Santa Fe daily New Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1885-1897, 1896-06-20
AN OLD YOUNG MAN.

| hN OllD VONN MA ~.
When I was telling you of the joke thai
the worm played off on the senior subal
tern, promised a somewhat similar tale,
but with all the jest left out. This is that
tale:
Dicky HIATT was kidnapped in his early,
early youth, neither by landlady's daugh-
ter, housemaid, barmaid nor cook, but by
| a girl SO nearly of his own caste that only
a woman could have said she was just the
least little bit in the world below 1t.
This happened month before he came
out to India and five days after his one
and twentieth birthday. The girl was 19
six years older than Dicky, in the things
of this world that is to say, and, for the
time, twice as foolish as he.
Excepting always falling off a horse,
there is nothing more fatally easy than
marriage before the registrar The cere-
mony costs less than so shillings and is
remarkably like walking into pawnshop.
After the declarations Of residence have
been put in, four minutes will cover the
rest OF the proceedings-fees, attestation
and all. Then the registrar slides the
blotting pad over the names and says
grilnly, with his pen between bis teeth,
"Now you're man and wife," and the cou-
pie walk out into the street, feeling as if
something were horribly illegal some
where.
But that ceremony holds and can drag
a man to his undoing just as thoroughly
as the "long as ye both shall liye'' curse
from the altar rails, with the bridesmaids
giggling behind and "The Voice That
Breathed Der Eden" lifting the roof off.
In this manner was Dicky HIATT kidnapped,
and he considered it vastly fine, for he had
received an appoin ment in India which
carried magnificent salary from the
home point Of view. The marriage was
to be kept secret for year. Then Mrs.
Dicky HIATT was to come out, and the rest
of life was to be glorious golden mist.
That was how they sketched it under the
Addison Road station lamps, and after one
short month came Gravesend and Dicky
steaming out to his new life, and the girl
crying in 80 shillings week bed and
living room in back street off Montpelier
square, near the Knightsbridge barrack.
But the country that Dicky came to was
hard land where linen" of 81 were
reckoned very small boys, indeed, and life
was expensive. The salary that loomed so
large 5000 miles away did not go far,
particularly when Dicky divided it by two
and remitted more than the fair half at
one-sixth to Montpelier square. Ono
hundred and thirty five rupees out of $50
is not much to live on, but it was absurd
to suppose that Mrs HIATT could exist for
ever on the $40 held back by Dicky from
his outfit allowance. Dicky saw this and
remitted at once, always remembering
that 700 rupees were to be paid 10 months
later for first class passage out for lady.
When you add to these trifing details the
natural instincts Of boy beginning q
new life in new country and longing to
go about aud enjoy himself and the neces-
sity for graphing with strange work
which, properly speaking, should take up
boys undivided attention-you will see
that Dicky started handicapped. He saw
1t himself for breath or two but he did
not guess the full beauty of his future
As the hot weather began the shackles
settled on him and ate into his flesh.
First would come letters-big, crossed,
seven sheet letters-from his wife, telling
him how she longed to see him, and what
heaven upon earth would be their prop
erty when they met. Then some boy of
the chummery wherein Dicky lodged
would pound on the door Of his bare little
room and tell him to come out to look at
q pony-the very thing to suit him.
Dicky could not afford ponies He had to
explain this. Dicky could not afford
living IN the chummery, modest as it was.
He had to explain this before he moved to
q single room next the office where he
worked all day. He kept house on
green oilcloth table cover, one chair, one
charpoy, one photograph, one toothglass,
very strong and thick; rupee eight |
anna litter, and messing by contract at 81
rupees month, which last item was ex-
tortion. He had no punkah, for punkah
COSTS 10 rupees month, but he slept on
the roof OF the office, with all his wife's
letters under his pillow. Now and again
ne was asked out to dinner, where he got
both punkah and an iced drink. But
this was seldom, for people objected to
recognizing boy who had evidently the
Of Scotch tallow chandler, and
who lived In such a nasty fashion. Dicky
could not subscribe to any amusement, SO
he found no amusement except the pleas
IRE OF turning over his handbook and
reading what 1t said about "loans on an.
proved security" That cost nothing. He
through Bombay bank, by the
way, and the station knew nothing Of his
private affairs.
Every month he tent home all he could
possibly spare for his wife, and for another
'eason which was expected to explain itself
hortly and would require more money.
About this time Dicky was overtaken
With the nervous, haunting fear that besets
married. men when they are out of sorts.
Ie had no pension to look to. What IL he
hould die suddenly and leave his wife
lnprovided forp The thought used to Law
lold Of him in the still, hot nights on the
oof, till the shaking Of his heart made
i'm think that he was going to die then
nd there Of heart disease. Now this Is a
rame OF mind which no boy has right
know. 1t is strong mans trouble,
ut, coming when 1t did, 1t nearly drove
DOR punkahless, perspiring Dicky HIATT
nad. He could tell no one about It.
A certain amount Of "screw'' is as nee.
ssary for man as for billiard bali, Il
makes them both do wonderful things,
)icky needed money badly, and he worked
u 1t like horse. But naturally the men
Tho owned him knew that a boy can live
NY comfortably on q certain income.