The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1900-03-02
The Town
Reprobate,
A Practical and Effective
Way of Living Down
The Consequences of Crime.


2sssssssssssssssssssssSssssssssssss&S
The day Lucius Mcknight came back
to town after term of g years and /
months in the pcntentiary-he had been
good time mana number of citizpi.s
made it point to be at the station. They
wanted to see how he would brave il
out"
He swung off the platform almost be.
fore the train stopped and lifted his hat
frankly but unsmilingly to everybody he
knew.
"No covert glances there" commented
one.
"No," said another, NOR yet any drag.
ging Of the left foot. Doesn't seem to
have any of the signs that you read about
by which a convict may be detected"
'Those weren't the government clothes
he had on either" added the first man.
HE must have made the raise of an
other suit"
Meantime the man of whom they were
talking was walking briskly up the main
street Of his village speaking gravely to
oil whom he knew. He passed the bank
where he had once been a trusted officer
and where he had betrayed the trust re-
posed in him, and he had looked up at its
ungracious facade with unusual interest.
Hes got nerve all right enough,
agreed his townspeople, unable to decide
whether to condemn or to admire this
hardihood of demeanor. "If / had been
he, you would never have caught me back
in this town again."
Some who had known him in the old
days tried shyly to make oyertures.
"Glad to welcome you back, Nc
Knight" said they. eff we can be of
any service, call on u.s."
The thanks were made with strange
quietness which disconnected those who
received them. They felt that in some
way which they could not understand the
soul of this man dwelt apart. 1t had
known peculiar and perhaps terrible ex-
periences. 1t was brooding in some
solemn place Of it's own and for the time
being it was unapproachable.
Mary Lester, the schoolteacher, had a
theory about it. at is not so easy to
liberate the soul as it is the body" she
said. 81 suppose his soul has not yet
got out of its prison stripes"
"There doesn't seem to be anything
hangdog about the man." observed the
one who was talking to her.
"Why should there beF she inquired,
with some spirit. "He made what resti-
tuition he could for his crime before he
went to the penitentiary Mt all. He has
been punished as he deserved. sup
pose he reasons that that helps to wipe
out the score. After n child In my
school has been punished according to
his deserts | restore him to his rights
and privileges. A moral coward would
never have come back to this town again.
But Lucius Mcknight has come back
here where the worst Is known Of him.
think he has excellent courage. ! wish
he would call on me. I'd make him well
come"
But he called on no one. He Joined
no one on the street. This evidence Of
sensitiveness and suffering was the only
one he gave
The second morning after his return
to Red Willow Lucius Mcknight rented
a little, old, one story structure on Main
street, which had been left over from
the early days, and proceeded to scrub it
out and to paper and paint it with his
own hands.
The people who had thought of him
only as luxurious and dishonest popin-
jay, n driver of fast horses and giver
of big dinners looked aghast. There ap-
peared to be no self consciousness about
the man, There was nothing approach
Ing bravado in his manner Of working.
He gravcly did what he pleased, asking
odds of none.
There was still more occasion for sur
prise when he hung a sign artistically
lettered by himself before his door:
Game Bottomed Chairs Reseated
Here"
My SOUL" gasped the citizens, that's
nerve for you'll"
'What else could he do?" said Mary
Lester in almost fearful defense. (which
one of you would have offered him job? ?
He had no profession save banking, and
that is closed to him forever. He had no
trade except the one he has recently
learned. think the man has more sense
than anybody ever knew"
And the next morning she sent man
down to Meningitis shop with three
chairs to be recaned. She mailed little
check in payment, and around the check
was folded slip Of paper on which was
written in the distinct hand which the
school children knew well:
hold It truth. with him who sings
To one clear harp In divers tones,
That men may rise on stepping stones
OF their dead selves to higher things
The mayors wife was the next to offer
work to this strange artisan. That set
the fashion. The men laughed, but the
women kept him Gaming chairs.
One day it was observed that he had
fixed a lathe at the back of his shop and
that he was experimenting with 1t. A
little later completed chair stood in his
window. 1t was not an ordinary chair.
That love of beauty which had formerly
betrayed its possessor into extravaganza
and crime demonstrated itself now in an
exquisite piece of handicraft. In its pro.
portions, its materials, its manufacture
and it's finishing it stood an honest and
beautiful example of workmanship.
Miss PhGbe Dillingham;, who had teak
wood and rosewood and japanese inlay
ny in her new house and who knew 9
work of art when she saw it, came tc
purchase.
"This particular chair is intended us a
gift" said the town reprobate pleasantly
"but | shall be happy to make another
one for you, Miss Dillingham;, either
from n plan of my own or after any de
sign you may care to submit"
"You rrmemhe: those Illustrations Of
antique furlit@re have had so long. Mr
Mcknight Don't you think We might
find something good there? Won't you
call this evening and look them over with
| me?"
Mcknight called quite as matter OF
course and was as self possessed as If an
untoward event had not broken off those
visits for several long years. But it was
decided that the chair was to be made
from an original design after all.
As for the first work Of McKnight's
| lathe, that was seen by the whole village
| In the dainty sitting room Of Miss Mary
| Lester.
People got into the way Of asking Nc
| knight out, and, to their surprise, he &c
ccpted. He wore his cheap and uncon
ventional garments with as much grace
rs he had his elegant attire in the Gle
| days. His conversation, as Of old, wa:
as broad and general in its character
| and, to cap the climax, after he had nc
ccptcd the hospitality of a number O
persons he babe them all to his shop
| where they sat on chairs the ex-conyic
| had carved and ate on freshly scrubbed
deal table.
When all his guests were seated com
fortably before the fire, Lucius Nc
Knight spread his hands to the blaze ant
| said in Il conversational. everyday tone:
"When | was serving my term in tn
states prison. worked next n ma
named =" and then he told tai
whose alternating humor and pathos he'll
the listeners in thrall. He went ON wit
other stories-grim stories-in which tn
souls of the men who had been foun
out were laid bare, and the. ta!ker dis