Waterbury evening Democrat., 1903-05-01

WE'LL! IF YOU ANT A BEAUTY" terance. He looked Rossiter up and down, and finally let his eyes rest upon the vagrant's countenance, cov- cred with 8 ten days growth of beard, the forehead grimy and streaked with precipitation, the hair hanging in greasy elf-locks from be- meath torn cap.
 Well, if you ain't a beautyl" he exclaimed, with an amused chucl11e.
 Rossiter's hand went up to his face as he moved on. He searched his pockets for what served him as a handkerchief, pulled it out, and mopped his forehead, cheeks, and neck. Then he paused an instant and endeayored to smooth his hair trife, but without much success. The mans words had affected him more than such speech would usually have done. He had received too many kicks and cuffs and oaths to heed them much, as a rule, but somehow the rebun with which he had just met stung like 3 sharp blow upon an open wound. Heretofore he had associated with Illica nothing but pleasant things. Whenever he had visited it formerly from the small town less than dozen miles dis tant where he had passed his col lege days, he had always been treated with very marked favor. To Illica the students frequently sojourned for their half holidays. It was there they attended the theater, had their dim ners, and sometimes joined in social functions. Among the young men of his time at Monroe college, as the ad- joining institution was called, no one visited Illica more frequently than Rossiter. With plenty of money at his command, possessed of a bright manner and a ready wit, and being withal quite prominent as an athlete, he had once had number of friends and many acquaintances in the staid but pleasant inland city.
 He supposed that he had buried shame; he had told himself that he had worn out regret; but both now rose to torment him. As he moved in the direction of the square, he passed one of the station windows and glanced in. A clock high upon the wall informed him that it was quarter past eleven.
 "I must have beer, if it takes my last nickel" he said, moistening his parched lips with his tongue.
 Presently he rounded the corner of the station and stood intthe full glare of the electric lights. There were few men seated upon the hotel steps, and at the upper end of the open space trolley-car was putting down passenger, otherwise there was no indication of life. Rossiter plunged hand into one of his trous- CTS pockets and drew forth four coins, a five-cent piece and three pen nies. He knew that it would be folly to attempt to enter the hotel, so he started along the north side of the square in search of saloon. He did not have to go far. A gayly illumined place, which went by the name of '@The Keneseo,' soon caught his eye Two men, whom he had not noted in his first survey of the square, were lounging upon opposite sides of the door
 Ut that yer las chaw O terbaccer ye've got in yer face, Bill?" demanded one of the other as Rossiter ap- preached.
 The expression was not new to him. He had heard it before among men of the class to which these loafers belonged, the class to whose level, or lower, he himself had sunk, but 1E now carried with it an unwonted re-: proaoh. It revealed to him with pain f1I1x xySv hie < world, and he cursed the fate that had caused him to leave the freight train. Illica was potent in rousing the unwelcome spectre of the past, in stirring memories that he had fancied dead or so somnolent that they would never waken to plague, him, in kindling longings that he had for many day resolutely banished.
 As Rossiter drew near, and it be- came evident that he was seeking the saloon, the two loungers stepped back to allow him to enter, scanning him with ieering curiosity as he walked toward the bar. With one hand he tossed his little bundle of clothes upon the polished slab behind which, in trousers and gauge undershirt, close-cropped, red-faced Irish-Amer- ican was standing, and with the other cast down his last precious nickel
 "A glass of beer, for Heavens sake!" said he.
 The saloon-keeper shot an amused glance at him, seized beer mug, turned spigot, held the mug up, eyeing it's contents critically, blew of the foam, put it beneath the tap again, and then placed it be- fore Rossiter with 8 flourish.