The Madisonian. (Virginia City, Mont.) 1873-1915, 1895-09-14
HIS FAILURE.

L IlOtAi ACNCI IdN0 hAOWA Via Alc
was a failure if he had not told me so
himself. Most assuredly he had not the
air of one. For his coats were always
f~ashionably cut, and his taste in liqueurs
was almost as delicate as my own, and
he could afford to crafty it far more
frequently.
Such was the testimony Of appearance,
and SO far as knew his history it point
ed to the same conclusion. He had been,
I understood, a writer, like myself,
though even less successful, and then
fortunate speculations'' had enabled
him to retire from a calling which he
found more honorable than remunera-
tive and spend his afternoons in playing
billiards at the club.
And yet Everard Deane esteemed him
self a failure. He told me SO emphatic
ally one evening at the hour when
truth ''peeps over the glass's edge when
dinners done.'
'It was all that COMPOUNDED Stock Ex-
CHANGE he murmured, gazing gloom
lily into a glass of green chartreuse.
I begged him to accept my cordial
congratulations. "It's a better way to
fail than most 1 said. For I had
known so many who failed upon the
Stock Exchange and lived happily
drinking champagne and driving about
in OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES afterward.
But Everard Deane protested.
II don't mean what you mean,' he
said. 81 didn't lose money on the Stock
Exchange. | made it-lots Of it. That
is the mischief of it. That is precisely
why l am a failure"
He looked gloomier than ever as he
spoke and ordered a second green char
treusC.
jerking his head so as to indicate d
man at the farther end Of the IN
we'll dressed man, excessively bejcweleC
with whom, half an hour since. he
had cordially shaken hands, he whis
pered:
"That is the man who has been my
evil genius. You know him?'
81 think SO. It's Morrison Parker, thu
great financier, isn't it,"
cit is, and Morrison Parker, the grea'
financier, has been my evil genius. IT.
a foolish story, but 1 sometimes like tt
tell it after dinner. A brandy and soda?'
l accepted, and when the waiter hat
brought the glasses Everard Deane re
sumed:
II was an author, you know-a Soun:
authOr-with great aims and h:gn am
billions. l made enough money to liv
upon by writing for the papers, but
looked upon literature, not as a trade
but as All art. | was Il member Of tn
Waste Paper club, where all of us pro
fessed to take the same artistic views O
life and letters and sat up till the small
hours discussing them through a haz
of tobacco smoke and steaming grog.
was very happy there until the day cam
when Morrison Parker joined the club
He owned a newspaper-The Stock ES
change Recorder, l think he called it
and therefore he was technically quail
fed. But when he came and sat up wit
us in the small hours he dil not tai
literature. He talked finance"
"Yet the two subjects may occasion
ally have relations with each other"
suggested.
"Precisely, That is the point tina
Morrison Parker used to insist upon
especially when he had had a good da
and made US drink champagne wit
him to celebrate his luck. why do 6
many half educated city men profess
look down on authors?' he would ask
And then he would answer his ow
question. because there isn't one at
thor ifv 600 who knows how to mai
81. 900 q year. That has always bee
the great reproach Of letters. from D.
j~otisGon's time to ours. It's high tim