The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1897-02-27
THE END or ALI. THINGS.

Philip and Helen deferred their we'd
ding journey to a time when it came
as u welcome relief from the round o.
domestic and social duties for the wife,
and a needed rest from the drudgery
Of business for the husband. Philip
had said summer and Europe, buo
Helen had pleaded for autumn and the
south, and she had her way.
1--WE can go on to New Orleans if you
! like, but want to see Allacoochee, she
said.
you're too late for that; Allaeoo~
chez is dead and bur:ed-so Protheroc
writes"
"No matter; we can see the place
here it WAS. ! shall always love it,
alive or dead, for what it did for YOU
And so it came about that on GER
tain golden October day, when the rug
! ged outlines of Jubal mountain were
melting in the soft autumn haze, and
!. the fragrance OF summer blossoms had
given place to the spicy sweetness Of
H-ithered leaves and ripened fruit, a
/ tiainly-peopael train on the Chiwassee
| Valley Extension debarked two Of it's
passengers at the ornate station which
! aforetinte had been too small to ac-
commodats, the throngs besieging it
room now, however, and when Philip
/ lifted Helen to the platform the empty
! train-shed echoed their steps as if pro-
! testing against the invasion of it's soil
tude At the arelled entrance, where
! the crowd Of yocifcrous hacknaen used
! to fight for patronage, they were met
| by single decrepit negro.
'Hotel, sah?'' he asked, doffing his
battered hat and bowling with touch
j'of unspoiled courtesy.
! Eyes; you may take us to the johann
nisberg."
''Cayn't Go dat, sah---no. sab; Gaze
hit ain't runnin' no mo-. Dee amt no,
to take you-all to dc Mountain house,
Philip put his wife into the shackly
vehicle. els your horse good for a six.
/ mile drive, uncle?"
/ con, yass, sah-he sslttinly am dat;
eff hits anywhars on de plain dirt
| road" =
"All right. Put the top down SO we
can see, and drive us around town q
/ bit: then I'll tell you where to co. ;,
Three hundred yards from the sta
ton the carriage turned into Broad
way. Nature reasserts herself speedi-
| ~ in a se1ni-trop;cal climate, and the
rank grass sprouting between the pay
| ha Of + hfA
+, horses hoofs ard muf1led the jingling.
accompaniment of loose bolts in the
worn-out hackney coach.
! .'Protheroe didn't stretch it much"
said Philip, unconscio,,sly lowering his
voice in Difference to the sepulchral
F! quiet of the street. YOU'D hardly be-
lieye that I have stood On the sidewalk
/ just here, waiting my chance to dodge
; across through the endless stream of
! carriages and wagons and electric
cars ,
"It doesn't seem possible" !.
"No, it doesn't And in that last
afternoon, when 1 was breaking my
! heart to catch the New York train,
| the Johannisberg omnibus was actually
stopped in q jam of vehicles somewhere
along in this square, and was afraid
we'd miss it."
On esther side of the grass-grown
streets were the costly monuments of
the sham city's brief day of activity and
life. Lofty buildings, empty from eel
lar to roof; rows of vacant store-roo1ns.
lined with dusty shelving and Uttered
with the forlorn debris of hasty re-
movals; shattered glass on the side"
walk; withered grass festooning the:
cornices; and, i'll front of the disman-
tied Bank of A]lacoochee, the skeleton
fully on the rusty tracks in the road;
way. Here and there the desolation,
was emphasized rather than relieved
by q scanty and shop-worn display In.
the windows of some merchant who.
had been unwilling or unable to join
his neighbors in the general exodus;
following the crash; pitiable hotsam;
ard jetsam left by the high tide OF
commerce to bleach and molder on the;
rocks of an uncharted island in the
ocean of traffic. OF these stranded
| wrecks, the most notable was the store
Of dealer in hardware just across
from the Chiwassee national bank. !,
THAT is where bought my pistol
on the night of the garroting," said
Philip. telling the driver to pull up at
the curbstone.
The proprietor of the place was sits
ting on spool of barbed wire in front
of his own door, and he rose and crossed
the sidewalk in response to Philips
salutation. ooh, it's you, is 1t, Mr..
Thorndyke? I didn't know you at
first. Come back TO take a look at the
corpse?" ..,.
cit amounts to that, I'm afraid" said
Philip, sympathetically. 7,
ut does, for fact-just that. All
NC need now is good, old-fashioned
earthquake: not the fever-and-ague
kind you read about nowadays, but the
sort they used to put in the biographies
when we went to school-a shake with
C. big oracle in the middle of it to bury
the wreck decently out Of sight"
.It's dreadful" said Philip, not
knowing what else to say. why didn't
you get away with the rest of them?"
The man made pathetic gesture OF
helplessness. There were two rea-
sons. In the first place, bought my.
stock and paid for it, so missed the;
help of the deputy sheriffs and tho
creditors; they made the move easy for.
rost Of 'em, tell you. Then, again,'
It costs money to move stock OF hard;