The Lexington intelligencer. [volume] (Lexington, Mo.) 1901-1949, 1909-02-27

KARL ENGEL,|
By
DONALD KENNICOTT

(Copyrlght. by Bobbs.Merril 80

market, Karl Engels TAT spaniel sleeps
the deep sleep of noontide and of re-
pletion. Within, Karl Engel himself
leans back in his chair, with his
pudgy hands clasped over his fat stom-
ach, and-dozes. The young reporter
who stands on the street corner wait
ing for a car which is to bear him
down to his daily tasks, for the hun
dredth time tells himself gloomily
that the world is composed entirely of
the %hourgeoisie, and that Karl Engel
in particular, doing there in the
butcher shop, is bourgeois to the nth
power.
Whistling aggressively, Kals as
sistant comes in from his belated
luncheon and resumes his apron. The
wholesalers wagon backs up to the
sidewalk, and Karl. besUirring him
self to bicker with the driver concern
iEg the choice of meats, presently
staggers back into the shop under an
imposing quarter of beef. With a
mighty heave, he lifts it so that 1t
shall catch the hook, and Is 1t swings
into place on the rack, he brings it
to a, standstiI with a %resounding slap
that is really a caress, and murmurs
to himself: "Ach, he vas a fine fell
low now. He came from out there
For though KarIs body was cab
ined within the narrow precincts Of a
metropolitan meat market, his soul
Jared far abroad into the celestial
spaces of the western wilds- into that
fair, free, fabulous land of Bret Harte
and large pistols, of Mayne Reid and
savage beasts, of Harry Castleman and
mad Mexicans. Out there the good,
brave beef cattle roamed up and down,
paving the earth, until the circling
'lasso' laid them low; out there the
insidious Indian added arrows to ones
person and rare zest to every enter
prise; and there was gold and blood
and fre-a mans world. Ach, him.
mel. some day he would go, even he
Kari Engel, of Market street, would
: go out there. away from beeyes which
were but stiff and bloodless simula
era, away from men who were but
pale. soulless shadows, away FROM
yes, one must be prepared TO make
some sacrihces-away from the big
brown glass at Kohlberg's OF the
corner.
With each recurring spring there
came days when, occasion permitting
Karl would shuttle uneasily up anC
down the s~awdusted floor of the shop
instead of doing in his chair. Al
o ways then. Paul Ludwig, the assistant
who was ambitious to possess a shoI
, Of his own, would inquire quite peril
nently why, then, he did not go ouI
there. But always Karl would sigt
N gloomlly, and defer the day of depart
ure until his bank account should have
/. reached the definite and delectabl'
n n sum OF $4,000; and gradually th'
m springtime and the Wanderlust woulC
wear away together.
Yet, at last, on a rare, balmy day il
- March, there came news that the dealt
% OF that far-away uncle which sets s.
many ambitions at liberty to vault
had placed to Karl's credit a multi
tude of marks, which, when trans
lated into the good round dollars o
n the republic, brought the bank accoun
well above the determined sum-, KaI
4 was now his W man; and Karl, afte
pacing up and down in the sawdus
for a stormy hour, thumped down hi
fist upon the cleayer-block and spok
with the stern voice Of mighty resolve
He would 60; tomorrow he would e
and Paul Ludwig must run the sho
and hire a new assistant
sleepless hours OF preparation Ell
sued. First the making OF his vii
in which. as a childless widower, h
bequeathed the bank account to hi
brothers little girl and the shop to tn
faithful Paul Ludwig. Next, the packin
Of The ancient leather trunk-an o.
Grafton that for years he had r,
hearsed and secretly prepared 70
Side by side in its capacious depth
were tucked the Mackinac b~lanket.su
which he had bought nine years b,
fore, on hearing It's cold-resisting vi
tues praised BY a reformed lumbe
! jack in K~ohlberg's back room; tn
i. slashed Mexican trousers OF black We
/. vetesn which six years before he ha
+ seen worn at the masked bah Of III
+. County Democracy, and had astutel
r traced back to the costumers whenC
they came; the low-heeled farmer
I boots which he had observed In II
/, window Of a shop nea the Union St
I lion; the harmless. necessary re
r handkerchief and the smoked google
with which to combat the desert SUI
With them. too, were placed Il
"lasso" which on a glad, golden du
long ago, while over at the "yards
to pay his bills. Karl had seen ia
from the saddle Of one of the yal
herders; the big pistol upon whiC
he had looked with covetous eyes Il
months. as Il lay In the dusty paw
shop window. until he had seen a
other customer considering it and hs
been frightened into Immediate pu
E. chase; and last-but. Oh, not least
the long. brass-mounted target ri6
With its exaggerated butt-plate al
Al IL -.LH-A IT.