The Montgomery advertiser., 1902-05-08
The Mountain of Transfigura-
 ton.
BY FREDERICK HALL.

BY FREDERICK HALL.
 Copyright. 1902. by Daily Story Pub. Col
 Dwight Van Vert was not dsformed in any way. and yet he was fearfully and wonderfully made--there was no denying that. His 'luxuriant crop of fame -hued hair took on quite without culture. in- deed despite an culture. the contour of a fuh-blowp chrysanthemum, from an ar- chipelago of freckies resembling sepia map of Oceanica. His nose rose like the tower of Lebanon that looketh toward Damascus. To right and left a spreading ear Tapped defiance to any threatening wind and this was but the cupola, so to speak. for an assortment of legs and arms that had apparently been selected qiute at random from a pile of left-overs in some forgotten corner of the Creator 6 workshop All of which description Is grossly exaggerated, of course but in ne way misleading, for I found out long age that in portraying Van it was absolutely necessary. to exageerate in order to make one realize how far from beautiful he was. 4-ts
 From the day he entered school he was the legitimate prey of tease and bully. U suppose 1t was hard on Van at first, for at home his mother had not called him Bricktop nor his father taunted him with the upward tilt of his nose but he took it all with stoical heroism, thrashed helped some with their lessons and bribed others by judicous outlay of his spending money until at graduation, he was as popular as any fellow in the class, how belt as far from handsome as when a little tad of six.
 ! At college he came out at the head of his class. He took year in Europe af- ter that; then he came home. went in with his father. and fell in love with Grace Sereno.
 Of course. he fell in love with Grace. Grace had a nose Phidias could not have bettered, complexion like the blending of the wild rose and the lily -the-valley figure that was the glory of a tailor made and the apotheosis of ball gown, hair she could let fall in lustrous hillows b her feet, eyes so big and brown and deep it made you dizzy to look into them. It was simply heartbreaking to contem- plate. and ali the more so when the vic tim was a personal friend.
 Van never took me into his confidence, but I suspect Grace had figured in his plans ever since his first day at school "because 1t made her feel so bad to look at that little Van Vert boy" Any way, he had always done things for her: written to her. sent her presents. and now he went at 1t deliberately to pay her every courteous attention affection could suggest or money furnish means for. f If you have ever done anything in vivi- section, you remember now you felt the tirst time you saw T live animal cut to pieces. It is not a pleasant sensation. but with some of us 1t came to be al- most chronic while we watched Vans ceurtship drag out it's sickening length. : Ha was such a good fellow and she such a nice girl. To pour his soul out in her service and yet never bore her seemed to have become the purpose of his life; to let him know the truth and yet spare him all she could seemed to he hers.
 Grace and her mother spent the sum- nner at the lakes. ai.d so did Van. In the latter part of November she went into the city on her aunt's invitation, and immediately Vans business tool him in at least as often as once week. When she returned early in February. and Van was attentive as ever, I knew that that ,blindness-of-lov business (man's love) is a true story, for Van never seemed to realize that she had been running away from him. and the whole miserable thing was worse tan gied than ever. because we saw that she had got to strike hard, which was not going to be pleasant for her. and Van was
 Fridays story ASHES AND ROSES '"