Middletown transcript., 1902-04-19

~ rJi
into the army, Louis Tappan hst
them. His five years Of married
e. life had been cumulative fail
ure and be knew it. What va
more important, however, bis young VIII
knew and charged the whole score 2
their mutual disappointment 70 him
Their one child, now teething baby
had mot healed their chafed spirits no
brought together their wandering hearts
MrsI Tappan was q good little woman
so -od that she neither sympathlzec
with nor understood Louis puerile ways
his passions for excitement, his slavery
to habits that we're neither necessary e
her happiness nor warranted by his slen'
der means, even in the days when ne
earned a good salary as bookkeeper ioi
4 tile Buena Vista bank.
Her father owned the little town where
they lived. but he was one of those stern
men who, having made their way IN
tie world, would discourage and resent
tile idea that they should give, aid 70
oAhers in the fight for independence OF
wealth. When Louis married Lucy
Harding he admitted to himself that
the old bank president was "a crouch. 1
hut in those days his self confidence
was not shaken by the prospect OF work-
ing out g way for himself and Lucy. For
i year he carried ont his good resolutions,
and even won measure Of Mr.. Harding Q
grabbed regard. During that year the
young couple were fairly happy. The
entering wedge of misery came when it
dawned on Lucy that Louis didn't have
any religion and couldn't "get" any.
when he heard that she "had him
prayed for" he lost bis temper and they
had their first quarrel.
! After that his descent was rapid. They
drifted further and further apart. The
boy Che was only 23) lost his grip on
good resolves and slid along the smooth
and winsome current OF his old free
habits. The row with Harding didn't
come till the second year, but after that
Louis place in his father-in-law''s bank
became precarious. The old man warned,
threatened and even prosecuted him in
the mistaken belief that he could scare
the young husband back into the narrow
path. But Louis didn't scare worth q
cent. Long before the baby came he
was in debt, neck and crop. His wife
was getting morose and quarrelsome, and
bis creditors were beginning to talk about
going to the old man." Even that
didn't move the rascal. He began to
think that he was the martyr Of an un-
happy marriage, that Lucy did not un-
derstand him and that her father was
determined to break up union that he
had never approved. When man gets
to coddIing himself with such assurances
he's in bad way. And Louis was in
a bad way even before the grocer, who
was deacon in Harding's church, made
what Louis called "a holler" about his
bill.
That settled the young man with Papa
Harding. A months notice, a threat of
starvation and a mumbled imprecation
were what the bookkeeper got with his
next pay envelope. After he was out of
his position he made few feeble efforts
10 find work; he made trip to Chicago.
and in weak way determined to take
his wife ard make home for himself
elsewhere. But somehow the world
seemed to hare suddenly grown very
narrow and selfish. His comrades of
dissipated days and nights couldn't help
him further than to "hope the old man
will come round all right" and buy
another drink. Harding didn't come
round. He ignored his son-in-law when
they met on the street, and only when
the child was born did he insist on TAX
ing charge Of Lucy. After she was taken
to the Harding home Lonis' heart began
to fail him. He discovered that he was
fond and apt to grow fonder of the child
"a boy. Broken in spirit and in pocket,
he swore he'd mend his ways and find
work. But there was none. He went to
Chicago, met an old companion, forgot
his troubles for night and day and
came to his dreary senses in the blue,
ill-fitting uniform of a "rookie."
He had vague idea that he would
twin his way" as soldier in the war
which had inst begun; visions of coming
home stern and famous officer captain
ct least-crowded his boyish mind, and
with bis hopes there mingled, stinging
sweet, the sense that at last he might
have brought home to Lucy and her.
people realization Of the fact that he
was not all bad He even imagined the
old 'grouch" pitying him, and in the
thought was the grim satisfaction that
now at least be had martyred himself
He swore softly to himself that he would
never drink nor gamble again, and when
he left for Chickamauga with his regi-
ment he had not fallen from grace.
A scribbled note on a postal card tell
ing Lucy that he was ''gone into the
army was all they heard about him at
Buena Vista for three years after that
The Hardings read all the war news with
eager curiosity at first, hoping to get
some news OF Louis, but their interest
warned again and again, to be family
renewed with the actual beginning OF the
fight. But there was not word about
Louis, not even his name among the
wounded, sick or dead, much less notice
of his gallantry or promotion. Not until
the Cuban and earlier Philippine CAM
paigns had dwindled down into inter-
mittent. skirmishes in far parts OF the
islands did there come q hint that he
was yet on earth. Then just line in
the list Of dead from disease"
''Tappan, private, company K, Twenty
third infantry; dysentery.
And there ended the career Of Louis
Tappan, the worthless young man Of
Buena Vista. =
The station agent at Culver, ten miles
hniow Buana Vista IN fha nllieviIla e