The White Pine news. [volume] (Treasure City, Nev.) 1868-1906, 1897-09-18

tence when he IA getting over q fit Of
intoxication, but he announced boldly
that he didn't intend to give up his
times-only, in Difference to the morbid
sensitiveness of his family, he might
agree to have rather fewer of them. I
assure you he would argue the matter
cool as a darby with a chicken under
his hat. 1t was a redeeming trait of my
gentleman that he wasn't a little bit Of
a hypocrite. You have no idea, Roger,
what a glorious sensation it is to let
yourself CO., says he. You deadly re-
spectacle fellows that are forever chok-
ing your natural passions and handcuff-
ing any instinct that is a bit wild, you
don't realize the tremendous exhilara-
| tion there is in the gallop.'
"At this he swung round in his chair,
and says he, 4 say, Roger, were you
over drunk"
well" said Rogers sister, for Rog-
er had paused.
II told him, answered Roger, THAT
once in my college days, when our base
ball team won, l had made all the diff
ferent kinds of an ass of myself, includ-
ing that, and 1 had awakened the next
morning with my head like a sawmill
gone wrong, and my threat like baked
leather, and my stomach beneath con-
tempt; had spent several days in ours
ing myself and paying my bills, and
had never repeated the experience.
""That's odd, said Jimmy affably;
i never even have q headache until /
get quite done up, you know, and l
don't think l make an ass of myself
"'You do, l raped out, and a par
ticularly nauseous one. l wish you
could see yourself.
"But he simply laughed and asked
me to lend him a double X; there was
no moving Jimmy. | made every ap-
peal my, imagination could suggest. I
even talked about his mother, who was
his temper for the first time. He spoke
like a much injured man, demanding to
know why we allowed Mrs. Cunning
ham to guess anything about his carous-
ais. Didn't he take particular pains, he
asked with an air of indignant virtue,
to keep them from her? And here was
that chump Ralph toddling over to her,
or writing every time he was late at the
officel And he had always treated
Ralph SO squarely; always gave him
warning when he was going to take a
week off; yes, and put off his fun when
there was q rush of business sometimes.
Ralph to talkl
HE might have added, though he
didn't-Jimmy wasn't conceited-that
sober he was a particularly valuable
man. He had plenty of energy and
plenty Of industry, and the Simon pure
business instinct, which, you know,
isn't lying around loose either. Con
found him! I wouldn't ask a better
clerk or a better partner if he would
only keep straight I have heard Ralph
wall a dozen times. There it was: jim
my would not keep straight. To look at
him, with his delicate face and curling
hair and pensive eyes, always so trim
and dainty in his appearance and SO
gentle of manner, you could not suspect
him of a degrading vice. And, besides,
when Jimmy was sober, he was so
strikingly, SO Immediately, sober. 1
don't mean that he didn't touch liquor;
that was the wonder of it to some peo-'
pie. He could touch liquor, he could
drink moderately occasionally, like any
abstemious but not totally abstaining
man, and yet not seem tempted by his
moderate drinking. And he would walk
for months in the paths Of temperance
until the next time. Suddenly the de-
sire, or the weariness Of temperance, or,
call it what you will, the thing would
be ON him, and he would drink and
drink and drink for days, for weeks,
until the physical power to keep liquor
in him left him or until he was raving
in delirium. And the clean, decent fell
low would be as neglected and degraded
looking a sot as ever rolls in the gut
ter. 1t was pretty bad for the women, !
can tell you. Well, never mind that
part. l won't enlarge either on our eff
forts to reform Jimmy. We tried all the
approved schemes. We sent him at great
expense to a ranch, from which he re-
turned with a mysterious bullet wound
and a dark suspicion Of having shot
some mi too magnanimous to press his
claims. Jimmy bought him off with
81, 000-he was thrifty as we'll as mag
unanimous, and Jimmy was a generous
soul, never niggardly with his mothers
money. Another venture Of ours was to
| dispatch James to the lakes with IL tried
and true temperance captain. This end
ed very sadly, because Jimmy struggled
an assortment Of liquors Oh board,
enough to last a long cruise, and when
he found that the voyage was to be a
| short one nearly killed himself drinking
| all the stock at once, to save itP FL
nally we agreed OH a desperate remedy.
Well, I was the nj that suggested it.
We had been having Jimmy with us all
summer. ] had just built this house
then. And after q month or six weeks
of beautiful behavior he took the money
a confiding client of mine paid him for
me and went to Chicago on a holy ter
ror- of q spree. This time l was angry.
1 don't think, with all the worry and
the disappointment and the tragedy of
the thing, | had been angry before. l
don't suppose that l could explain to
any one who didn't know Jimmy the
extraordinary charm of the fellow. If
responsible as he was, you could no
more help having your heart move to-
ward him than taking off your coat for
the suisse Esop's Fables. He had a
quick and happy sympathy about him.
and a genuine interest in other people,
that was irresistible. And while. Of
course, his perverse qualification Of the