The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1902-03-11

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l;eion before the young converts OF Dur
hams church.
He was endowed with a personal mag
,etisu that fascinated the young as the
hiss of a snake holds a bird. Nothing could
no sweeter to him than to destroy the i'm
pressions of religion made by Durham
His serious work was politics and SEN
suaIism. In politics he was at his best
Here he was cunning, plausible. careful.
brilliant and daring. He never lost MS
head in defeat or victory He never for
got a friend. or forgave an enemy. Of
his foe he asked no quarter and gave
none.
a boy of fifteen asked MIN one day when
he was mellow with liquor,
Mcleod. which would you rather be,
President of the United States or a big
millionaire?
Boys he replied, smacking his lips.
and running his tongue around his cheeks
inside and softly caressing them with one
band. while he half closed his eyes, they
say old Simon Legree is worth two mil
lions of dollars. and that his actual in
come is twenty Per cent on that. Iney
saw he stole most of it, and that every
dollar represents a broken life. and every
cent of it could be painted red with the
UIoCd - a !
rather be in Legree's shoes and have
those thousands a year than to be Al
mighty God with hosts of angels singing
Dsalms to me through all eternity
And the shallow-pated satellites cheer
ed this blasphemy with open-eyed wonder.
He had the intellectual forehead OF his
Scotch father-large, handsomely model
led features, nostrils that dilated and
contracted widely, and the thick sensuous
lips Of his mother. His eyebrows were
straight. thick. and suggested undoubted
force of intellect. His hair was a deep
red, thick and coarse, but his moustache
was finer and it was his special pride to
point it's delicately curved tips.
His vanity was being stimulated just
now by two opposite forces. He was in
love, as deeply as such a nature could
love, with Sallie Worth. Her continued
rejection of his suit had wounded his
vanity, but had reused all the ~pugnacity
of his nature to strengthen this apparent
weakness.
He had discovered recently that he
exercised a potent influence over Mrs.
Durham. The moment he was repulsed,
his vanity turned for renewed strength
toward her. He saw instantly the i'm
nense power even the slightest indiscre-
l1oA III AoA poht "oAiA wv AAAA ~ S'S
preachers life. He knew that while he
was not a demonstrative man, he loved
his wife with intense devotion. He knew,
too, that there was the preachers weak
est spot. In his tireless devotion to his
work, he had starved his wife's heart. He
had noticed that she always called him
"Dr. Durham" now, and that he had grad
ually fallen into the habit of calling her
Mrs. Durham
He saw that if he could entangle her
name with his in the dirty gossip of vii
lage society, he could strike his enemy a
mortal blow. He knew that she had grown
more and more jealous Of the crowds OF
silly women that always dog the heels
Of a powerful minister with f1attery and
open admiration. He determined to make
the experiment..
Mrs. Durham, while nine years his Sc
Nor, did not look a day over thirty. Her
face was as smooth and soft and round
as a girls, her figure as straight and full,
and her every movement instinct with
stored vital powers that had never been
drawn upon.
She was in a dangerous period of her
mental development. She had been bit
terly disappointed in life. Her loss Of
slaves and the ancestral prestige of great
wealth had sent the steel shaft of a pois-
oned dagger into her soul. She was un-
%reconciled to it. While she was passing
through the anarchy of Legree's regime
which followed the war her unSatisfied
maternal instincts absorbed her in the
work Of relieving the poor and the bro
ken. But when the white race rose in
it's might and shook off this nightmare
and order and a measure of prosperity
had come she had fallen back to her
brooding p~essimism.
She had reached the hour Of that soul
crisis when she felt life would almost
in a moment slip from her grasp. and
she asked herself the question "Hayo !
lived?' And she could not answer.
She found herself asking the reasons
for things long accepted as fixed and eter-
raj. What was good, right. truth. And
what made it good right or true?
And she beat the wings of her proud
woman's heart against the bars that held
her, until tired, and bleeding she was
exhausted but u~nconquered.
She was furious with Mcleod now for
his open association with negro politi-
clans.
Allan, in my coul, I an ashamed for
you when l see you thus degrade your
manhood"
Nonsense, Mrs. Durham he replied.
"the most beautiful flower grows in dirt,
but the flower is not dirt"
There's no need to stOOp' so low
81 assure you it is absolutely neces-
Gary to my aims in life. And they are
high enough. l appreciate your interest
in me, more than | dare to tell you. You
have always been kind to me since l was
a wild red-headed brute of a boy. And
you have always been my supreme inSpi-
ration in work. While others have cursed
and scoffed you smiled at me and your
has warmed my heart in its black
est nights"
She looked at him with a mother-like
tenderness.
What ends could be high enough to
justify such methods ?"
q hate poverty and squalor. It's been
my fate. I've sworn to climb out of it
if | have to fight or buy my way through |
hell to do it. l dream of a palatiaI home. |
of soft white beds, grand banquet halls.
and music and wine, and the faces of
those / love near me. Besides the work |