The Monmouth inquirer., 1906-10-18
- Ole y
SafnaritanS
By c. B. LEWIS

! Miss Duella Minis, as her capdS read,
was an elocutionist ana quite willing
to help others over the same road for
pay. So long as her ambition was kept
/ within bounds and her prices We're not
too steep her native town of 5000 bs
habitants supplied fair number of
pups, and the local press row and
! then referred to her in way that was
| pleasing.
One unfortunate day Miss Minis de-
/ cided that elocution such as hers should
| have no limits. The village boy who
1 fell into the frog pond decided that if it
was good for him it ought to be good
for the whole United States. Miss
Minis reasoned after the same fashion.
She collected her bills, packed her
| trunk and set out for the metropolis,
and never was young woman more
/ sanguine.
In a week she was surprised. In
month she was tired In two months
she had decided to drop elocution and
look for place as a typist and stenog-
rapher. Her mind was fully made up
on this point, and yet she could not let
go of elocution with a bang. She must
part from it by degrees and make the
parting less painful.
Miss Minis sat at the open window
of her boarding house and dallied with
elocution In her well modulated voice
she went over three or four of her
choicest gems and then brought out
''The Wanderer."
She had always made a hit In this.
| 1t was about lovely girl who left her
village home for great city, and after
using up all her money and pawning
everything that her uncle would ad-
vance ON she committed suicide. and
the Iandlady found her dead when she
went In to collect her weeks rent in
advance.
In elocuting this pathetic appeal Miss
] Minis had to simulate Encouragement,
sorrow, grief, appeal, resignation and
several other things calculated to
arouse human interest and she had an
audience without knowing it.
On the floor above y-as a young man
who had been in the oarding house
almost as long as she had, but they
had not been introduced and had taken
very little interest in each other. He
/ was the audience on this night. Miss
Minis voice foated up to him, and he
listened and became interested. Grad
ually he found his sympathies aroused.
From what he could make out she was
clean discouraged and ready for the
deadly fumes of charcoal. She was
even hungry for food at that moment,
and there was no one In the great city
to whom she could turn.
The young man was deeply affected.
Here was a case right under his nose
where sympathy and cash were re-
quired, and only that evening he had
lodged the landlady when he came in.
He was perturbed and upset for few
minutes, but finally reasoned 1t out
that If the poor girl stuck to her pro-
gramme and died it would save her
being disappointed in love In the fu-
ture.
When long silence had followed
her fearful appeal to heaven he
brought out manuscript and began
to read aloud. He was no elocutionist.
He might have been one had he not
become a dramatist at an early age.
The manuscript in his hands was a
play written by himself. 1t is need
less to give it name, but it may be
said to have been pathetic. 1t had a
hero, and the hero went through trou-
BILE enough to swamp a canal boat
within FIVE miles of Troy. He kept
hoping and hoping, but it was no use.
AS soon as he came in sight of good
thing it vanished He hung on and
hung on until the beef trust made its
last raise, and then he starved to
death with the same dignity that he
had lived.
What the dramatist was reading was
the soIiloquy of the hero when he had
abandoned all hope and decided that
mince pie was no longer for him. The
reverie of the elocutionist below was
broken by his reading and raving. She
listened, and tears of pity came to her
eyes. She had thought the world was
harsh to her, but here was worse case
than hers. She hadn't gone hungry yet,
but here was a young man literally
starving to death. She had heard him
say that even the mice had abandoned
his room and that, unable to find an
other morsel of food the cricket no
longer sang for him.
Miss Minis did what. a practical
young woman should do under the cir
cumstances The hour was not late,
and she put on her hat and went down
stairs and hunted up a delicatessen
store and bought some smoked tongue
and crackers. These would keep the
spark of life in the young man over
night, and next day things might turn
for the better with him.
When the dramatist had concluded
reading his hero's soliloquy-it was the
millionth reading Ibis thoughts turned
once more to the young woman below
He still had a couple of dollars left end
he could not see her die for want OF
sustenance In handing In the sus
tenanee he would also hand in his sym
pathies and encouragement If be
found her obstinateiy determined tc
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