Wauwatosa news. [volume] (Wauwatosa, Wis.) 1900-1948, 1905-07-29
THE SMOKER.

had hong ceased to be any positive pleas
IRE to him, but he had reached the point
Wien abstinence from tobacco Tor any
period Of one hour and upward becomes
very positive agony unless one hap
pcncd to be asleep. Excessive smoking
leaves mfalliblc marks on the mind and
moral character This man was vague
and vacilating. his memory was untrnst-
worthy. his temper was irritable. He
had lost the ability to settle down To
work at 10 sharp. and when he did work
! he had ceased to be able to concentrate
himself upon it, His nerves were in dis
ORDER He was poisoned and narcotized
wreck. and hc knew il.
/ Also he had to catch the north express;
! but | will not pretend that this could in
/ any way I've traced to his self-indulgence
! Vet il was due To tobacco that though
| Inc had several little things to do before
he caught the north express he could
not remember them all at once. First
one thing and then another would surge
out Of his abysmal vaguencSs into the
| clear light of consciousness. At one mo-
mcnt he would recall that he wished
! to buy "A now toothbrush. Then the
| toothbrush would fade away and he
| would remember nothing but the exact
/ hour Of his important appointment with
/ the solicitor in LiucOln'S Inn Fields.
| Then the appointment in lis turn grew
/ dim, aud lac remembered II telegram that
| he had to send or some of the other
/ things that he had to buy. He might,
of course have made list of the diff
! ferent things to be done, but this would
! have involved enough energy to face the
minor duties OF life and tobacco had
| long since sucked all this out of HIM
! He was quite without method. He sim
ply resigned himself to . kind of duh
| despair He was bound to forget some
! thing on other. 1t was written, and it
was useless for him to fight against it.
The solicitor kept him waiting. and
| their interview was prolonged When
he left he had very little time in which
10 get to the terminus. He found him
self cndeaynTing to accelerate the pace
of the cab horse by the exercise of his
| will power; this was the kind of fool
thing that he was always doing. Then
with Il rare glimpse of sanity he called
up through the trap and asked the man
to drive faster.
He observed with great satisfaction
and some surprise that he had done the
practical thing. He felt in his pocket
and found small object wrapped in
white paper and secured with red wax;
yes; nc had not forgotten the toothbrush.
On arrival he had still four minutes to
spare. This 50 he told himself. was
c identity his good day.
He directed the porter rs to his lug
gage. There was still time to take his
ticket, miscount the change, accuse the
booking clerk and apologize for his own
error But there was no time surplus.
As he rushed up the platform he was
euioined to hurry. The porter held open
the door of the empty smoking compart-
ment in which his bag was already
| placed and was sorry that he could not
get Il corridor carriage. 1t did not mat
ter; this fine fellow had caught his train.
He suddenly remembered that he had
forgotten the telegram, but even that
did not matter very much. He would be
able to send il III couple of hours or
so at the FIRST stop. lie had telegraph
forms in his bag, and even felt a kind
of satisfaction th&: @nc Of these would
now be- useful
But before attending to kilograms or
to anything else his pipe, which was Iust
out. needed to be rctilled. He had suf-
ferod . homo ne,iod If Jcnr;,,at;n,, a. H..
.oIic;tor's un ,n,Ilod o,t b;s non,I, ,,1
found !, Il 90 much tinn Jn.+ ne ,ra,,iJ
holf i'm an orJ;narv sail moon W. Va
,nEaccn bad boom ,nc of tho lin. that
ho boJ to bnv and tbo,ob hn would a,,'t
not havn admitted Il II wos tohocca
which lad mnJo him fnract Il nrenn ,,o
tbon"b he was no rcalizcd that tI,;s was
the moment for nromnt act;nn ia
heard me fus;lladc Of slamming door.
and knew that in a few Seconds The troi,,
woulJ no off
H. ,hr,,st b;s ho,d o,,t - a., .,.;,,.,,u.
bowleI for n nortcr ana fnnrJ "ns
IInnIino Tho man , sh;lI;r,, h' , '
@0,mcn ,f any Lind of ha,,,, r,, ,,''"
. LarJ ~ Won can" ''''' =
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