The Montgomery advertiser., 1902-01-02
THE ADVERTISERS
 !: DAILY SHORT STORY

| V - 1 What is the use of struggling any
 longer! What is there to do that l have | Over and over again the man asked | himself these questions as he walked | And the answer came ever back from I his despairinE heart:
 No use! It's no use!''
 For six months hs had tried as hard
 as ever an earnest man could to get be given to him. Only that he might earn for himself that living which he vas sure the good God had meant he
 trsmped % % and asked for % work. S only Ss to be be told in this place one reason that they did not want him and in that another and In most places no reason at all. but "No, we don't need any men,"
 Sometimes he was told to call again, but 1t seemed to him only to mock.
 Gradually ns ,s he had lost the opsf%lne., e,, l with when looking for work had seem ed to him only one of those dragons he remembered reading about when boy,
 which the Prince must go out and van But six long months had made him forget there ever was such thing as 2 fairy tale-almost that he ever had
 ten times six months to his life, meas ured by the suffering they had held, and to his back and shoulders they had given a. stoop and to his face an expression
 worn before. In that time he had be-
 come added to that great army of men -and more's the pity. young men, who
 pIot G MorK Gys sne of those who come each year from the farm
 and the village. from the peaceful coun- try life which they know not how to prize to be fed to the ogre, to be sacri. 6Ced tn MammOn the lamb Of altar.
 farm home on the hillside. the good old father and mother who. in spite of hard work and careful living, in spite of the thrifty ways which their Scotch all.
 cestry gave them, had staggered and all
 and bad luck, sickness and death had left none but John to turn to. Their own power of work and endurance were
 mother aet @h eaied I0aa ne @ mon was Trank a s of face and action, with a splendid phys ique. and honest blue eyes that looked
 straight at you. 1t seemed to him and to well-to Jeannie. as if everything would come to Johns hand as soon as he
 reached the. city; as if big salaries and | stocks and bonds of great value and in. fall upon John there. Jeannie was an only child and as the farms were close together they had grown up together.
 who lived in the other pretty little home
 whose white and green freshness he could see through the opening in the trees and hills from the window of his
 own little room. The love of the girl l strong filial love to go away and do --he knew not what. but somewhere,
 somehow great deeds that should make | them all prosperous and happy.
 What, he thought bitterly, would they say now if they saw him. He glanced | at his seedy clothes and worse than seedy shoes.
 "They would not know me, not know me'-this man ambling through the park, ragged and ill-kempt showing not only neglect and poverty, but what was worse, loss of Self-respect. He threw
 himself in despair upon the grass. A handsome carriage with footman and driver in livery rolled un to the man. sion across the street-one of the row | of palaces which faced the park. He watched the automatic descent of the | footman to open the door and watched | him hand out the vision of loveliness in | silks and laces crowned with beauty, youth and gracefulness watched her as | she disappeared within the massive doors | of the granite mansion. And in his heart there welled up great protest. He saw in his minds eye his parents in | them the lifetimes of toll. and sacrifice | and he saw Jeannie with her honest heart and her frugal ways-and his heart rose | In rebellion. The words of the socialist
 orators he had been to hear on the
 nights when the warmth of their rooms
 were welcome to him. came back to him
 It's all very well with your carriages
 and your jewels and your palaces: they don't belong to you any more than they do to me. as that fellow said the other night You are just grinding them oui
 of all of us. Yes.'' and as his wrongs and misfortunes leaped before him hf sprang to his feet in q passion. 'I c0ulC tear those diamonds from your white throat" Then glancing down the row
 of granite palaces. "A man does nc wrong in taking what is partly his ow'
 anyway-and. and they. will not let m'
 earn a living anyway"
 Then he thought for a long time ant
 finally muttered to himself:
 II will do it. l am tired of beggint for a chance to earn a crust; l will teal
 those diamond from her-and they will
 never know who did it. They don't know
 the cunning of a country boy made mat Fridays story. THE TWO MADELINE