The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1894-10-27
Select Storg.
THE HAPPIEST MAN IN LONDON
From the cOrnhill Magazine.

The doctor did not have an easy time of
it in that east-end parish, where he had
bought cheap practice and settled down
with his youth, his aspirations, his skill,
to fight the battle of life. His youth
seemed to slip from him in his first year
of work, his aspirations changed their ma
ture, his skill developed. He acquired
vast experience in these poor homes, where
he fought valiantly against disease, the re-
suit of intemperance and vice and poverty
and ignorance-disease of which the victim
was so often an innocent sufferer. The
sins of the fathers were visited upon in
fants-the sins of bygone generations on
brave girls and well-meaning young fel-
lows-the sins of children upon patient
women and hard worked men.
DIR. Murray was u thinker, as well as a
worker He might have easily become
morbid in that dreary place, where there
was nothing beautiful to charm the mind,
and little enough to charm the eye or ear.
But he did not become morbid. He had
the remembrance of happy country home
where his boyhood had been passed; he had
the thoughts of his dear old mother, who
lived there still, and the lessons she had
taught the boy had not left him in his
manhood; above all, he had thoughts of
another woman-her letters sometimes-
the promise of herself before long When
he walked through the muddy street to his
solitary house he did not let his mind
dwell on the room he had just visited.
where three children lay in one bed, shiver
ing with cold, and with no one but a
drunken mother to attend to them and give
them such food as was provided for the
family by lazy father, whose earnings,
scanty enough, were chiefly spent at the
Royal George.
He did not let himself mediate on the
details of his cases when he left them; that
would have untitled him for his work No,
he tried to imagine what home would be
like when Norah was really there, when
the opening door would disclose her to him,
coming out to welcome him and draw him
into the warm room where there would be
freight and lamplight and-herself. He
pictured her in white robe, in blue
robe, in a robe Of scarlet, just as the
weather might suggest. He pictured the
look of her sittingroom; the aowers-he
never had flowers, but there must be flow
es where Norah was He pictured the
shining of her eyes, the smile on her lips,
the flush on her cheeks. She was always
bright, always gentle. and always tender,
and always we'll To him health was beau
tiful, as it can only be to those who have
the deformity wrought on mind and body
by sickness constantly before them. The
abundant life and vitality of the Irish girl
were in themselves a charm to the some
what stern young Scotchman. She brought
warmth and light and sweetness to him, to
his life, to Millwall She brought that
now. What would it be y-and-by-by
and -by-when-?
He reached home He let himself into
the unighted hall The house felt cold.
He set his lips together and thought, "By
and-by. He laid aside his umbrella,
took off his coat, strobe into the barely
furnished, rather uncomfortable dining
room, and rang for dinner.
A middle-aged woman presented herself.
''0h?' she said, I'm sorry the fire is
out, sir
'.Never mind, said Murray, Il shall
have to 90 out again after dinner, ex-
pect.
..Oh, that reminds me, sir. An old
gentleman came to see you. He wanted
you to call upon his wife But he said
you WASH to trouble tonight, if 80 you be
tired
At this unwonted consideration for an
individual who was supposed by the peo
pie about him to be quite Independent of
WEAKNESS of mind and body, to have no
need of sleep, to require no time for meals,
and to be always at the beck and call of
every baby with bronchitis, every old
woman with fits, and every boy with inju-
ries, the doctor raised his eyebrows.
"Who was it, Mrs. Hawker?'
He was unbeknown to me, sir; but he
was respectable looking gentleman, quite
clean, and nice face to him--a bit of
gray whiskers, too.
s.Did he leave his name y
YES l laid it on your consultin :
room table He penciled it on the back
of an envelope l had in my pocket. I'll
bring it in with your chop.
The chop made its appearance. 1t was
straggling, limp, purposeless-looking chop,
sodden in the greasy water that passed for
gravy, and accompanied by viciously
hard, yellow potato, the deadliness of which
to any but the most perfect digestion was
evident to the doctor He put it ON one
side, and attacked the chop, which exhib-
tied muscular deyelopement, 6rmness or
an obstinacy Of which one might well have
considered it incapable. However, the
doctor again murmured sBy-and-by,
and grappled with it so far as to dispose Of
great quantity of the lean. The fat,
which was Of a bilious complexion, he left
to it's own devices, and it merged its exist
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