Morris tribune., 1896-01-29
copvaloAT. 1896. az FREDERICK A. STOKES COMPANY

8uaTQrOOm) TOOK MS departure from NO.
8 barrack room and out of this history
That night in "No. 9 barrack room"
there was one man at least who lay
awake long after flights out" and in
dulged in many long and anxious
thoughts. Last night he was lying the
sole occupant of the room at the end of
the passage, sergeant in charge of the
four barrack rooms that it commanded.
Tonight-well, he had been warned for
stable orderly on the morrow and that
explained the situation. After all, it
served him right-a man of his expert
ence of the world and education to join
police force because there were many
more chad beens" like himself in it.
and WHARF, to keep up the delusion of
playing at soldiers, they fined and i'm
prisoned till the red coat of British
dragon was mockery to man.
He was in bitter and cynical mood.
He began to feel that passion and not
reason was swaying him now. Let him
only bethink himself Did he not de-
serve the punishment he had brought
upon himself? Some voice within him
said it was for a helpless woman s sake.
But in the name of all that was reason
able, what right had he to subvert the
law, which he represented IN his person,
for a matter of sentiment, no matter
how just and reasonable he might think
it? If he had erred in matter of judg
ment he ought to have known that the
path of duty was straight one, permit
ting of no turning either to the right or
the left, and he ought to have followed
it. When he came to think of it, his
punishment was only just; moreover,
he himself had courted that same pun
ishment He had no reason to find fault
with the powers that had tried him.
They had even perhaps dealt Ieniently
with him.
But was it not an i'll luck that was
forever logging his steps? He sat up in
his bed now, as it to relieve the rush of
blood that had gone to his fevered head.
Luck, forsooth! Who was no that he
should talk of luck? Let him glance
around where, stretched upon their pal
liasses, lay the slumbering forms of his
comrades and let him just take one by
one the life histories-at least, SO much
as was known of them-of these men,
a fair sample of some of the pathetic
and almost tragic histories that were
buried away in this police force
There, within couple of yards of
him, lay one who was in his day one of
the most famous and promising men in
his university. He had rowed in the
eight; he ha been a senior wrangler;
he had taken the highest honors wher
ever he had essayed to conquer in the
paths of knowledge; he had entered the
church; a man of great heart and brain,
whom every one was proud to know.
Surely his was life to be envied and
emulated; surely his life was a success.
And then-what was that awful thing.
that evil genius that reptilelike had
followed him up with pitiless malignity,
stealing upon him again with redou
bled rigor after every fresh repulse and
then striking with it's deadly. pitiless
fangs when it was sure of it's victim?
Drink, disgrace, ruin - aye, some
thing infinitely worse than death-and |
then another name, another and a
new country, the red coat of the Ora
COON as worn by a mounted police force, /
for he could not rid himself of that |
life which had become burden to him ;
he was too much of man to cut it
short with his own hands. Then he had |
turned over new leaf and was about !
to get the promotion that his abilities
had earned for him, but he had fallen
again. Only that day he had come out |
of the guardroom, where he had been !
performing prisoner s mental tasks. t
What was to be the end of him? Oh, the |
ironies of what man calls fatel
And there, in that other cot, with
ghostly ray of moonlight creeping over
the old brown rug, lay another chad
been," at one time the most popular
officer in crack cavalry old country
regiment, man who had the respect of
his brother officers and the love and con-
fdence of the rank and file, man of
supposed large private means and inf1u
ence, for whom there were great things
in store, and who had, figuratively
speaking, thu ball at his foot. And then
talk of it shudderingly, and with
bated breath - was it something at
cards, or did rumor lie? Be it as it
might, he had dropped out Of that dis
tinguished life as completely as if his
charger had been led riderless, with
boots reversed, on the soldiers last pa
rade and volley of musketry had been
discharged over his grave. There were
some who said it had been better so.
What availed now his medals and clasps
for distinguished service? Ho dare not
wear them lest his story might get
about. Perhaps only Dick and one or
two others knew his melancholy his
tory, and they kept it sacred secret.
They strove in pity to help this man
who had erred not because he had once
been somebody, but because he had
been punished for his sins and was him
self striving to lead a new life.
There in tlat other cot in the corner,
deep in shadow, lay the only son of
widowed mother, who with him had
been left penniless by some sudden and
unexpected monetary crisis Brought
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