San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1895-06-16


NJ again, and from
their wind ows
Barnabee and Hollan could look down
six stories upon a busy street, where
transfer wagons were rumbling on
their way to evening trains, the street
car gongs We're changing, and the
voices OF small boys were wing with
each other in clamor as they sold their
newspapers. Hollan's appetite seemed
to be about three weeks behind on
dinners. A few hours before Barna-
bee had found him wandering about
town, a picture of loneliness in thor
oughfares bustling with people. At
first Barnabee would have gladly es-
capped his friend. as Hollan's apparel
was old and worn, his shoes slanted to
one side and his cheeks had not con-
tended with razor for week. But
the found fastened himself to the finder
as the wanderer clings to an oasis in a
desert. There was something about
the poor fellow that appealed to
Barnabee. The two had played to-
gether when they were boys long ago,
but they had separated and grown
apart until now revival of the older
days was like developing a new &C.
quaintance. Barnabee had taken Hol-
Ian home in a closed carriage and
dressed him out in some of his own
clothing. and when Hollan had reap
peared with little of Barnabee's gold
jingling in his pocket, he looked like a
young man long" on prosperity. He
was gentle and companionable, and
Barnabee's interest had increased to
the point of deserving his desk in the
Transcript office, where he was dram
attic critic, and devoting day to him.
with your broad acquaintance"
Hollan said, you can say a word for
me somewhere. / am used to work"
He turned his hands up to show their
labor marks, and to contrast them with
the soft, delicate ones of Barnabee.
but my pockets flap with emptiness
as if in mockery of my better days"
Those better days must have been
when you were in the northwest"
Barnabee commented, as they lighted
their cigars and began an after-dinner
diversion. when you left, a brass
band did not take you to the train, and
If you had Just returned when we met
your homecoming certainly was not to
the music of cymbals Something
must have gone wrong while you were
out there, and taken good man with
it."
"You know, Barnabee. that it was on
your own counsel and your money that
/ went I never could have carried out
my ideas here, and did not do so there
but l came close to it. You never
heard of me after | repaid the loan?
Perhaps not. There was too much ex-
element ia the northwest, and was
too busy fortune hunting. found the
fortune, but / left it there. Have you
ever heard one of the northwestern
stories? They are the saddest tales of
all You are rich; you have your home
and its thousand comforts; you have
your horses and your club; and you
have-her whom you love. Your life
is secure against interruptions. But l
left in the northwest a multitude of
young men as intelligent and refined
as you, who know as well as you what
the better things of life are, and who
have known what it is to SOW their
money broadcast as you are doing.
When the boom was on there, their
lives were going up the happy, sunny
side to-day, and down the heartache
side tomorrow. When left that coun-
try one could hear these stories every
where. They were nearly all stories
of young heroes struggling for a for
tune in the northwest and some anx-
ious girl left in the east until the
wealth came with its assurances of ease
and comfort. They are stories which
begin right, with the promise of oppor-
tunities and some one to seize them;
but they never end with satisfaction to
the principal characters"
"We have heard the same stories
around us here in the east" Barnabee
said, ''but fortune-chasing here is at a
slower gait. The hero does not grow
wealthy to-day and lose it all to-mor-
row. He may have the opportunity,
but he lacks the nerve. In the north
west he is influenced by the reckless
ness around him. By the way, what
became of--of her as you would put
it-after you went away9"
"She Is where / left her-in the
place TO which have longed to get
back. But now that am SO near her,
can't go, Barnabee, after my failure
in the northwest"
''She knows you are herel"
mo; she has not known of any OF
nay later movements would have