The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-05-23

every five or six years Then an example
IS NECESSARY They have had TINS same aS
that IS how our men learned to resort 10
the trick of concealment. but there shaI
pc no more such spying as long as am
dean of this college,
With sigh he resumed: Young Allyn
seems to be frank and truthful. he ad1nlls
freely that there has not been the shghtesS1t
cause for spite either on the part OF WI,
liam or Mr.. Parker. But we have learned
that he has been reckless in incurring dept,
so that he might very well stand in great
need of money. Those four dollar bills tell
against him. too. Truly, it is pity:
and | repeated the most reassuring part
OF what the dean had told me-
" Let us take walk. said he, and We
set out on an afternoons tramp. 1t IS
strange how suddenly a friendship can be
knit l had not known the boy for more
than a fortnight, and had not met MIN
more than five times at most, and yet, if
he had then and there confessed himself q
thief I should have been ready to stand by
him and help him make the best of it.
" Inc issue IS clear enough. ne began,
after we had passed out of the town If
drop, well and good. If he does not ana
l am expelled or discreetly told to leave
college there is nothing left but suicide
Oh, don't go and repeat the usual tommy
rot to me, he exclaimed impatiently when
l made a deprecating gesture. You know
a gentleman cannot survive. Your ideals
of a gentleman. l know. are different from
ours in the South, but on that point we all
open on the quiet I certainly can't go
home as a suspected thief, and L won't go
home with q lie on my lips.
=" Don't talk to me of other alternatives
L know that l can change my name and go
to a place where no one knows me, to be-
gin life anew, as they call 1t. l can be
cowboy, miner, a soldier. perhaps, or go
to sea. That's just what l don't want 10
do. | don't want to run for cover. After
ALL this beginning life anew is only another
more painful act of suicide, and a doubt
full one at that. My training and different
habits of life would be sure to give me
away for 1 don't believe that a man who
has made his share of friends and enemies
not to speak of the ties of kith and kim
can make himself disappear like needle
in a hayStack. In short, the only gentle
manly thing is to stop living, particularly
if it can be done without shocking those
who love one.
" And how can man do that?' l asked
not taking any of his talk too seriously.
. oh, of course, it is hard for others to
get over the loss caused by death; but at
all events they can be spared the brutal
shock of a repulsive or brutal death. Re
suit of unfortunate accident, you know, SO
that the taken-Off-in-p rime-of-life obituary
the lying epitaph, consecrated burial
ground and the rest of all the mortuary
"Cynicism in a freshman was not a new
thing to me. Like Keats, l, too, had often
death or had found myself defending the
principles of Seneca, so that the same sentl-
ments in another caused me no wonder
ment. Still, | was glad when the BOY
. DO you know he said briskly, that
nature has never seemed so beautiful to me
before. Not life, you understand, but ma
ture. 1t is as though my eyes had sud
denly been opened to beauties l had never
recognized before 1t is the consciousness
that all this may vanish at any moment
that gives it a special glamor, just as with
a sunset. | sat up until l or CLOCK
this morning watching the moonlight and
the shadows of the clouds and listening TO
the rustling branches of the elms. rms
morning l woke with the same intense
sympathy for all outward beauty, ana
throughout this walk every. plant, every
tree, and even our own shifting shadows
on the white road have given me the Keen
| est pleasure
While he spoke the sun was setting.
! Three clouds, drawn out like the smoke
of a steamship, streaked the carmine hori-
ION against which the silhOuettes of dis
tant trees stood out like the fantastic out
| lines of Gothic tracery. 1t was sun hght,
| though the clear sky above had become
tinged with a metallic green, chang
| ing by imperceptible degrees to an ashen
! purple that rose like mist from the darkhng
1T was time to return. We spoke but
| little on the way back, but | could see
| from the boys manner that he had for
| gotten his troubles and was eargerly drink
! ing in all the sensuous beauty OF the even
SNext morning l received a note from
him in which he wrote briefly: ] hope you
do not think me serious in what | talked
| about so wildly during the first part OF our
! walk. l am to see the dean to-day, and feel
! confident that everything will turn out all
with you next Saturday or Sunday.
when I went to dinner on that same
| day, l heard one of a group of creWmen
! standing in the doorway OF the dining nail
| mention Allyn's name On entering the
| hall L was struck with the unusual quiet;
| till a friend told me that a freshman mad
! been drowned in the river. 1t was not long
before I learned with a pang that 1t was
! Allyn, and heard all the meager details Oh
1T seems that he was seen rowing down
! the river in single scull during the AFTER
| ~S-ifx H iCh
| not far behind. Suddenly, so they SAID, the
! coxswain of the eight, who was instinct
| lively watching Allyn'S stroke, saw splash
| and then nothing could be seen but the bot
! tom of the narrow boat and the two oars
floating in the water The GoXsWa l1
| though that Allyn had struck a submerged
| Spite and had thus lost his balance, ana
! therefore told his men to row easy TO avoid
a similar mishap and to help fish the. boy
! out as soon as he should come to the sur
| face. His head however did not reappeaI,
and when they reached the overturned shell
they found Allyn hanging head downward
! under the water drowned beyond recovery:
| In his efforts to regain his balance, so II
was explained to me, his feet had become
! entangled in the stretcher straps; IN fact,
he must have kicked so hard when he
found himself caught that the straps
| slipped over his ankles ana mus ne was
| drowned before help could reach him.
I'm the reports of his death in next days
| newspapers special mention was made OF
| tbe fact that he had been expected to take
| rart in some private theatricals that same
| evening and that half-fnished letter TO
| which he wrote cheerfully of his work and
| announced some of his plans for the COM
| ing summer vacation. Some of the news
papers in their usual bombastic style de-
clared that he was crack oarsman ana "a
| tried swimmer, that he came OF arlstocratlc
| lineage. and was considered one of the
most brilliant and popular members OF the
new class.
chanel. The freshman eight were the pail
bearers and L played Chopin tunerat
march on the organ. General Allyn, the
bows father, who had come from Virginia
| to fetch his sons body home impressed US
all as a grizzly soldier who was too proud
to show his grief in public:
But when at the end of the service the
old man walked stiff1y forward and in place
of a wreath laid his Confederate army
medal on the bier of his son, lump rose
in nv throat and mist rose in my eyes
looked toward the dean, who sat facing the
organ loft and beheld novel sight
@The stern old man was weeping.
e. E., ir in New York Evening Sun.
Dorothy and the Queen.