The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1903-01-08
CHE L UCT OF
BLACKBOARD
HANNIGA "

Hannlgan was down on his luck.
Blackboards of the right kind were
getting scarcer and scarcer, and the !
November air had way of nipping the
ears and nose which was not pleasant.
Hannigan was wandering painter.
He had once been proficient as a de-
spoiler of scenery, as many of the leg
ends which now adorn the Buckeye
landscape and proclaim the merits of
pink pellets and condition powders will
testify. Rum had got the upper hand
of Hannigan. His hand was no longer
steady enough to follow the confgura
ton of letters, even when they were
chalked out by steadier fingers, but
Hannigan could still paint blackboards.
There was time when around the
walls of every district school in south
ern Ohio there was painted a dark
dado, on which the pupils worked out
their arithmetical salvation.
Mr.. Hannigan as he strobe along the
| tracks was muttering to himself about
the perversity Of fortune He had
spent nearly his last cent for material.
He had been to three schoolhOuses, aud
in each he had been confronted with
slabs of smoothly polished slate which
covered the plastered wall. The agent
of Chicago school supply company
had preceded Hannigan and had done
him much injury. At the last school
house the teacher had smiled pityingly
when the decorator talked of the evil
4 N1rhi ah hnd hn6
unclasped from a long chain which she
wore silver mounted rabbits foot and
had insisted upon the astonished paint
er's accepting it.
| Now that Rannigan was alone again
his thoughts went back to the little
schoolhouse, and the more he thought
about the duplicity of the trustees and
| the slate blackboards the more angry
| he became. He drew from his pocket
the fuzzy fetch which the teacher had
| given him and in the half darkness con-
| templated it with a look of fine scern.
| Hannigan was walking on the railroad
track with the measured tread common
| to the experienced Wanderer who availS-
himself of that courtesy of the compa-
ny known as the 'tie pass"
LUCK muttered Hannigan. Jim
Hannigan walking the track with not a
thing in his pocket but rabbits foot
has a run of luck, hasn't he? Where's
| that fool thing?"
Hannigan took the taIisman from his
pocket and threw it on the track. 1t
| 1uo,,yoI y1o0,. Tho CLINT
from it's mounting revealed it's pres
ence. Hannigan stopped as though to
pick it up again Then he reconsid-
| cred.
NO." said he; 'don't want it; won't
have it. Let some fellow find it who
wasn't born to be unlucky."
Hannigan heard a shrill whistle and
the rumble of wheels. He stepped aside
in a mechanical way just in time to
evade train. He stood for a moment
contemplating the two fiery eyes Of red
which were diminishing in front Of
him. Then he looked around him.
ST was crossing the long trestle, and
didn't know it, said Hannigan.
''NoW, by gum, that is what | call luck
crossing the trestle with no chance in
the world to get off it and spikes on the
sides of the track to make it uncom-
Portable for us hoboes; crossing the
trestle, by jung! If | had jumped,
would have been drowned in twenty
feet Of water, and if | had stayed they
would never have recognized me ex-
. / Foy. h re- foil
Jim Hannigan, you are an ungratefuI
cuss. That rabbits foot saved you, and
you threw it away. This is where you
see GTayon enlargement of Jim Han
nigan going back to find the only thing
which ever brought him luck
He went back over the ties, lodging
the spikes, looking for the rabbits
| foot. He could see no trace of it. He
| glanced up in time to see two bullying
| eyes of red which were growing bigger
| with every second. James Hannigan
| jumped and shrieked The Cannon
BALI was backing down on him, and
| he was in the middle of the trestle. He
| threw himself on the track, rolled over,
| clasped the end of a tie in his arms and
swung himself off just as the express
| whizzed over his head. Above him was
the roar Of the train, and beneath him
the waters of the Hooking were greed
lily tapping the wooden piles.
| Talk about hard luck" muttered
the trembling painter of blackboards.
''Queered for life by a rabbits foot and
| a schoolmarm's smiIe''
The trestle was vibrating beneath
| the weight &C the train. Hannigan,
with his right arm within six inches Of
| the rail over which were rushing the
wheels of the Cannon Ball." felt a
SILVER through every nerve of his body.
He yelled curses, and the rails gave
back a mocking sound. He felt the
| dull pain Of WEAKNESS in his arms.
Twenty feet Of water below"
moaned Hannigan, "and can't swim!
I couldn't draw myself up, even if the
train wasn't here. Well, so long, every
body. Here is the end of James Han