Barre evening telegram. (Barre, Vt.) 1898-19??, 1901-05-11


faced him, and he was swept under b,
his yielding to 1t. In the next tw,
weeks he lost one of the best, brightes
jewels of a young mans life-he los
his sense of personal purity. The thea
tiers had never offered to the publ,
such a large number Of cheap. cues
tionable shows as they offered tina
winter during the holiday season
Night after night Edward climbed tn.
gallery and sat through plays thai
robbed him Of his clean. healthy mtu(
and put in its place imagination tina,
made him ashamed to see his ow!
face. He SUNK up the stairs and tool
obscure seats where none of the OF hen
| STUDENTS who might chance to be ures
ent could see him. He found that his
taste for the plays, where seldom any
one but men were present, was grow.
ing and deepening, and, while he knew
well enough how deep down he was
sinking and despised himself for it,
he continued to 60, and for the first
time in his life he knew what the
drunkard begins to know before he has
become altogether lost to love of wife
and children. He was appalled, at the
end Of the vacation to realize that he
had spent over $40 for theater tickets.
Ten dollars meant as much to him as
a hundred or more to most students.
Yet even that fact did not influence
him to give up going. On Christmas
eve he attended another roaring farce,
where the principal attraction was adj
vertised as a ballet uneXcelled on
two continents" and the very bill
boards that announced the play insult
ed the Christian sentiment Of every
disciple of our Lord as Chrstendom
reverently called to mind his angelic
birth and the world in its mighty
need, sunk in it's vice and degradation,
paused little while to see Kim in all
his glory, if only men greedy for gain
and pleasure would only let the Prince
of Peace come into the hearts Of men.
But, oh. how shall he come when for
love Of that which to love is to produce
all kinds Of evil men obscure the love-
ly vision by scenes of shame and CRU
city the Lord on the very evening of
his birth.
Edward sitting up In corner Of the
gallery that night several times put
bis face in his hands, but the entice-
ment of the play was on him in all it's
attractiveness, and the glare
and glitter and brilliancy Of it all led
his soul on in ways that he knew well
enough were ways Of evil and only
'vil. 1t was not SO much anything dis
,inctively and positively indecent or
Tile that fascinated him in the play. If
t had been too broad and too coarse, it !
would have repealed him. 1t was the
suggestive nature of it that reused his |
vii physical passions. 1t was the out
ward display Of vice in all it's apparent |
Of the senses that was so !
ellcately successful in hiding from !
i'm the real horror underneath. 1t was
his that drew him on and dragged him
own irresi stibly. Cutwardly the
hains that bound him were festooned
nth smiling flowers. But the grim
trength of them was the strength Of
ull, hard, cruel letters, the same that
every age have held captive even far
Eronger souls than his.
When he went to his room that night
found that an invitation to take din
er next day with one of the professors
al been dropped into the letter box on
he door.
The professor was one of the new
en who had just begun a few weeks
fore the holidays Edward did not
low him well. although he had been
Ding laboratory work under him since
IS arrival.
AS he went over to the house next
~ at the time announced he had q =
cling of self reproach come over him r
ddenly that he had neglected Freeda y
late. He was going out to a Christ
as dinner, and Freeda-he had not 4
zen to see her for several days. His
anne was keen as he thought of the :,
ason why he had avoided her. For :,
veral nights he had really been see-
9 and hearing things that he very .
ell knew he would not want her to :,
low. With a conscience that really
rmented him he was ushered into the 81
use, where the professor greeted him =,
ndly and took his somber, awkward
ence for nothing more than the ordi- J.,
ry embarrassment Of young man =,
accustomed to society. ~
There were half dozen students
10 had been left stranded in the
Hiding through the holidays. on
ION the professor and his wife had