The Savannah morning news., 1902-12-21

| SlQeTdllOn Oh our not ebN9c -
pers. Mr.. McCune agrees to retire from
1 politics for good. You understand. if
he ever lifts his head again, politically,
we publish them. and the courts viii
do the rest. Now, in case anything
should happen to me
Something will happen to you, all
right" broke out McCune. You can
bank on that. you black
Come the editor interrupted, not
unpleasantly. why should there be
anything personal in all this? / don't
recognize you as my private enemy
not al all; and think you are getting
| off rather easily; aren't you? You stay
out sof politics, and everything will be
comfOrtab BILE. You ought never to have
been in It. you see. It's a mistake not
| to keen square, because in the long run
somebody is sure to give you away
nike the follow who sent me these. ou
promise to hold to a strictly private
| life2''
You're a traitor to the party"
| groaned the other but you only wait
The editor smiled sadly. wait moth
ing. Don't threaten. man. Go home to
your wife. I'll give you three to one
| she'll be glad you are out of it,"
I'm give you three to one" said Me-
Cune, that the White Caps will get
you If you stay in Carlow. You want
to look out for yourself, 1 tell you, my
smart boyl"
"Good-day. Mr.. McCune," was the
answer Let me have your note of
withdrawal before you leave town this
afternoon" The young man paused a
moment. then extended his hand, as
he said: "Shake hands, won't you? L
/ haven't meant to be too hard on you.
i hope things will seem easier and
gayer to you before long; and tiff
anything should turn up that / can do
for you in a private way, I'll be very
glad, you know. Good-by."
The sound of the "Heralds" victory
went over the state. The paper came
out regularly. The townsfolk bought
1t and the farmers drove in for 1t. Old
subscribers came back. Old advertisers
renewed. The Herald" began to sell
in Amo, and Gaines county people SUBJ
scribed. Carlow folk held up their
heads when Journalism was mentioned
Presently the Herald" announced q
news connection with Rouen, and with
that, and the aid of patent insides."
began an era of three issues a week.
appearing on Tuesdays, THURSDAYS
and Saturdays. The Plattville Brass
Band serenaded the editor.
During the second month of the new
regime of the Herald the working
force of the paper received an addi-
ton. One night the editor found some
barroom loafers tormenting a patri-
archal old man who had a magnificent
head and grand white beard. He had
been thrown out of saloon, and he
was drunk with the drunkenness of
three weeks steady pouring. He prop
ped himself against a wall and re-
proved his tormentors in Latin. I'm
walking your way, Mr.. Fisbee," re-
marked the journalist, hooking his arm
into the old mans. Suppose we leave
our friends here and go homer"
Mr.. Ffsbee was the one inhabitant of
the town who al an unknown past;
no one knew more about him than that
he had been connected with a univer-
sity somewhere and had travelled in
unheard-of countries before he came
to Plattville. A glamour of romance
was thrown about him by the gossips,
to whom he ever proved a fund of
delightful speculation. There was a
dark, portentous secret in his life. Il
was agreed; an opinion not too we'll
confirmed by the old mans appearance.
His fine eyes had pathetic habit of
wandering to the horizon in a quest
ing fashion that had queer sort of
hopelessness in Ii, as If his quest were
his expression WAS mild, vague. and
sad. lie had look of race and blood;
and yet, at the first glance, one saw
that he was lost in dreams. and one
guessed that the dreams would never
be of great practicabiity in their ap-
plication. Some such impression of Fis-
bee was probably what caused the edi-
tor of the Herald" to nickname him
Gin his own mind) THE White
Knight and to conceive a strong. If
whimsical, fancy for him.
Old Fisbee had come (from nobody
knew where) to Plattville to teach, and
had been principal of the High School
for ten years. instructing his pupils
after a peculiar fashion of his own.
neglecting the ordinary courses Of
High School instruction to lecture on
archaeology to the dumfounded schol-
ars growing year by year more for
getful and absent, lost in his few books
and his own reflections. until, though
undeniably a scholar, he had been dis
charged for incompetency. He was old;
he had no money and no way to make
money; he could find nothing to do.
The, blow had seemed to daze him for
a time: then he began to drop in at the
hotel bar, where Wilkerson. the pro-
fessional drunkard. favored him with
his society. The old man understood:
he knew it was the beginning of the
end. He sold his books in order to con-
tinue his credit at the Palace bar, and
cnce or twice, unable to proceed to his
own dwelling, spent the night in a
lumber yard, piloted thither by the
harder veteran, Wilkerson.
The morning after the editor took
him home. Fisbee appeared at the
Herald" office in a new hat and a
decent suit of black. He had received
his salary in advance, his books had
been repurchased. and he had become
the reportorial staff of the Carlow
County Herald" also, he was to write
various treatises for the paper. For
the first few evenings. when he start
ed home from the Office, his chief
walked with him. chatting heartily,
until they had passed the Palace bar.
But Fisbee's redemption was COM
plete.
The old man had a daughter. When
she came to Plattville, he told her what
the editor of the Herald" had done for
him.
The journalist kept steadily at his
work: and. as time went on, the Bit
terness his predecessors swindle had
left him passed away. But his loneli-
ness and sense of defeat grew and
deepened. When the vistas of the world
had opened TO his first youth, he had
not thought to spend his life in such a
place as Plattville: but he found him.
self doing 1t, and 1t was no great hap
-
MOZI