The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1905-02-17
! ~ The Warrior.
~ By HAROLD WILD. 1

j Il was feeling tired, with that col
IL lapSing sense of extreme lassitude
to which both body and mind seemed tC
bow abjectly.
The feeling was not a novel one
with him, for during the last feN
months he had constantly experienced
it, combined with hard, dry and IT.
ritating cough.
He stepped out into all the wretch
edness of wet and gloomy day in the
early part Of the year, and felt how
unfit he was, yet acknowledging the
necessity to face it.
He had been syorking hard the day
before, finishing some black and white
drawing for an illustrated magazine run
by syndicate which was OF the Ions
re- Winded type, and which paid badly,
But one must live, and poor artist
that he was, the thought of somebody
else had lately crept into his mind,
urging him On to even greater exer-
tions. 1t was a hard struggle, this
fight against poverty and the world,
while victory appeared shadowy and
far away. w.
He had an appointment with a dealer
at noon, a man with whom he had
left two or three canvases, on the
slender chance of an offer being made
for them, no matter how small, which
might prove an introduction to more
satisfactory negotiations.
It wanted more than two hours to
the time named, and. not feeling equal
to close work, he climbed YEARLY to
the top OF a bus bound for Charing
Cross, prcferring to sit in the rain and
fresh, air than face the evil smell
ing, damp, sodden atmosphere of the
interior.
! hliehting at Trafalgar Square he
walked across to the National Gallery
and went into the building, which had
just opened for the day. 1t was al
ways n haven Of rest for him, this
home of the works of men who had
lived ard toiled, some of them in as
bad a case, nay, often much worse
than he was in, and had left behind
them names which the world now &C
knowledged as immortal.
He walked into the room contain
ing the pictures of the Spanish School,
and sat down before one which was
always a fayorite with him, but which
now seemed to possess special attrac-
tions.
1t was the picture ascribed to Velas-
queZ, known as the Orlando Muerte''
('The Dead Warrior")
The well-known canvas, with its
single PROSTATE figure, appealed to him
greatly, not so much on account of the
genius of the dead master or the SPLEEN
did work in the painting, fine exam
pie of foreshortening, but as regarded
the immediate subject.
He did not think of that still, silent
figure as that which it represented, the
dead body Of the great Ronald ''in tht
Roncesvalles Strait" but as that of {
warrior comparatively unknown who
had fallen in fight, amid the turmoil Of
battle, contesting to the last, and whr
was now at peace.
"He died fighting, fighting hard,
muttered the artist, under his breath
ana THAT IuOUSHG even CUcercu him
Better. far better, to die fighting hare
than to end ones existence ignobl,
amid all the luxuries of pampered cas-
and interested assistance.
He looked long at that pale, ar
mored figure, and unconsciously drew
a parallel with his own case He hat
started the worlds fight clad in all the
bright panoply of youth and armed
with all youths condolences and aspi
rations, and gradually-he sighed a
he realized 1.-THE trappings were get
ting old, the arms had been sadl.
blunted, and he knew that, as tn
other warrior had been, he was driy
en- to bay, and all he could do was t,
die fighting, unless support arrived.
However, that longed-for assistance
might come, and il it did the laurel
for the victor were surely worth con
testing for, and his thoughts took
softer turn as face seemed to fit be
fore his eyes and blot out the dea
figure on the canvas in front
A bright, merry, laughing face, sof
as a ohifd's, with great deal of
child's innocence in its expression, an,