El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1900-04-21

that his sin had been SO very black
She felt sharply impatient for him tC
60 on, to prove TO her, if he could, that
her instructive trust in him had not
been misplaced.
q was not really such bad sort. y
He spoke as if he had read her thought.
But too much was expected of me- My
father was very religious, and before
was born, L believe, had dedicated me
to the ministry. 1t was all awful dis
appointment to him that as L grew old
| er l showed no sort of inclination for
the calling, and when / went to college
well, l did not behave as a foreor-
dained theoiogue ought, I am afraid. l
was not fast, according to college stand
ards, but l was IA tremendously muscu-
lar fellow, taking to n boat and all man.
ner of athletics as naturally as a duck
to water. y
But there was nothing wrong in
! that surely?'
| 1.-The wrong happened to lie in a
string of broken promises, for my father
| looked upon ball and boating as mere
devices of the evil one to encourage
idleness and dissipation, while all secret
societies he hated as much as the devil
| is supposed to hate holy water, and so
with these things l was solemnly pledg
ed i'll advance to have nothing to do,
and the pledges We're broken
But your father was unreasonable
to have made such demands.
Il quieted my conscience by think
ing so, but it did not save me from the
natural way of the transgressor. Prob
ably my father gauged my capacity bet
ter than |, after all, and knew that 1
could not serve two masters. At all
events, although 1 improved my stroke
to point of which 1 was not little
proud, y he went on, with smile that
was not merry, Il went home the first
year loaded down with string of con-
ditions which kept me grinding all sum-
mer. That fall / went back all braced
up with good resolutions, determined
TO score a record as a dig and nothing
else. L really meant it, but in an evil
hour l was persuaded to take an oar in
our class crew, and the next thing, an
other fellow falling out, found myself
pulling stroke and proud of it. And to
make matters worse it had developed
that L was a pretty fair pitcher, so that
L was occasionally called in as substi-
tute on our class nine, and by this time
pride in my prowess had SO chloroform-
the principle that 1 might as well be
hung for sheep as for a lamb. vague
ly expected day of reckoning some
time, but 1t never entered my head that
it could be what it was With all my
athletic laurels had come pressure to
join one of the college societies, of
course. and equally, of course, feeling
that the step was fairly forced upon me,
1 chose to join the best. Expenses in
creased, and L was in debt almost be-
fore | knew Embarrassed and worried
to death to keep along at the pace, yet
helpless to stop when once l had got
started. Well, l came out so low in
scholarship that year that l believe
nothing but my athletic record saved
me from being dropped, and when 1
went home L knew from my fathers
manner that l was almost in hopeless
disgrace. And, as if it could not rain
without a pour, it happened that our
crew had just won in ;.Srace-a small
affair, but il victory so unexpected that
we We're lauded to the skies, while
one gabbllng sheet even went ON to
give an all around puff to the boys,
with sketches of our lives, and espe-
cially of our athletic prowess NV
name figured at the head in large type
and not detail was omitted that could
help ruin me at home. Even my college
society had to appear i'll the tale. OF
course this was the paper which fell
into my fathers hands He had been
disappointed enough before but now he
was angrier than had ever imagined
he could be. This explained why / had
nothing but disgrace to show for all the
and unwarranted expense of
my college life. His sons name blazon-
ed in print as boating man. forever
with the stigma of association
with sporting men! His son convicted
Of deliberate lying and swindlingl For
had not stopped to eXtort money from
him, ostensibly for legitimate expenses,
which had meanly purposed all the
while to use for these disgraceful pur-
suits and pleasures with which 1 had
been in honor bound to have nothing to
10? His SON playing the role of conf
lence man, thief, against the purse of
lis own fatherl Oh Miss Ellery, it was
erriblel My father lived such repress-
ID life, his religion seemed to keep him
10 bound hand and foot, that it always
when he did let himself go
hat he the more utterly lost control
'ver himself. In this case he said his
worst, and then L left the house. He
aid that he never wished to see nv
ace again, and he never has, a sob in
lis voice as he turned his face away.
But he did not mean it-sureIy he
could notr' she cried her cheeks aftame.
He said it, his lips shutting dog
eddy together
But your lnother?'
INV mother died 1yhap I TaS
ears old If she had lived, L might (