The Savannah morning news., 1901-09-06

as MS soul seemed exalted. was as
cneap a bit of human pottery as ever
was set on earth's counter to fool un-
wary buyers. He had been a defaulter
oefore he became a blackleg, and as a
cneating gambler he had robbed fellow
tnleVes or their honorably won spoils.
Mandelbaum paid him $140 each Sun
Jay noon. The faro table and the bar
got all OF 1t back by Wednesday. There
wasn't drop of generous blood within
MS hlde-he would let any one of the
twenty waiter girls at the Gem of the
west buy drinks for him--nor a tinge
OF purity or aspiration. Now, with this
whlted sepulcher of manhood two wo-
men were so deeply in love he had but
10 nod and they would follow.
over this matter Mesmer gave with
himself some deep debate Bertha Clark
was aunt and governess to Big Pete's
orooo OF nVe. They had not mother,
ana the big hearted foreman of the
bridge insisted upon their Joyous com
pany when his days work was over and
the lights of the Gem were not vet
gnstening. So, all of them lived with
nlm IN the little house on the little rise
In the woods back of the slough. Rumor,
whose truth Big Pete himself had been
accredited with admitting. declared
that Bertha Clark was sole heiress
ana owner of "a 160-acre improved farm
OF the blacklist arabic land in all the
rlch county of Clay, near to the rail-
road. Such a farm would be worth
easily Ss,OOe 1t was the consfdera tion
OF this possession which gave the fid-
dler pause. Otherwise he would have
leaned to Mamie. Bertha was good
iookiag enough. But Mamie, her face
was a radiant delight, her round young
ngure sensuous allurement. She
Kept her mother and half dozen little
sisters in luxury at Leavenworth.
while she spun gold under the glamour
OF the old-fed lamps of the Gem of the
West. AS for Berthas $4,000 farm
well. Mamie could earn 5000 week
while the railroad was halted at the
big bridge and the flush times lasted.
So Herbert hung in the wind, hesitant
toward which side to turn, like him
who perished between the two bundles
of hay.
Bertha used to go with Big Pete to
the hall a night to hear Herbert rlay
his solo She sat in a cur"alned boz
and vas decorous, as became her po-
S:tton and breeding. In real purity Of
feeling ] always have believed that
Mamie excelled her. Yet Mamie car
ried drinks OH the floor of TIE dance
hall aud her skirts were not burdened
With . train.
One night, before he played his solo.
aid N an irterval of the dancing Mes
lner drew Mamie aside into a box and
scoundrel ty nature. who would not
tender what Mandelbaum himself had
not held back, offered her his heart
without his name. The girl loTed him;
ther is no doubt of that; but as she
hurst from his presence he stabbed
her again.
Then 1 will marry Bertha" he said.
Mamie long had been jealous of Ber-
tha.
The big foreman's sister sat in state
alone, listening to the last strains of
a sobbing violin. The door behind the
cubbyhole known at the Gem as Pete's
box" opened and shut softly Bertha
turned and looked upon the beauty of
her known rival. From her bosom
painted long sigh OF envy; from her
lips a startled inquiry as to what was
meant by such an intrusion.
But even as she cried out, came from
the little stage in front of them a tu-
multi of shoutings, the swift falling of
running feet, a burst of flame from
the tinsel scenery, the breath of fiery
tongues thrust in their faces. In
stantly there was panic in the big hall,
the crash of tables overturned, ours
ings as men and women struggled in
a hurly- y-burly for the big doors at the
end opposite the stage. The hall was
emptied in two minutes. Then Big Pete
remembered his sister and ran fran
tically to the locked north door lead
ing to the narrow passage which in
turn was pathway to the stage boxes.
AS he burst it in with desperate
blows he stumbled across the body of
a senseless woman whom another
woman had dragged thus far to safety
and then had fallen helpless against
the locked door. An hour later the un-
selfish rescuer died of her burns. which
were wet with Bertha's tears. Mesmer
had declined the girls request to come
to her
Il never could bear to see suffering"
he said.
Never mind, dearie, you can marry
him now" said Mamie, at the last.
"Goodby / did what I thought was
right. Tell that to my mother"
They say that Mesmer was shot by
the pilot of a river boat at Lexington
thereafter. I don't know. But / do
know he never saw the promised land
which contained that 160 acres of Clay
county loan.