The Jennings daily record. [volume] (Jennings, La.) 1900-1903, 1902-06-18
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= The Mountain of TRANSPORTATION
n By FREDERICK -
Copyrgh Daily Story Pub )
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By FREDERICK HALL

Dwight Van Vert was not deformed
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. indeed despite all culture, the
contour of full-blown prize chrysan-
| themum, from an archipelago of
| freckles resembling sepia map If
Oceanica His nose rose like the
tower of Lebanon that 1ooketh toward
| Damascus. To right and left spread
ing ear tapped defiance to any threat
enipg head wind and this was but the
| cupola, so to speak, for an assortn, ent
of legs and arms that had apparently
| been selected quite at random from a
| pile of left-overs in some forgotten
| corner of the creators &orkshop. All
of which description is grossly exag-
| gerated, of course, but in no way mis-
leading, for l found out long ago that
| in portraying Van it was absolutely
! necessary to eXaggerate in order 20
! make one realize how far from beau
tiful he was.
From the day he entered school he
was the legitimate prey of tease and
bully. I suppose it was hard on Van
at first for at home his mother had
not called him Bricktop nor his father
tainted him with the upward tilt OF
his nose, but he took it all with
stoica1 heroism. thraShed whom he
could, diverted whom he could. helped
some with their lessons and bribed
others by judicious outlay of his spend
ing money until, at graduation, he was
as popular as any fellow in the class,
howbeit 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 Eu-
rope after that; then he came home,
went in with his father and fell in
love with Grace Serene.
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
of-the-valley, a figure that was the
glory of a tailor-made and the apo
theosis Of ball gown, hair she could
let fall in lustrous pillows to her feet.
eyes so big and brown and deep it
made you dizzy to look into them. 1t
was simply heartbreaking to contem-
plate, and all the more so when the
victim was n personal friend.
Van never took me into his conf
dence, but l suspect Grace had figured
IN his plans ever since his first day at
school, when she had asked to have
her seat changed because it made her
feel so bad to look at that little Van
Vert boy Anyway, he had always
done things for her; written to her,
sent her presents. and now he went at
it deliberately to pay her every cour-
teous attention affection could suggest
or money furnish means for.
If you have ever done anything in
vivisection. you remember how you
felt the first time you saw a live ami
NAL cut 10 pieces. It is not a pleasant
sensation, but with some CT US it came
to be almost chronic while we watched
Vans courtship drag out its sickening
length.
He was such . good fellow and she
such a nice girl. To pour his soul out
in her service ano yet never bore her
seeme6 to have become the purpose of
his life; to let MIN know the truth and
yet spars him all she could seemed to
be hers.
Grace and ner mother spent the sum-
Her az the lakes, and SO did Van. In
the latter part of November she went
into the city on her aunt's invitation,
and Immediately Vans business took
him in al least as often as once a week
When she returned early in February,
and Var was as attentive as ever ]
knew that that blindness-of-love bust
ness tman'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
tangled than ever, because we saw that
she had got to strike hard. which WIS
not going to be pleasant for her and
Van was going to be cut up to beat
everything.
II was up in my room one night in