Spirit of Jefferson. [volume] (Charles Town, Va. [W. Va.]) 1844-1948, 1902-09-16
THE KING
WHO WAS
"A PAUPER
Rv Erarrcs Wilson
Copyright, 1901, By Frances Wilson

henchmen who sat in the large outer
Office under the soft radiance of green
shaded electric lights, adding up col
umns in a perfunctory manner and
dreaming, to man, OF what they
would do il they were king.
A modest door, upon the glass of
which was inscribed in small. neat let
tiers Mr.. Allston," led into the king S
private room, where Turkish rugs
smothered the floor and leather GOV
cred chairs were ranged along the wall.
There was also low bookcase, which
contained such invaluable biographical
dictionaries as Bradstreet's and Dun S,
to say nothing of Poor's Railroad Man
ual, Somebody's Street Railways and a
number of similar works, which con-
stituted the kings solid reading, though
he had once observed dryly. that they
contain more fiction than - a suppose
from the titles
The king was sitting at his desk,
tracing with a lead pencil crude
squares andarectangles on the pad be-
fore him. The buzz of Wall street,
softened to a gentle murmur by the
height, came in through the open win
dows, and soft breeze fiuttered the
papers on his desk and filed the room
with its freshness, just to let him know
that it was April.
The breeze was damp and cool, as II
it had blown across moist, earthly
places where the violets were pushing
upward instead of across acres of
metal roof 1t rumpled the kings thick
hair as nonchalantly as If he had been
a mere commoner and somehow set
him to thinking of the queen.
He stopped making squares and rec
tangles and began to scrawl something
on the pad instead. something that
would have made the clerks in the
outer office open their eyes and stare
in wonder could they have seen 1t, fol
it was quite sentimental and had moth
ing whatever to do with stocks and
bonds:
Oh. faint, delicious springtime violet,
Thine odor, like a key.
Turns noiselessly in memory's wards
To let a thought of sorrow free!
Indeed the king himself was aghast
when he looked at what he had writ
ten, and he tore the sheet from the pad
with a hurried, guilty air and crumpled
and crushed it into small wad before
he threw it into the wastebasket
Then he took it out again and tore il
into small pieces, precaution which
was entirely unnecessary, as no one
had ever been able to read more than
two consecutive words of the king i
writing, and, besides, no one in the
world would have believed him capable
of quoting poetry.
He went back to his squares and rec
tangles again, his mind busy with the
days before his millions had made him
a serene highness. In those days, he
remembered, he and the queen used to
take long walks in the park when he
could get away from the office in time
She called it their picture gallery and
affected fine scorn for the people who
gushed over their Corots, Millets Oh
Rousseaus, but gave never n thought
to the real thing-the tender greens
the misty grays. the last flush Of SUI
in the western sky, against which the
trees stood oft in yeivety, mysterious
darkness. I'VE get our beauty at frs
hand" she was wont to say gayly, I'm
stead of on small pieces of canva:
which reek Of man instead Of God
And they had gone their way through
the soft April twilights or sensuoui
summer dusks, in love with life ant
the world.
But that was all very long agol TIL
king gave weary little sigh as h
realized how long. The queen-he like
to think of it all as hers-had zone o
the finest private galleries in Amer
lea" now, and she drove In the parl
on spring afternoons rather bored ant
disillusionized and certainly too bus.
in bowling to the occupants of othe
carriages to give much time to th
beauty about her 1t no longer CAV
her thrill of delight to notice how
the gray of the leafless trees some
times melted into pale amethys
nor did it touch her with a subtle sad
ness to watch the sunset through
network OF bare branches. 1t is onl
the poor who have time to appreciat
natures free exhibitions.
Even kings have their bad quartz
hours. though you couldn't make an.
| of the clerks in the outer Office be
lieve it. In this particular case, TO
instance, not one of them OWNED tina
his majesty was sitting there in hi
luxurious private room longing for tn
| old days before he was king, liyini
| over the days when be and the queel
were first married--those exciting day
when he could scarcely get home fas
enough in his eagcrness to tell her PEI
haps that the time had come when SD
might afford the pale green carpet an
mahogany furniture upholstered t
match which she had 50 long covete'
for her little drawing room.
And the pink brocade hangings! Tn
king smiled reminiscently as b
thought of Them for they were SUI
prise. She never dreamed that the
had reached that point OF affluenc
where they could afford them, and b
| had decided to surprise her with them
He could still see the shine In her eye
and the flush on her cheeks when the
came home. The portrait painter
should have done her then, the kin
| thought discontentedly.
4 Well. the queen had her carriage nor
i and a retinue of servants and Parl