The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-02-25
HIS LIFE'S WORK.
BY !. A. TIFFANY.

BY J. A. TIEFhNNs
 Copyright, 1906. by Daily Story PuD-
 fishing Co)
 The man was old and broken in spirit. His life had been failure, as all lives are, measured by the degree in which they fulfill the dreams Of youth.
 At two-and-twenty he had mistaken the flush of enthusiasm for the nfe or genius After a quarter of century devotion to small parts in third-rate theatrical companies. he had been forced to the conclusion that a man gets no more, no less, than his labor Is worth; and that his own labor was worth very little.
 At first he might have gained some adventitIous reputation by Haunting on the bills his family name and herald ing his heirship to a title. But prlde forbade-pride. perhaps, in his mag ined genius; or 1t may have been the the greater pride of blood that made nm shrink from blazoning his nobility be- fore the world of third-rate theatre goers.
 He had accepted disinheritance as the price of marrying the woman or his choice instead of the one whom his father had chosen for him. Ills wife had been beautiful. Now, she was a poor, faded, commonplace creature. Her lOOs WCiO oAA S"tANf her beauty, and, worse than that, the mans illusions in regard to her were dead also.
 She had no more talent for acting than had he; and they both knew It now. There had been a time when her personal attractions were sum ciently commanding to assure for her good pay and desirable parts. But now, like the man, she had to be con in fha shane OI 'lines" and pay that fell to her lot Of gentle birth, she still retained | some traces of refinement, In spite oi her long sojourn in Bohemia. But the novelty, the charm, the mystery Of the | life were gone. Its shams and make believes no longer lent themselves to | gay deception Only the vulgar, squalid | bare reality remained. Man and wife had ceased to cajole each other with the belief that some day their ability would command recognition by an in' l telllgent and contemplating manager who would have a play written specially fol | them-designed to bring out theil strong points and, incidentally, to mako | them rich and famous. That Illusion | long cherished. had gone the way oi many others.
 Every illusion had been destroyed save one; and to that they clung witl desperate tenacity. At an early perioC in their married life the man had con ceived a great literary project.
 I've been thinking. Evelyn" he hat l said one day, "of writing a historica account of the drama from its frs | inception down to the present day I'm agine the possibilities of such work | --tracing the evolution of dramatic ar l from the crude mummery of the earli est ages to the stately Greek chorus. or l through the splendors of the Roman era. and the golden age of the Troupa' dours. up to It's grand Renaissance IT 1 the glorious genius of Shakespeare' aht thence to it's magnificent continuation | in the literary excellence and marVei ous mechanical accessories of the stage 1 in the Nineteenth Century what de you think of it, Evolyn?'
 l "SpleudiR" the woman had ex' claimed. H'why don't you begin al l once"
 And he had begun that very day H' | knew then that 1t was no mean task 1 this that he had set himself IL mean
 much reading, research, condensing
 writing. rewriting and writing again | Not a book that @ man could rattle of
 in six months or a year.
 Tt will be a life's work, Evelyn" h' l had said to his wife one day. And with a smile and kiss she ha'
 answered:
 what of that7 Haven't WE dsdi