The Hattiesburg news. (Hattiesburg, Miss.) 1908-1917, 1908-06-06
me Company's
Announcer.
toriginal.,


inform his family of their loss. Now
an especial person is appointed to the
position Of announcer of calamity. The
is usually selected for his
tact and benevolent appearance. His
duties are certainly not attractive. To
go to the home of woman, to hear
her singing at her work, to see her
children playing about the cabin. and
tell that the husband and father has
been mashed between two cars is
about as hard task as a sympathetic
person can perform.
Thomas Nolan was announcer at that
tine v. II. and y. railroad where
the shops are located and held the DO
sition so long and his duties became so
well known that his simple appear
ance at workman's home was all
the announcement needed Indeed, he
could not walk through a street lined
with cabins but each housewife would
watch him with beating heart, fearing
that he was looking for her.
Patrick O'Rourke, machinist in the
railway companys employ, had been
In America ten years, and, having
learned his trade and become so pro-
ficient as to earn good wages, he sent
to Ireland for Mary Maloney, his sweet
heart. He had loved Mary when she
was sixteen, raw girl, and found her
at twenty-six a full blown woman
When he looked at her he felt that his
wait and work had been well rewarded.
All went well till children came.
and, with the Group and the measles
and the constant attention they need
ed even when well. Mary's nerves
began to take on an edge and she lost
her equanimity. When Pat came home
in the evening. tired with standing
over machine all day and an occa-
sional digressionsin lifting some heavy
weight, he would find her cross and
irritable. He was good natured chap,
full of Irish humor, and would usually
try to laugh his wife out of the COM
plants she poured forth. But such
work is harder than handling machin-
cry. be 1t ever so heavy. and after
while Pat began to get irritable him
self.
At last there came breach The
pair had quarreled most of one night,
but in the morning Pat tried to make
1t up with his wife.
"Yer havin' a hard time of it, Mary,
| know with the constant cookin' and
SEWN. for the children and havin' to
keep 'em from dom the thousand
things they shouldn't do all day long
till they're asleep at night, but don't
the wife of every Workman who has
children have to bear the same? And
them as hasn't children are awful en-
vious of them that has. Try and take
more reasonable view Of it, Mary
man to earn Twin for you and the
children and how bad it would be if
were takin' away from you and you
had to work for Twin as well as look
out for the children"
She turned away from him in
huff, and he was obliged to so to his
work with the breach still open. Mary
spent the morning broodng. She con-
sidered that she'd married the wrong
man. She recalled the hot words he
had said to her during the night and
either forgot the hotter words she had
said to him or considered them Justly
spoken. Toward noon she began to
cool down. Pat never came home to
dinner, and perhaps 1t was as. well to-
day that be did not for she was not
In condition to avoid treating him
harshly. BY evening she would be
ready to at least drop the quarrel,
though she never went through d proc
ess of making up. Pat often wished
they could end their misunderstanding
as they used to, by lovers kisses, but
the time for that seemed past.
When the hour for Pat to come home
for the evening drew near Mary began
to feel uncomfortable. She wished to
go to him and throw her arms around
his neck and say that she had acted
"horrid" and all that, but somehow she
couldn't. Perhaps she thought that If
she did 1t would only encourage Pat to
''tyrannize" over her in future. But
she made nice dish of beefsteak and
onions for Pats supper He was very
fond of the combination and by giving
him the dish she could get the comfort
of confession without really making
It.
She was standing over the supper
when something, she knew not what,
prompted her to turn her head and
look out through the open door. The
cabin stood alone, and she had an I'M
obstructed view. There came Tom No
Ian, the company's announcer, making
straight for her cabin.
A few minutes later there was a step
on the threshold. Mary did not hear 1t,
for she lay on the floor in a swoon. 1t
was not Tom Nolan's step, for he had
passed on without entering the cabin.
1t was Mary's husband, who entered
and saw her lying, white and rigid, on
the floor. He was terribly frightened.
MARY, dariin', what's happened to