The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-12-17
WILL T. SHEEHANl |

.s. Tih.} ne was inexpressibly revolt
 ing to Satterwhite. Satterwhite was
 the cub reporter of The Intelltgencer.
 He mad come out of a clean Alabama
 home and what he saw filled him with
 soul nausea.
 For the first time in his young life.
 he saw men and women smoking. ciga-
 rettes and, for the first time he saw
 men and women drinking together. 1T
 sickened him to the core. The smell
 of whiskey was in his nostrils. lie
 squalor repulsed him and. he was half
 stifled by the noisome smoke from the
 kerosene lamp with the broken chim-
 ney. But worse. than all this to the
 voIlnR fellow who came Into the
 wcrld from his healthy home fresh and
 9, ,aff, was the repuisive sight Of men
 and women together pouring whis-
 key, singing and perpetrating loud and
 pointless jokes.
 And he thought of the dead man. up-
 stairs. the unknown dead with furrow-
 ed face and long white hair. The awe
 If death was in him for he was still
 new to newspaper work, and the mixed
 debauch almost within the presence or
 death, turned him sick at heart.
 Would the Coroner never come! He
 rose from his seat in the rear Of the
 room nut on his overcoat and went
 out into the hall. There the back door
 was open and the fresh cold air Of
 cold November night was as grateful
 as a glass of water to furnishing man.
 He would sit on wood box and wait
 the coming of the tardy coroner; where there would be no odorous assaults upon his nostrils and no oppression E to his lungs. The room door was wide open. and Satterwhite repelled. yet interested
 watched the ignoble actors in the scene, played out in the firelight.. as 4-rht ofa sta Nna trying to sing a ragtime monstrosity with a refrain of I'm gwinter keep CT Twin till l die" It was pitiful \ effort. One voice, rich but somewhat rough contralto bore the burden of the music. The other three, the smaller girl and the women. were mere on- stacles to music. Each in his turn would keep up for bar or two. some- times together, to sink finally into an iucoherent noise. Then the delayed singer would wake up, to the work at hand and cut across lots to catch up N with the music. It was a poor sort ot M carousal song. The affected note of iovous careIessness rang false and hy- pocritical
 The young woman who was leading e caught the eye and the interest of Satterwhite. watching from the dark
 ness of the hall. She was no more than a girl a tall girl with big dark eyes
  \ carelessly into big wisp and set in a struggling heap on top of well E shaped head From a collarless callc,, N dress her neck rose. slender and well E posed. In the firelight 1t looked like K a marble column. The calico dress \ was worn, and here and there It show ed rips and tears, even in the hre- | light. She leaned against the table, with her feet crossed, and holding d dead and smokeless cigarette between the fingers of a tapering shapely hand. She sang, her head thrown back. forgettul I of her surroundings. with open hxed ], eyes. and manifestly forgetful of her surroundings. Satterwhite. watching from the darkness. thought as he look 4 ed at her the face could well be the N face of a choir singer. And he thought A too being young. that the robe Of the 4 choir singer would more become her than the torn calico dress.
 How could such a face appear in such vitiated surroundings? He remember ! ed. curiousiy enough that in the pond { back of the old home, white lilies grew out of the black mud around the edges. They had puzzled him. these Ill., l lies when he was q boy. and hrst De- gan to think of things.
 He recalled suddenly that. as ne watched the singer. that she had refus'
 ed the glass every tune u nau o,isa o X Faction from the tribute this recollec' 4 tion maid the singer. She had offendec with the cigarette. but the whiskey 8 glass had not been for her.
 The other women harmonized more ~ with the scene. She was short anc stout with struggling hair, loosely E broad and flat with a long stretch be-