The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1908-03-11
Qnlucky Paul..
By Warjorie r. gohrsor.

IlSSlOu "dS d luShJ man, HdfiAS
everything in life that he wanted to
make him happy, and nothing to
worry him. He vas young and strong,
standing FIVE feet eleven in his
stockings, was not in love, and, best
of all, he thought. had not a cent in
the world and no head for business.
His ill-luck began when his great
uncle Morrison died and saddled the
burden of his millions upon him. He
had not expected this, and fumed and
frctted, vowing he would never bear
it. He had just taken passage for
Europe in the steerage Of a cattle
steamer sailing from Quebec, had had
a hard time to raise the money for
ven that, and now, in the very
height of his triumph at having ac-
complished the acme of his ambition,
down came that crushing inheritance,
and life lost its roseate hue and be-
came black.
Reluctantly he gave up thoughts
of the steerage, and secured a deck
cabin on the Kaiser Wilhelm der
Crosse from New York, but all the
way over, while outwardly enjoying
himself and making himself agree
able to the ladies, he was planning
how to get rid Of his monetary incu-
bus.
In Paris he gave everybody the
slip and went straight to the Latin
Quarter. There he took all attic,
fitted it up with secondhand furni-
ture, had a mean pallet" for a bed,
a t~umbledown easel, some scarecrow
chairs and other shabby triugs, and
then settled down to work with
strong hope Of some degr>.'' of hap
piness. He asked the boys about the
cheapest restaurants and was soon
going it with the most poverty
stricken of the lot, having a good
time and almost succeeding in for
getting his money when, n unlucky
day, his lawyer tracked him out, and
secrecy was 40 longer possible. His
comrades Of the Quarter distrusted
him after that and turned the cold
SIOuluSl, anu IlClO "d0 uOIulu6 W
do but quit Paris.
In Munich, whittier he went, he
didn't so it quite so strong, taking
a fairly decent apartment, working
Or not as he liked, spending and los
ing all the money he could without
.arousing suspicion. Working as he
did, by fits and starts, it required no
management to acquire a reputation
for laziness, and he soon had the hap
piness of learning that he was spoken
of as a n~e'er-do-weel who would
never make his mark. This encour-
aged him to believe that he could
safely exhibit with a good prospect
of being skied, and finding no sale
for his work. What, then, was his
dismay on going into the Gallery to
see his picture hung On the line, with
an admiring crowd before it, and to
receive the next day an offer of six
teen thousand marks for it. He had
10 accept, of course, or be found out,
but it convinced him that Munich
was, for his purposes. worse than
Paris.
Next he tried st. Petersburg. think
ing that if there were such a thing
as getting into a scrape, Russia was
the country for the purpose. Here
he did all the reckless things he
could think Of, any one of which
would have resulted in the Danish
ment to Siberia OF an ordinarily lucky
individual, but he succeeded in
exciting even a faint suspicion of Nj
hilism. Before he had been in the
city 4 month he found himself being
sought cut by ~personages in the
court circle and treated as if he had
been a prince ia disguise. This en-
abled him to try IN experiment which
although he decidedly objected to it,
he had wished to try for some time.
The thought occurred to him that,
had he been a gambler, he might
have got rid uf any amount Of money
in 4 very short time. He had heard
and read OF fortunes being lost in a
single night, he tried the thing with
a party Of professional gamblers
swclls. all of thcm-but professional
gamblers all the SAME.
OF course, he knew that he should
win the first night or two-in stories
tyros always do-and he didn't mind
it for a while; but when it kept on
night after night for a month, AMI
he found that lie mad more than
doubled the amounts hc had at stake.
ne thought it was high time to thrown
up the undertaking.
Discouraged and ~dis2hsted, he
went to London. where he frequent
ed the East End With large Sums of
money in his pockets; visited the
places of popular amusement with
bullying pocket-books, i~il-concealeG,
in the hope of thus losing at least
r few thousand pounds. Either the
police were unusually Oh the alert
or the pickpockets had all expert
enced 4 change Of heart, for never a
penny could he lose.
Then he returned to New York
and tried investments. Knowing
that he had no head for business, he
reckoned this lack the strongest asset
in his plan. Whenever he