Twice-a-week plain dealer. (Cresco, Howard County, Iowa) 1895-1913, 1896-01-14
AN UNCONSCIOUS HERO.
By MRS. NJ. L. RAYNE.

Beauty roses she held in her clasped
hands with painful intensity, as if they
were somehow to blame, II cannot
marry you, NIorris-you are not my
hero"
Heroes do not exist out of novels"
answered Norris Holmes, with that per-
feet infection that good breeding gives
to its possessor; II cannot fight for my
ladyloye as the medieval knights did,
nor fly to the wars in these degenerate
days"
Then be a soldier Of peace; there
are daily wars to be waged that need
disciplined soldiers. Be anything but
dawdler on ethe silken skirts Of So
ciety. You believe that because you have
inherited q fortune that other men
earned for you by the sweat of their
brows. you are to lie idle in tho
lap of luxury. Shame, Morris Holmes!
When I marry I will choose my husband
from among the ranks of the people;
my hero must do great deeds, not dream
them all day long,
my dear socialist" said Morris, with
the familiarity of long acquaintance, "if
you will listen to reason moment you
will see that with money you can rem
edy great many evils; without it you
are practically helpless"
"How many evils have you rem
edied, Morris? Answer me that"
Few as yet, admit. But, Eleanor,
is it my fault that my father left me
q fortune? Listen, dearest. / will
call you SO this once. Why not help me
become his almoner? AT least I am
not n profigate."
Pardon me-" returned the young
woman, tearing the heart from rose
tive Morris wince-'I think you are
profigate with time and influence,
and all the other good things which you
waste by lavishing them on yourself.
How will you account for wasted op-
portunities and talents folded in nap
kin when the day of reckoning comes 2"
What would you have me do to
prove myself hero?" asked Morris
Holmes, with gently patronizing air,
as if he had been speaking to child,
and which Infatuated Eleanor.
"Do?" she repeated, with whitening
scorn; edo anything to show the world
that you are man, and at least capable
of managing your own affairs! Life
is full of instruction, but you have
never learned one of it's lessons. You
have not even been profitable dream
err"
She was intense and angry, and at
last he was aroused. He rose without
his usual dawdling elegance of man
ner and said:
you have taught me one lesson,
Eleanor, that shall not forget. hope
when you find your hero he will love
you as truly as have done-as will
continue to do, if you do not forbid
me. And now, goodby. We part
friends, do we not?"
Before she answered him Eleanor
rose and in so doing dropped the flow
ers she had been holding. Morris
sprang to pick them up, when instantly
she placed her small, imperative foot
upon them, crushing them to the floor.
He looked at her, shocked and wounded.
"You see how hopeless it is that you
should ever understand me-" she said,
bitterly. "You have more considera-
ton for these dollhouse weeds than for
the souls of those around you. You
hurt and wound me by your indiffer-
ence to vital questions, but you are
sorry for the roses! Good-by, Morrisl"
mo berths left in the sleeper, sir"
r 4o11 r ~ \ % or h
I can't sit up all night" and Morris
Holmes shivered at the thought Of such
a hardship.
"a great many good people do, sir"
said the copductor. There's old Judge
Skinner aud his wife, they are both
going to sit up tonight"
"But my man telegraphed for a Sec
ton"
"They were oil taken then, sir"
1t was strange that at the first mo-
ment Morris Holmes started out to be-
come hero and learn the seamy side Of
life he should be reduced to actual suf-
fering like this. If he had been
dressed in his usual fashionable and
elegant travelling attire the conductor
would have suspected that he had I'M
limited wealth and would have bought
out some less important traveller Or
sold him a berth already negotiated
for, as the all-powerful car magnate
has the privilege of doing.
But Morris Holmes had donned the
plain dress of the ordinary business
man, and wore u hideous gray ulster
that concealed his elegant personality,
and was on his way to the mining dis
trict, where mine WIS located ofwhich
lie was part owner; not gold mine,
but one that brought in gold a btu
nlinous coal mine, known as the Little
| Summit.
Morris had taken little or no notice
OF this branch of his wealth. the man
agement and details being left to his
| agent, but when he left Eleanor Lands
berg on the occasion of her second and
| final refusal of his offer of marriage,
he suddenly determined to take trip
| to the mining country and try his hand
at heroism, in the way of improving the
| condition of the men who worked in the
underground chambers. a work to him
the embodiment of hardship and pri-
walton. He was going incognito, with
the feeling of one who was about to
perform long neglected duty.
A more desolate place than that in
which the Little Summit mine was To-
Gated would be hard to describe. The
mine that poured wealth into the cot
fers of its owner was conducted by ill
paid, sodden men, scrubby boys, and
half-blind mules. The foreman was
brutalized by long course of low