The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1901-12-04
STORY OF WORTHLESS FELLOW

| II there are any sufficient reason Why q
| married man should go into the army,
Louis Tappan had them His FIVE years
| Of married life had been a cumulative
failure and he knew il. What was more
| important, however. his young wife knew
and charged the whole score of their nlv-
tual disappointment 10 him. Their one
child, now teething baby, had not heal
| ed their chafed spirits nor brought to-
| sether their wandering hearts. Mrs.
Tappan was a good little woman, so good
| that she neither sympathized with nor
understood Louis puerile ways. his pas
sious for excitement, mis- slavery TO habits
that were neither necessary 10 her happi-
ness nor warranted by his slender means,
even in the days when he earned a
good salary as bookkeeper for the Buena
Vista Bank
Her father owned the little town where
they lived. but he was one of those stern
men, who having made their own way in
the world, would discourage and resent
the idea that they should give aid TO 9TH
ers in the fight for independence or
wealth. When Louis married Lucy Hard
ing he admitted himself that the old bank
president was "a Crouch" but in those
days his self confidence was not shaken
by the prospect of working out a way for
himself and Lucy. For a year he carried
out his good resolutions, and even won 4
measure of Mr.. Harding's Grabbed re-
gard. During that year the young peo-
pie were fairly happy. The entering
wedge of misery came when it dawned
on Lucy that Louis didn't have any reli-
gion and couldn't get" any.
After that his descent was rapid. They
drifted further and further apart. The
boy. he was only %. lost his grip on good
resolves and slid along the smooth and
winsome current of his cid. free habits.
The row with Harding didn't come till
the second year, but after that Louis
place in his father-in-law' bank became
precariOus. The old man warned, threat
ened and even prosecuted him in the mis-
taken belief that he could scare the young
husband back into the narrow path. But
Louis didn't scare worth a cent. Long
before the baby came he was in debt
neck and crop. His wife was getting
morose and quarrelsome, and his credi-
tors were beginning to talk about going
TO the old man." And Louis was in
a bad way even before the grocer.
who was a deacon in Hardings church,
made what Louis called a ''h0iler" about
his bill.
That settled the young man with Papa
Harding. A months notice, a threat OF
starvation and a mumbed imprecation
were what the bookkeeper got with his
next pay envelope. After he was out
of his position he made a few feeble eff
forts to find work; he made a trip to
Chicago and in a weak way determined to
take his wife and make a home for him
self elsewhere. But somehow the world
seemed to have suddenly grown very
narrow and selfish. His comrades of dis
sipated days aud nights couldn't help him
further than 20 shope the old man will
come round all Fight and buy another
drink. Harding didn't come round. He
ignored his son-in-law when they met on
the street, and only when the child was
born did he insist on taking charge of
Lucy. After she was taken TO the Hard
ing home Louis heart began to fail him.
He discovered that he was fond and apt
to grow fonder of the child-a boy. Brok-
en- in spirit and pocket, he swore he'd
mend his ways and find work. But there
was none. He went to Chicago, met an
old companion, forgot his troubles for a
night and day and came to mis- dreary
senses in the blue, i'll fitting uniform of
a rookie