Reporter and farmer. [volume] (Webster, Day County, Dakota [S.D.]) 188?-1946, 1900-12-27

The elegant apartments in the Ego
club building, even to the buffet, were
practically deserted because there was
but one day to intervene before Christ
mas.
The attendant in the refreshment
room yawned tediousIy as, perfunctor-
lily polishing a glass tumbler, he look
ed aimlessly out of the little window
into the area that shared the gloom of
the coming evening with its friends,
the alley, which went off to the right
and left in search of folks.
In the card room the tables, the dom
mo sets, chessmen and packs of cards
rested undisturbed; no noise of the
clicking billiard balls from the room
upstairs or of rumbling spheres in the
tenpin alley below foated up toward
the office, the reception room and the
library on the main floor. Even the
chairs and settees along the hallway
seemed weighted with ennui.
From one of those away-off places
like h basement, the attic or the
stuffy coat % came the resonant
tones Of a conventional cuckoo thing
telling the hour of eight, when down
the main stairs stepped Wilder Will
kins, a bachelor, a man Of the world,
a millionaire and a cynic.
Was your dinner all right, Mr.. Will
kins?" asked the Office man, and the
club members answer as he passed
through toward the reading room was:
Very good, indeed"
Wilkins sat at n of the tables, and
picking up a paper imagined that he
was reading, but his delusion was
broken within a minute by his arising
and looking through a window into
the brilliantly lighted street. There's
life enough out there" he murmured
to himself, as he turned in a tired sort
of way and looked in a hopeless fash
ion at the various portraits on the
walls. Then he returned to the read
ing tables and lighting a cigar af-
fected deep interest in a book he had
taken up.
Its mighty strange" said he, after
a pause, that a mere sentiment can
send dozens of ordinarily good fellows
off on a certain day of the year to fret
and worry and berate themselves over
storekeepers and clerks ,ten-pound tur-
keys and 20-pound babies, when there
is a comfortable, rational, available re-
sort like this one to which they may
make their escape" Then he threw
away his half consumed cigar and with
the strength of a firm resolution made
his way to the card room, where for
half an hour or more he applied him
self to solitaire.
That beats the record" he said,
throwing down his cards and looking
at his watch. "Half-past nine o'clock
and not a soul has entered the place.
Presently l will say something harsh
about Christmas" At this ju~ncture
his eye caught a new lot of notices on
the club bulletin and stepping across
the room he studied them, now and
then offering comments u%nfavorable
upon what he had read.
Surfeited by this species Of recrea-
ton he visited the courtroom, and when
the boy who assisted him with hat and
coat asked: Are you going home so
early, Mr.. Wilkins?' he responded:
You don't suppose | would stay in
such a place as this when | have the
alternative OF going to bed, do your
An hour later, utterly free from any
thing akin to appreciation of the ele-
gance OF his apartments, and totally
blind to the mellowness of the light of
human intercourse, wilkins was in bed
telling himself that he was an absolute
idiot for having been born with the
faculty Of acquiring money, and scold-
ing any man, himself in particular, who
had Judgment so poor as to favor his
stomach in preference to his tired
eyelids, his tired head and his tired
heart.
He simply could not sleep, and he
found himself listening to the rustic OF
the pillow beneath his head as he tried
to formulate the intangible patterns he
seemed to see even though his eyes
were closed. Just when 1t seemed tc
him that he had conquered the sleel
god, an l. train over the Sixth avenue
caught a special stratum of c~learness
In the atmosphere and aroused him
with its noises. At this he rolled over
in bed, and pushing a clinched fist IN
der his jaw, commanded: Here, now
don't be a helpless imbecile, but Sc
to Sleep" And his answer was &
twinge in one of his feet Sc that his
next task was the recovery of the loos.
ened bedclothes.
And then he went to sleep. That !:
TO say, he thought he was asleep, ant
so ventured to discover himself on thu
outer circumference of a vast GLOBE
which was sailing swiftly through IL
limitable space, while, in a frenzy o
despair, he was keeping his position
on the whirling thing simply by force
of bleeding fingers and bruised ant
clinging legs set against the hard sur
face. His vision extended millions o
miles, so that he saw clearly tina
gradually he was losing the hold which
was to send him down, down forevel
into chaos.
At last his overstrained nature yield
ed. the fingers let 90, and he awok'