The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1906-12-14

For The Messenger.
iaso-"Art hurt lieuteuant?"
Cassio-"Aye. marry. past all sur
gerry, have lost the better part of
me-"
many years ago a man made his an
pearance in Fayetteville, one of those
strange wanderers who come nobody
o whence, who are seen here
now, there next, walking the streets
ana the pass out Of sight and minds,
70 go nobody knows or cares whittier.
1hey are not tramps exactly. hut
beaters about the world, ~.trngyijng for
existence, living a cheap. hard life bv
poor wits that are worth a meal NJ
some lunch counter. or a drink of vile
"hiskey in some side-street dive.
"hen this nan first turned up here
ne was fairly well dressed and bore
himself decentIy enough to ya,
plaeo III d cheap boarding house with
ouI question. He was said TO be q
opanlard. though / do not know what
leaSon Anere was for the supposition
otner than the fact that he was Of
uark compexion, and had coal black
halr and glittering black ewes that
some now made one SILVER to look
into them. He might be called a
good looking man, for he had a fine
ngure, a singularly graceful walk for
d man, and a face almost handsome
but On III there was the unmisSakabIe
stamp, the whitening blight. of one
VINO a drained to the very dregs the
cup or debasing excess revolving de-
Dauch, and a bad, bad life in every
way.
he had some gifts that, we'll direct
ed, ought to have been worth a fair
compensation In the world, His hand
~rung was like copper plate, and he
was remarkably adept in painting
those small signs that are placed Oh
"lndoW-panes and door panels-a
fancy kind Of scroll work in black and
gilt. He got some work at copying.
with an occasional job at sign-paint-
ing, but some way or other the thin
FaTnlsh OF decency wore off and by
some strange fatality he was getting
more and disreputable.
He never appeared to be drunk, but
now and then, IL he could get a lis
n at a street corner or Oh a dry
goods box he would talk for a while
with extraordinary f1uency and even
br1lliancy, but it rang false and mol
low. The next day he would be silent
and moody. stunning anything like
companionship, and wandering about
in the outskirts of the town. By
this time, to use a slang term. he was
"on his uppers." His clothes looked
as If he had slept in them, his shabby
shoes were u~nblackeu, and even his
skin was unwashed..
The people Of his boarding house
grew tired of him, disguised with
him and even some what afraid of him
and his strange moods. They compell-
ed his departure from the house. and
| lost sight Of him for some time-that
is, if the thought of him ever crossed
my mind. Some one told me that he
was getting his meals az a negro res?
taurant+ n slept or a Wretched bed
in a dirty DOT on the second floor
of the building. 1t was even said that
he cut wood, carried water and clean
ed the kitchen pots and pans for the
negro cook, in pay for his keep
Heaven knows how else he kept off
starvation for he gave up all effort
to get work about town. In fact, he
was seen no mor on the streets, ex-
cept at night, when his bent figure
might be seen shutting along by a
J TNlinofnon ~ n1ha~ Lotto yNoIortro;,
Seeking to hide himself in the shadow
Of the wall even at night, like Cain
branJled Rudge, the father Of poor
Barnaby Ridge, in Dickens story OF
that anne.
One night, abut IL o'clock, three OF
four men, | among them werew sitting
in front Of the old Fayetteville hotel
which stood where is now the hand,
some Hotel Lafayette, and which was
destroyed by fire, when full OF guests
during the county fair in November
1885. A deputy sheriff came alon-
and "coralled" the whole bunch 0i
US TO serve or a jury of inquest. Tt,
"~Spaniard" was gone-found dead j.
the oom above the negro restaurant
To this day / shudder as that nor
rible death bed comes back TO my
mind. On a filthy straw-stuffed mat.
ress, on an old pine bed-stead, lay tho
man. stripped except for a pair Of
thin. ragged trousers and a pair 81
WORKOUT shoes ON his bare feet. His
features were distorted by the death
agony; but. By the dim light of one
dingy kerosene lamp, he seemed to b.
looking up at US with a devlish smile
on his dark, saturrine face. The
only white men in the room were the
jury. with uncouth, ill-clad negroes
grouped around, some silent n W
struck others brutality testing an6
laughing even in the presence OF thai
grisly terror Opium fiend," said tht
coroier cIrtly- I thought Of the death
of the lodger in the horried den OF
old Crook in Dickens BLEAK House
Do the readers of The Messenger re
collect that horrible scene? The lodges
was a wretched, half-starved, opium
eating copyist and ~Ecrirener, who
ooIlal h;ncoyf Nomn fTofip for M