Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1896-03-14
IN ERROR.

IN LA NOA.
Inere is hopo fer man who gets
publicly ard riotously drunk oftener
tL.n he ought to do, but there is no
hopo for the man who drinks secretly
and alone in his own house--the man
who is never seen to drink This is
rulo; 50 there must bo an exception to
prove it. Moriarty's S case was that ex-
ception.
Ho WAS q civil engineer, and the gov
ornment very kindly put him quite By
himself i'll al out district, with nobody
but natives to talk to and great deal
Of work to Go. Ee did his work we'll III
the four years he was utterly alone, but
Eo picked up the vice of secret and soil
taly drinking, and came up out of the
wilderness mere old and Worn and hag-
gard than the dead alive life had any
right to make him. You know the say
ing that a nan who has been alone i'll
the Jungle fer more than year is never
quito sane all his life after People
credited MOriarty's qucerness Of manner
and moody ways to the solitude, and
said that it showed how government
SToilGd the futures Of its best men.
Ioria1ty had built himself the plinth Of
4 very good reputation in the bridge
dam Girdcr line. But he knew, every
night Ct the week, that he was taking
steps to undermine that reputation with
l.. L. l. and "Christopher" and little
nips Of Equcurs and filth cf that kind.
He Lad q sound constitution and great
brain, CT else he would have broken
down and G.Cl like I; sick camel in the
district, &3 b ter men have done before
him.
t3oyC1rrcl-t ordered him to Simla
after lie had come out of the desert, and
he went up meaning to try for post
then vacant. That season, Mrs. Reiver
perhaps yen viii remember her--was
i'll tie height Ct her power, and many
men lay under Ecr yoke. Everything
bad that ccu,l be said has already been
said aloot Hrs Roiyer i'll another tale
MCri"l;y NIs heavily built and hand
some, veGy quiet and rervously anxious
to pleas lis ncjShbors, when he wasn't
sunk ii brown study. He started
G0Cd dIal at sudden noises CT if spoken
to without WaTnng; and, when you
watched L.. drinking his glass of wa
ter 1t di13C", you could see the hand
shake o Hide. But all this was put
down ID GCrvousncSs, and the quiet,
steady "sip-.ip-sip, fill and sip-sip-sip
agUin' that Went Cn i'll his own room
Whcn Io VS. by himself was never
known, which was miraculous, seeing
how cyerytLlrg il mans private life
IS p1I-.c property out here.
lcriagty Was drawn, not into Ms.
Rclylr'a set, tccause they were not his
sart, Int into tEo power Of Mrs. Reiver,
@IG Ea fell Gown i'll front of her and
made Il GcG(lc&s cf her. This was due to
lis "cLin& fresh out the jungle to big
town. Lo could not scale things proper
ly CT sco who was what
I,ccause Mrs. Reiyer was cold and
hard, L. said she was stately and digni-
fed. Because she had no brains, and
could rot talk cleyerly, he said she was
reserved a"l shy. Mrs. Reiver shy
Because Gle Was unworthy Of honor or
reverence from &2.y one, lie reverenced
her from 4 distance and lowered her
with all the virtues III the Bible and
most Of tLcse in Shakespeare
This big, dark, abstracted man who
YVES 50 LelVou5 when a pony cantered
behind him u-Cd to moon i'll the train
Of Ms. ReEycr, blushing with pleasure
when she threw a word or two his way.
His admiration was strictly platonic-
even CthCr women saw and admitted
this. He Cid not move out in Simla, so
he EC@rd nothing against his idol, which
was satisfactory Mrs Reiver took no
special notice Of him. beyond seeing that
he was added to her list of admirers,
and gong FOR walk with him now and
then, just to show that he was her
property, claiMablc as such. Moriarty
must have done most of the talking, for
AIRS. ReiyCr couldn't talk much to
man Of his stamp, and the little she said
could not have been profitable. What
MOrirty believed in, as he had good
reason to, was Mrs. Reiver's influence
over him, and, i'll that belief, set him.
self seriously to tly to do away with the
vice that only he himself knew of.
His o&Peril noes while he was fighting
with it must have been peculiar, but he
never described them. Sometimes he
would hold eff from everything except
Water for Il week, Then, ON rainy
night, when no one had asked him out
to dinner, and there was Il big fire in
bis room, and everything comfortable,
le would sit down and make big night
Of 1t l:y adding little nip to little nip,
planning BIZ schemes Of reformation
mcmnW hilo, until he threw himself ON
his bed hoI"lossly drunk. He suffered
neNt mu.Uiug.
One night the big crash came. He
was troubled III lis own mind over his
attempts to make himself worthy of
the frinGship' Of Mrs Reiver. The
past ten days had been very bad ones,
and tho ,u.l of II a IT yVoc that bo ro