The Owosso times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1897-1926, 1902-01-03

/ les, replied Edward. THAT Is,
/ parts OF Ii were." =.
you couldn't expect the whole of a
roaring farce to be funny" replied
Willis with sarcasm. "That would be
too much. But tell you, old man, it
did you good. You ought to go once in
awhile to brighten you up. saw you
actually laugh out loud tonight. Why,
II you don't do it once in awhile you'll
scare yourself Ito death one Of these
days when you laugh by accident and
wonder what 1t isl
Edward was silent, and while Willis
was as usual backing his shoes he
was going over the evening in a way
that would have astonished his care
less roommate IL he could have read
his thought.
For Edward Blake, college student
had reached. very largely unconscious
ly to himself, a crisis in his life. AS he
lay wide awake for an hour after Will
lis was fast asleep, he was going over
all the scenes in the play and especial
ly those scenes that at the time had
made him uncomfortable There was
positive fascination for him in the i'm
pure suggestion that for the first time
burned into his imagination, with pic
lures Of fire set about the stage realism
with a vividness that glowed like q
new sensation In his hitherto remarka-
bly, pure and unsmirched soul.
When the college term closed for the
holidays, Willis went home and Ed
ward was left alone. There were but
few men left in Rankin hall. Freeda
had remained in the ladies' hall,
which also was largely deserted. On
the Saturday after college closed Ed
ward had been over to see her. He re-
fiected as he went back that evening
that he had said nothing to his sister
about the play or his going to it. They
had talked about the folks at home,
and Freeda had again raised the ques-
ton OF leaving the hall to secure a
place somewhere near the college
where she could work for room and
board. Edward had opposed the plan,
but he had vague feeling when he
came away that Freeda. who was a
very independent and determined girl,
might at any time do the very thing
she had suggested.
''I'm perfectly able to do the work,
Ned. 1t will save at least 5000 a year,
and YOU know mother is really Shaving
at the dairy work to keep me here in
the hail.
Edward demonstrated again, but he
knew very well that what Freeda said
was true. AS he went away he vowed
that in some way he would work day
and night to make his own expenses
and Freeda's, too, and so relieve the
loving, faithful mother Of her constant
burden.
And then the boys great temptation
faced him, and he was swept under by
his yielding to it. In the next two
weeks he lost one of the best, brightest
jewels of a young mans life-he lost
his sense of personal purity. The thea
tiers had never offered to the public
such large number of cheap, dues-
tionable shows as they offered that
winter during the holiday season.
Night after night Edward climbed the
gallery and sat through plays that
robbed him of his clean, healthy mind
made him ashamed to see his own
face. He skunk up the stairs and took
obscure seats where none Of the other
students who might chance to be pres
ent could see him. He found that his
taste for the plays, where seldom any
one but men were present, was grow
ing and deepening, and, while he knew
we'll enough how deep down he was
sinking and despised himself for it,
he continued to go, and for the first
time in his life he knew what the
drunkard begins to know before he has
become altogether lost to love of wife
and children. He was appalled, at the
end of the vacation to realize that he
had spent over SO for theater tickets.
Ten dollars meant as much to him as
q hundred or more to most students.
Yet even that fact did not influence
him to give up going. On Christmas
eve he attended another roaring farce,
where the principal attraction was ad-
vertised as ballet unexcelled on
two continents" and the very bill
boards that announced the play insult
ed the Christian sentiment of every
disciple of our Lord as ChristendOm
reverently called to mind his angelic
birth and the world In its mighty
need, sunk In its vice and degradation,
paused little while to see him In all
his glory, II only men greedy for gain
and pleasure would only let the Prince
Of Peace come into the hearts Of men.
But, oh, how shall he come when for
love Of that which to love Is to produce
all kinds Of evil men obscure the love-
ly vision by scenes Of shame and cru
city the Lord on the very evening Of
his birth!
Edward sitting up In a corner Of the
gallery that night several times put
his face I'm his hands, but the entice-
ment of the play was on him In all its
alluring attractiveness, and the glare
and glitter and brilliancy of it all led
his soul OH in ways that he knew well
enough were ways Of evil and only
evil. 1t was not so much anything dis
tinctively and positively indecent or
vile that fascinated him In the play. II
1t had been too broad and too coarse, 1t
would have repealed him. 1t was the
suggestive nature of 1t that reused his