The Spokane press. [volume] (Spokane, Wash.) 1902-1939, 1909-05-10
AflILLION
81 hdsoND ou&lae
CHAPTER /.
CHAPTER /.
Quaintane Opens a New Account
With Fate at the Night

ouaintane Opens a New Account
With Fate at the Night
and Day Bank.
On a mellow afternoon in lite
fall, the gardens Of Madison square
were all aglow, like a monstrous
palette; flower-beds and foliage, at
their most brilliant, a blend of such
living tints as no mere earthly art
list may ever attain.
Quaintance, looking out on the
enlivening scene Off the first time
after long, weary years of exile,
conscious that nowhere In all his
wanderings had he found the out
look so thoroughly to his liking,
paused in the pillared porch Of the
Fifth avenue hotel to drink 1t in
lat his leisure and in more detail.
The dry, rustling leaves were let
ting long shafts of light through or
cast dancing shadows across the
trim, verdant turf close bordered
by low benches all black with the
fiotsam of the busy city. The paved
walks, patterned In arabesque upon
the green, rang with the cries OF
children at their play. The pulsing
fountain in their midst threw up
with rhythmic regularity spark
ling silver column. which broke and
fell back like liquid diamonds. The
air was like new wine.
A gentle breeze was tempering
sto genial warmth the sunshine
streaming from an azure sky stud
ded with cool. pure clouds which
hung there motionless. The many
colored unequal buildings, cupola.
tower, or square, fiat roof, which
rise or squat with such bewildering
effect against the blue, had all been
scrubbed clean by the recent rain.
The white bulk of The Flatiron
doomed loftily above its lesser
neighbors, one shoulder turned con-
temptuously towards its infinitely
loftier successor in the race to
reach the clouds.
About its base the traffic surged
In swirling eddies, splitting to right
and left along the canons of Fifth
Avenue and Broadway, spreading to
east and west across the city, or
rolling in widening wave upon
the square, according to the die
tates of the autocrats in uniform
responsible for its direction. AS
these waved white gloved hands,
blew whistles, brandished flags, the
surface cars clanked through the
maelstrom with gongs changing,
motors and cabs and carriages &C.
cumulated in deep ranks or spurted
on their way. while anxious-eyed
pedestrians risked life and limb
amongst them. progressed from
point to point by reckless rushes.
At the Bartholdi corner news
boys were shouting extras, and a
big observation car. crowded with
sightseers, was in the act of start
ing, its cicerone, armed with a
raucous megaphone, pleading for
still more passengers. The hoarse
honk.honk of motor horns blended
with the shrill bells of swift cleo
trio coupes. The ceaseless hum of
human voices was like vast hive
of restless bees.
The tin-pan tinkle of street
piano, attempting Dixie" came
{,1p two nf
innumerable from the near curb.
The Watchers heart warmed to the
oldtime melody, and the deep
breath he drew was one of such
er to for long.
He could still count the days
which had elapsed since his release
from the stark, deathlike silences
and gloom of that gray jungleland
wherein all he had been lay buried.
That which he had borne there. In
solitude, had bred in him hungry,
vehement desire to mix again
among his fellowmen, to see and
hear and feel for himself that the
world was not all one forlorn, sun
sick waste OF swamp and mangrove.
Only an hour ago he had stepped
ashore from an African steamer,
and even on the voyage across he
had not, somehow, managed to
shake off the consciousness of iso-
lation from his kind. The sea had
seemed almost as empty and mys-
terious rs the dark land he had left
behind him. But now, at last. he
could realize that the past had been
but dreary nightmare, out of
which he had awakened to new
day. among his home-folk, sane,
safe and sound. And the sense of
close companionship with the brisk,
busting throng about him. the
quick staccato of their curtailed
speech, the evidence on all hands
that he was once more but an I'M
considered unit among the millions,
were beyond words comforting to
him.
He smiled to think OF the dark
fears which had oppressed him,
and. stepping down into the street,