The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1909-10-23
THE INTERMoUNTAIN CATHOLIC: OCTOBER g. 1909.

ure or in the right mood of mind to devote to the
boy even a single evening.
And thus it went on from day to day. from
month to month, and from year to year, until fin
ally John sent home from school by Mr. Eldon
with note to his father, in which dleness, disor
DERBY conduct and vicious habits charged upon
him in the broadest terms.
The unhappy Mr. Green called Immediately upon
the teacher, who gave him more particular ac-
count of his sons bad conduct, and concluded by
saying that he was unwilling to receive him back
into his classes.
From the second school at which John was en-
tered he was dismissed within three months for bad
conduct. He was then sent to school in a distant
CITY, where removed from all parental restraint and
admonltlon, he made viler associates than any he
had hitherto known, and took thus lower step in
wee He was Just II when letter from the prin-
cpal OF this school conveyed to Mr. Green such I'M
happy intelligence of his that he Immediately
resolved as last resort to send him to sea- before
the mast And this was done, spite of all the moth
ers fearful remonstrances and the boys threats that
he would escape from the vessel on the very first
opportunity.
AT the end of year John came home from sea-
a rough, tobacco-chewing, cigar-smoking, dram
drinking, overgrown boy of IS, with all his sensual
desires and animal passions more active than when
he went away, while his intellectual faculties and
moral feelings were in condition than at
his separation from home. Grief at the change op-
was unavailing. Various efforts were made to get
hlm into some business, but he remained only a
short time in any of the places where his father
had him introduced. Finally he was sent to sea
again.
Several months elapsed Mr.. Green had re-
turned home, well satisfied with his days business
In his pocket the afternoon paper which, after
the younger children in bed and the older ones
out OF the way, he sat down to read To the tele-
graphic columns his eyes turned. There had been
an arrival in Boston from the Pacific and almost
the first sentence he read the intelligence of his
sons death. The paper dropped from his hands,
while he uttered expression of surprise and grief
that caused the cheeks of his wife, who was in the
room, to turn deadly pale. She had not power to
ask the cause of her husbands sudden exclamation
but her heart, that yearned towards her absent
boy, instinctively OWNED the truth
John is dead" said Mr.. Green at length, speak
ing in a tremulous voice
There was from the mother no wild burst of
anguish The boy had been dying to her daily for
years. and she had suffered for him worse than the
Pangs of death. Burying her face in her hands,
she wept silently, yet hopeessIy
If we were only blameless of the poor chd's
DEATH said Mrs. Green lifting her fearful eyes aft
er the lapse of nearly ten minutes and speaking in
a sad. self-rebuking tone of voice
When those with whom we are in close relation
ship die, how quickly is that page in memorys book
turned on which lies the record of unkindness or
neglect! Already had this page been turned for
Mr. Green, and conscience was sweeping therefrom
the dust that well-mgh obscured the handwriting
lie trembled inwardly he read the condemning
sentences that charged him with the guilt of his
sons ruin.
If we were only blameless of the poor child's
DEATH"
How these words of the grieving mother smote
upon his hearth He did not respond to them. How
could he do so at that moment?
Where is Edward~ he inquired at length
Il don't know" sobbed the mother. "He is out
somewhere almost every evening Oh, [ wish YOU
would look to him little more closely. He is past
my control"
Il must do So" returned Mr.. Green, speaking
from strong conviction of the necessity of doing
as his wife suggested. eff only had little more
time"
He checked himself 1t was the old excuse. the
rock upon which all his best hopes for his first
born had been fearfully wrecked. His lips closed
his head was bowed, and in the bitterness of I'M
awaiting sorrow he unused on the past-T. S. in the
Quarterly ALTOONA Pa