The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1904-09-24


wasn't so very, very long ago that they
began. They got about an even start
in life, about as even as starts go in
| life in horse races, and they both had
a clear track if they chose it, but now
things have changed and The Big Eel
low has been left at the post while
His Chum has gone right on and mas
already distanced him, as the rules OF
distance go, and The Big Fellow is
practically out of the race. 1t is con-
test no longer.
1t all came about through a matter
of association. The Big Fellow was the
making of a mighty fine man. He was
broad shouldered and, had hair, which
in the story books always goes in type
slang expression goes, He was good to
his folks, for a time but only for
time.
Somehow he started off with nick
name; not the authorization nor bifur-
cation of a real, genuine Christian
name, but a nick name and about the
worse nick name that can be given a
boy. He was called Bud" How it
was the 1iveryman, the coal dealer, the
town marshal or who it was that
dubbed him Bud" was never decided.
Not one of them wished to shoulder
the guilt. He had associated with the
class that deals in nick names. 1t was
the beginning of the end.
But Bud he was from the time he
was big enough to wander down the
and Bud he remained to the end of
his days. Now it is bad enough to call
a boy Algernon or Reginald and drive
him into the specialized and beribboned
clique for then he will be brought up
in the atmosphere of Browning and
Shelly and he may get into the work
of clipping coupons and floating bonds
but he doesn't get anywhere near the
grade of a Jessie James.
But name a fellow BUD and you
drive him right toward the frontier line
of civilization. The Big Fellow was no
exception to the rule and soon after
they nicknamed him Bud he was a
regular patron of the postoff1ce news
stand buying copies of Red Ranald, the
Ragged Ruffian and Dick Durkin the
Dangerous Detective.
The Chunn was never handicapped in
the race of life with any such burden
as a nick name. His baptismal name
was William and he was called Bill and
Will and Willie, but that is no blight.
Eugene Field explained it all when he
said, Father calls me William, sister
calls me Will, mother calls me Willie,
but the fellers' call me Bill" Presidents
have been called the whole gamut of
the name down to and 1ncIudlng 5lli
but no president was ever called
Bud 49, ~.--+ s4-
While The Big Fellow was reading
the dime novels His Chum was reading
States, Life on the Border, the Bible.
old copies of Godey's Ladies' Book. the
Atlantic and the speeches of Henry
Clay and Patrick Henry. He read those
books because they were the only
books in the house.
From the dime novels The Big Eel
low went to cigarettes and then to
drink and then to ruin. He held good
positions; several of them, until he
proved himself absolutely unworthy in
everyone. He borrowed money and he
did not pay it back. He betrayed his
friends and his enemies alike. He could
not be trusted. He was everything a
young man should not be and nothing
a young man should be. His end came,
and his weakened constitution gave up
the fight. He died away from home.
In fact he hardly had a home.
Those who had called him Bud
said "he went wrong. He had an even
chance with His Churn but he would
not take it,
The Chum went to the funeral. He
laid a wreath of roses on the casket
and looked into the face of the boy
who had started life even with him. |
He muttered to himself ''too bad; poor |
fellow, he didn't have the chance I had. |
His father drank before him..
This isn't a temperance sermon. 1t
is just the recounting of actual Incl |
dents in the lives of two young men
in a southern Kansas county.