Greenbrier independent. [volume] (Lewisburg, Va. [W. Va.]) 1859-1980, 1896-03-19
IN ERROR.

There is hope for a man who gets
publicly and riotouSly drunk oftener
| than he ought to do, but there is no
hope for the man who drinks secretly
and alone i'll his own house-the man
who is never seen to drink. This is
rule; 50 there must bo an exception to
prove it. Moriarty's case was that ex-
| ceptior,
He was civil engineer, and the gov
| rnn:'nt very kindly put him quite by
himself Ill an out district, with nobody
but natives to talk 10 and great deal
| of work TO do. He did his work we'll in
| the four years he was utterly alone, but
he picked up the vice of secret and soil
tary drinking, and came up out of the
| wilderness more cd and worn and hag-
| gard than the dead alivo life had any
| right To make him. You know tho say
ing that man who has been alone in
the Jungle for more than year is never
| quite :a'.r all his life after People
credited Moriarty' queerncss of manner
and moody ways to the solitude, and
said that it showed how government
| spoiled the futures of its best men.
| Moriarty had built himself the plinth Of
a very good reputation in the bridge
| dam Sirder line. But he knew, every
| night Of the week, that he was taking
| steps TO undermine that reputation with
l.. l.. L. and christopher" and little
| nips of hqueurs and filth of that kind.
He had sound constitution and great
brain, or else he would have broken
down and died like sick camel in the
district, as better men have done before
him.
Government ordered him to Simla
after he had come out of the desert, and
he went up meaning to try for a post
then vacant. That season, Mrs. Reiver
perhaps you will remember her-was
in the height of her power, and many
men lay under her yoke. Everything
bad that could be said has already been
said about Mrs. Reiver in another tale
Moriarty was heavily built and hand
some, very quiet and nervously anxious
to please his ncighbors, when he wasn't
sunk in n brown study. He started a
good deal at sudden noises or if spoken
to without warning; and, when you
watched him drinking his glass of wa
ter at dinner, you could see the hand
shake little. But all this was put
down to nervousness, and the quiet,
steady "sip-sip-sip, fill and sip-sip-sip
again that went on in his own room
when he was by himself was never
known, which was miraculous, seeing
how everything in mans private life
Is public property ont here.
MOriarty was drawn, not into Mrs.
Reiver' s set, because they were not his
lint 1,,fF I.,, 8 D..
and he fell down in front of her and
made goddess Of her. This was due to
his coming fresh ont the jungle to big
town. He could not scale things proper
ly or sec who was what
Because Mrs. Reiver was cold and
hard, he said she was stately and digni-
fed. Because she had no brains, and
could not talk cleverly, he said she was
reserved and shy. Mrs. Reiver shyl
Because she was unworthy of honor or
reverence from any one, he reverenced
her from distance and lowered her
with all the virtues i'll the Bible and
most of those i'll Shakespeare
This big, dark, distracted man who
was so nervous when a pony cantered
behind him used to moon in the train
Of Mrs. Reiver, blushing with pleasure
when she threw word or two his way.
His admiration was strictly platonic-
even other women saw and admitted
this. He did not move out in Simla, so
he heard 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 going for a walk with him now and
then, just TO show that he was her
property, claimable as such Moriarty