautiful Van
Austen things" till they cleaned like
vision of lOVeIlness. A tiny dlning-TOOm
opened alHost at the door and into this
we naturally stepped. after leaving our
hats in the hall.
"Of course, don't dine here" said Van
Austen, with the ready trankness that was
one of his peculiaTlteS. Il can't afford TO
keep a menage. Ny dining-room is like Eu-
rope; you know Emerson says that man
hnds in Europe only what he brings there.
and l find IN my dining-rOOm only what |
bring 10 it. Tonight is peaches" and he
deposited small brown paper bag on the
beautiful mahogany table; peaches and
beer, That is really horrible com bination.
Suppose we postpone the peaches till after
and content ourselves with beer for the mo-
men' Beer IN one of Grandmother Van
Austeu's cut-glasS mugs; it is something
Ike NY life, Thorndike; very small beer
IN very choice cut glass. The cut glass has
never Ceen able to improve the quality of
tie beer, but then, on the other hand, the
beer has never been able to spoil the
quality Of the cut glass. Ii is something
Thorndlke, don't you think. to live the
life ] have TO without being embittered
By it?"
The very words would have been bitter
IN the mouth Of almost any other man, but
Van Austen spoke with the perfect seren-
lty. the patient. calm acceptance of un-
avOIdable fact, which was his distinguish
ing trait.
My appointments are quite perfect, yon
see, as he noted my evident admiration
Of the soft rug, the polished furniture. the
rare jugs, plaques, pictures, pOrtieres, cab
lnets and china that filled every available
spot In the little room. And none of
them has cost me a cent. All presents.
y l.
not care TO olter me, and which | really
think l might not be willing to accept. |
draw the line a rent. | allow no one to
present me with $4,000 house, and my
own friends will not permit me to live in
luer street than this. But as to every
. thing else-well. need not explain. You
have known me long enough to know that
my besetting sin has always been
lack of proper pride. Fate denied
me everything of the kind | was born
with the taste to crave, and i'll health made
II impossible for me 10 struggle for what /
want, without sacrificing nv life in the
contest. l don I want to sacrifice my life
| prefer not to struggle l accept the stu
alton and also accept its alleviatiOns. If
any fellow wants to give me anything he
is welcome TO do so. / make no secret of
the fact that can make no return. but I
am not too proud to accept what | can't
get Tor myself. l should never have been
one Of those heroic fools-heroic fools ex-
presses what / mean better than foolish
heroes even-whO 'starve themselves, like
poor Brainard, to go through college, In
the first place, l should not have tried to
go through college. and in the second
place, If / had, and found myself suddenly
hard up should have gone straight to
Lombard and said, Lombard, Pm hun
gry; can you give me a bite?' and Lom-
bard would have given me a bite, and
l should have gone on better with
my studies, and graduated honorably.
and not have dampened the whole
pleasure of fellows class day by dying of
: starvation under their very eyes without
telling OF it. ! am rot a hero, Thorndike
but I'm beautiful and Inuch-needed illus.
tration of the grateful recipient. Accept
nothing you can get for yourself; return
everything you possibly can; but if a bet
ter fellow is willing to give you what you
you can't manage to get for yourself, or
what he knows you can't possibly return,
take it, How do you supDose"-and he
threw his head back with one of the sunny
laughs | rememb bered SO well in college
"how do you suppose ] ever happened to
get hold Of dear old Grandmother Van
Austen's cut-glass and china ? Every
body thought she would leave it ali to