The copper country evening news. [volume] (Calumet, Mich.) 18??-1907, 1896-07-20
DANDY DICK.

happened" said Tom Smelter of Platts-
burg "Know himY should say did, for
Dick and I were schoolmates as young
stors and we sold goods for the same house
for tho first five years Of our travelling.
Yes, he was mighty particular as to his
dress and boasted that he was the best
groomed man on the road. Vainf He was
vain-that Is fact, and he would have
been the last man to deny it himself, for
/ remember we'll what he said to the boys
in the vestibule at Parker's once, just be-
fore we were to go In to dinner. He was
got up to kill that day, his splendid head
Of curly black hair dressed by the best art
ist of scissors and pomade In Boston, his
large, shapely, white hands and fingers
manicured beyond criticism and his whole
appearance really magnificent. The boys
chaffed him, of course, and one of them
good naturedly called him Dandy Dick,
at which he famed out; Dandy Dick, ehg
Well, am q dandy, and I am glad OF It..
OF course, after that the name stuck to
him, and in less than year half the con-
tinent knew him as Dandy Dick.
"But the name was not an Ill fit, nor
did 10 carry when applied to him the sig
niilcanoe of an epitbet, but seemed torn
Of description rather and most apt one,
tOO, anu httibk oAPhoooAch VI
him as the plume Is to soldiers hat or
bright bouquet to an elegant vase. For
In the first place he came by his vanity
honestly, for his grandsire was captain in
General Anthony Wayne's regiment, and
Wayne, you know, was tho dandy OF the
continental army and drove headlong into
battle at the head Of his ragged Irish line
as faultlessly groomed as fop, and his
senior captain was Of the same metal. for
he went into the fray with his linen as
snow white as the generals and came out
of it as bloody. In fact, the physical re-
semblance between grandsire and grand
son was startlingly close, and looking from
the painted figure of one to the living form
of the other man would swear that the
hero of the eighteenth century was the
drummer of the nineteenth.
"Then too, he was a great big chap,
over six feet in his stockings and hand
| some featured, a wholesome sort of a fel.
low to look at. And he bore himself as his
| grandsire did, with straightforwardness
| of look and bearing of stateliness beft-
| ting his size, but tempered from haughti'
| ness by q most gracious suavity and de-
| lightful self consciousness that God and
| his tailor had made him well up to the
| highest line Of his type and he was glad OF
| it. But In spite of his fine dressing and
| the Qladness he evidently felt in 1t, not one
| of us but knew that within that big hand
some body with its lions strength was a
lions courage, too, and that, with his
| grandsire's love of fine things, there had
| come down to him on that red tide OF de-
scent which dominates us all beyond what
we think the grandsire's grit as well.
"with such strong, red blood and with
such body, and such sweet conceit Of
himself withal, life was full to the brim to
him, even as a cup of spiced wine whose
bouquet fills the nose of him who sips It
with delicious tingling. He loved the
smell Of the grassy fields, the odor of pine
covered hills, the warmth of the sun whom
its fatherhood mates with the maternal
| forces of the world, the bright beauty Of
| flowers and the charming loneliness Of
| girls, whose eyes grew loveler as they
gazed on him. He was an old time Greek
| in the fullness of his senses to receive and
absorb what was pleasing and In his deli.
cacy, too, for never did one Of US ever see
| a gross look In his eyes or hear low word
| from his mouth. Self contented, happy
| and gay no was, but never low minded; In
love with life and health and the sweet
| joyfulness that belongs to these as the red
| tones belong to the wine and the sprightly
effervescence to champagne, but nothing
beyond this and nothing less fitting to
himself as God made him.
"My God How we'll remember the
crashl He had Just left me and gone into
the smoker when 1t came, and when. after
n horrible delay-an eternity, 1t seemed to
me-the axemen cut the timbers that held
me down and / crawled out of the awful
wreck, sorely bruised, but otherwise un.
hurt, my first thought was of Dick. In a
moment found him under tree some
rods from the row of the dead and the dy-
ing, with his right leg crushed from ankle
to thigh and his left arm broken at the
elbow.
"Oh, Dlckr cried, as knelt by his
side and kissed his dear face, while my
eyes were blinded with tears. is 1t all up
with your Are you going, old boyp
81 am glad you have come, old fellow,
he murmured In reply. Il knew you
would find me II you got out alive. Yes;
this is my last trip, and you can send In
the samples.
"well, boys, that broke me all up, and
went all to pieces. and / lost all control
of myself and sobbed as q man sobs when
his heart breaks out of control rs he kneels
by the side Of man whom he loves with
mans love for comrade, when that
comrade lies dying. And Iswayed TO and
fro In my grief, and I cried. oh, Dick, !
cannot let you go. My God, cannot let
you goi'
"And then tho characteristic courage
and, may say, vanity Of Dick, the Dick
whom loved came out, and In death, as
In life, the same true self az him was re-
vealed, and, strange as his reasoning was,
so unlike what would have been that oil
most men placed as was he, IL Gained and
oomforted ms beyond telling.
".why, Tom he said, speaking low,
for out Of the great frame Of him the old
strength was fast cbbing, you surely
would not have me live, all marred and
crippled as I should be, II the surgeon
could save meS What sort Of n man should
I be with one leg and ono arms Who
would give me an outfit, and how could
keep pace with the boys' have Away:
dreaded to live until my eyes dimmed and
ears deafened and my blood grew so thin
and cold that IL could not answer back
glow for glow to the sweet fervor and heal
of young life around me. l saw an old
chap at the hotel last week that had to cal
his food with his front teeth. and hs
chewed and mumbled his victuals like q
goat. Tom, old boy. would you like "a
sec DANDY Dick eat In that style and have