The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-11-14
s THE ADVERTISERS
 s DAILY SHORT STORY

%D~~s'WW rtsseScsSFvsr TN 0~~~~~"" [" '" Percy Caliber, who was not even yet what persons, of experience would term in old man. had arrived at that unhappy condition of mind in which one fancies that one believes that life Is no longer worth the living. Not-iet this credit be extended to MT. Caliber with that prompt acquiescence which is merited by the facts-that Percy meditated self-slaugh- ter. or that he even contemplated that more or less devious descent which is popuiarly known as going to the bad; but Tn general way, and also in a way agreed with himself that this mundane sphere Is but little better than a cavern of gray ashes, and that the sooner one Is out of 1t for good and all, why, all the better for everybody.
 Having upon his mental journey to this sepuichral- point of view of things here below, reached a condition wherein he really cared very little for his regular um practice, didn't go in much for driv- ing scorned billiards as device of black leg cads to rob gentlemen, and having been heard to declare that only the un- derstrippers in brewery were it com pany for such a low game as ten pins. one must instanter admit that Percy Caliber was at very low ebb. In fact his case seemed almost desperate. At a little more he would have been driven to seek medical aid. the last resort of the unhappy in this mad, wagging world.
 And yet there are those who have re- ceived so many hard and strenuous buff fetings from Fortune, that errant dame. as to have lost heart and hope, who glad ly would have traded lots with MT. Percy Caliber. It has been said he was not old at least, not too. too old. He was Fl. to be sure, but even at 21 there Is still a pirited because of their first tug of war in the game of life Nevertheless, Percy himself regarded himself as an old per- son for whom no new fires could be kindied. Long since the embers of his am. bitions had been smothered. His past, he reflected, was but an arid desolation of extinct volcanic slows. His future-welt, why speak of his future. when anyone with even half an eye could perceive 1t Joy. Contentment. Fame and Honor were oases beyond his reach.
 To this proud asset of youth lover 10rss Sr as it yss % sy Ssr Sht have added-in his sworn statement of resources-a robust health which had made of him the best quarterback of the year, the amateur champion mile runner, far-away Henley. He had not gone in much for. tennis and golf considering them unworthy the attention of the stren- uous life. but 1t had been generally con cludod by those who had seen him. in his lighter moments, with racquet in hand that Collins himself must have looked more to his primary had Caliber cared to woo the net.
 the assets of ordinary bankrupts swell and grow before ones eyes as one ex- amines them-young Mir. Caiiber was pas sing rich, not upon forty pounds year like the Goldsmithian village preacher heritance, solidly anchored by 99-year lease of realty, whose quarterly returns placed to young Mir. Caliber's credit with the Union Forever Trust Company the n!eas.ne competency of 10,oO0 round Amer ican dollars.
 Thus, with health and education, good birth and hosts of friends, with youth and forty thousand dollars year which had no chance to get away from him un less he wed with folly or took the daughter of the vlne to spouse one could be forgiven for believing that Percy Cali ber might find some shred of silver lining were he to examine more closely the clouds which overhung him. But he couldn't. Tner vista was all gloom. Tho sky was utterly overcast. There was no sun. Tfere was no moon. All the Drlght stars of hope had been driven into ec''rre And by what? By curmudgeon. a prater of folly, a heartless old man who helu notions of his own and was more stub born in his peculiar views than Is the famed rock of Gibraltar to the assaults
 So deeply, madlyslAelplessly, hopelessly was Percy Caliber fn love with Mercy Tanning that. since he was Forbidden to marry her, life had lost all savor, and he was sternly contemplating awful things he would become a missionary priest and consort with lepers In far-on islands of the wide South Seas; or he would make over his fortune to General Booth or John Alexander Dowie or MT. Besant, and lead a life of ascetic helpfuless to other men. saddened and broken, even as was he. he. Percy Arthur Caliber, Esq. student at law.
 that, and there is no help for it. And things had come to that. finally. irrevoc- ably. It was not that Mercy did not re- turn his fondness. for she did. passion ately. but she absolutely refused to dls, ohey her father. and hard headed old John Tanning said No" He liked Percy
 Fridays story, ITO MEET MISS TRELi