The daily telegram. [volume] (Clarksburg, W. Va.) 1901-1926, 1904-05-10


work except to draw his breath and
gamble and drink. The old folks
would have 1t so, and he was not fool
enough TO object to good thing. They
wanted HIM to represent the family as
it once was-proud, naughty, arrogant
and careless of money. The role suit
ed him TO dot, and he represented.
No matter what Jocasta thought OF
himself or how proud his parents were
Of the strut, even the Chinese dirt
diggers on the railroad bed held him
In supreme contempt He was n butt
Of ridicule with surveyors, bosses, cow
boys and ranchmen and was not con-
sidered game" enough TO take seri.
ously. He was generally referred to as
''the Peacock" and was looked upon
as harmless. Jocasta was liar. His
father and mother were liars before
any one to listen to him he would
descend from his pedestal and tell OF
the thousands of female hearts he had
broken and Of the hundreds of men he
had had to plant by the wayside. He
lied by wholesale and retail, and his
hearers laughed ut his lies instead of
criticlsing. There was only one handl-
cap : the first time he was caught
cheating at cards the boss of that divi.
sion took him by the ear and said:
Don't try 1t again, my Jim Dandy.
The boys are on to your little game,
~ nj nvt ffTNn xt.tn he, oh PAN -
holes"
Things went wrong with the family
after awhile. Other traders came In to
llvide the profits, the wife had seri-
our Illness, and the father got hurt
md there came a day when thesbitter-
ness OF death was upon the pair-that
is, they had to call Jocasta into the
shanty and say TO him:
MY son, in your veins runs the
blood OF CASTLE. You represent what
we were hundred years ago. We
have been proud and glad, and we
would that you could keep it up: but,
alas, you have to come off the perch
and so to work at something. This
family is dead broke"
81, with these white hands. these
small feet, this noble carriage-I go to
work. exclaimed Jocasta in reply.
"Alas. you'll have to or go hungry"
they told him.
Jocasta couldn't tumble TO the situa-
ton. lie had posed so long that the
idea Of anything like manual labor was
| ,listasteful to him. He was n good
rider and might make n good cowboy.
out the descent from CASTLE TO cow
boy was too great to think of. He
would die first. 1t came to. be known
in the camp that "the Peacock must
take fall, and there was a great deal
| II curiosity as to what he must turn
10. In sarcastic way he was offered
| charge of the mule gang. the wheel
barrow gang and so on, but he held
his head the higher and made no reply.
He had made up his mind to be high
roller 10 the end. The old man man
aged to exc him along for fortnight
after breaking the news, but there
came a day when not another claco
could lie raised, when father and
mother must be shipped back TO Tue
son by construction train. Old CASTLE
was in the ditch at last.
Tomorrow" unused the old man as
he snt with his son for the last time
tomorrow, Jocasta. you win have
neither father nor mother here. and to
morrow, alas, you viii have to go tc
work. Need | tell you that the thought
breaks my heart? 1t is humiliation
'dlsgrace death. Don't you think. my
son. that IL you were 10 try some other
locality you could do better with the
cardsyr
y haIe Eeer eileR nwGy for q hun