The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1910-12-18


tered in other Offices with the women he saw on the
sidewalks "She's sure Wen put up" he communed
with himself, "and she sure knows how 20 dress and
carry it of without being stuck herself and with
out laying IL on thick"
The more he saw of her and the more he thought
he knew of her the more unapproachable did she
10 him. But since he had no intention OF approaching
her, this anything but an unsatisfactory fact.
He was glad he had her in his office, and hoped she'd
stay. and that was about ALL
Daylight did not improve with the passing years.
The life was not good for him. He was growing
stout and soft. and there an unwonted dabbiness
in his muscles The he drank cocktails the more
he compelled to drink in order to get the desired
result the nhibtiOns that eased him down from the
concert pitch Of his operations. And with this went
wine too. at meals and the long drinks after dinner
of Scotch and soda at the Riverside. Then. too bis
body suffered from lack OF exercise and from lack or
decent human associations his moral ibres were
weakening. Never a man to hide anything. some OF
his eScapades became public, such speeding and OF
JOY rides in his big red motor car down to San Jose
with companions distinctly sporty-incdents that
were narrated as good fun and comcay in the news
papers
Nor was there anything TO save him. Religion had
passed him by. "a long time dead" was his epitome
of that phase Of speculation He not interested
in humanity According TO his rough hewn sociology.
it was all gamble. God was a whimsical, abstract
mad thing called Luck. AS to how one happened
to be bOrn-whether a sucker a robber-was a
gamble TO begin with. Luck dealt out the cards and
the little babies picked up the hands allotted them
Protest was vain. Those We're their cards and they
had 10 play them, willy-nilly hunchbacked
straight backed, crippled or clean lmbed, addle
pated or clear headed. There was fairness in it,
The cards most picked up put them into the sucker
class; the cards of few enabled them TO become
robbers The playing OF the cards was life; the
crowd Of players society The table was the earth,
and the earth, In Jumps and chunks, from lOaves of
bread to big red motor cars, the stake. And
in the end, lucky and unucky, they were all long
time dead.
1t was hard on the stupid Iowly, for they were
cOppered TO lose from the start but the more he
saw of the Others the apparent winners the less it
seemed 10 him that they mad anything TO brag about
They, too, were a long time dead. and their living
did not amount 10 much. Ii n wild animal
fight the strong trampled the weak and the strong,
he had discovered, men like DOwsett and
LettOn and Hammersmith, were not necessarily the
best. He remembered his miner comrades Of the
Arctic. They were the stupid lowly; they did the
hard work and were robbed of the fruit of their
toll just as was the old woman making wine in the
SOnoma hills, and yet they had finer qualities Of
truth and loyalty and square dealing than did the
men who robbed them The winners seemed to be
the crooked ones, the unfaithfu ones, the wicked
ones And even they had say In the matter. They
played the cards that given them, and Luck
the monstrOuS, mad gOd-thing, the owner OF the
whole shebang, looked on and grinned. 1t was he
who stacked the universal card deck of existence.
There was no justice in the deal The little men
that came, the little pupy babies, not even asked
II they wanted to try hutter at the game. They had
no choice Luck Jerked them into life, slammed them
up against the jOstling table and told them:-"Now,
play, damn you, play And they did their best poor
little devils! The play Of some led to steam yachts
and mansions Of others to the asylum the pauperS
ward. Some played the card over and over
and made wine all their days In the chaparra hoping
at the end to pull down set Of false teeth and coffin
Others quit the game early having drawn cards that
called for violent death famine in the Barrens or
loathsome and lingering disease. The hands of some
called for kingshp and irresponsible and unmerted
power; other hands called for ambition for wealth
IN untold sums. for disgrace and shame or for women
and wine.
As for himself, he had drawn a lucky hand though
he could not see all the cards. Somebody or some
thing might get him yet. The mad god Luck might be
trucking him along to some such end An unfortunate
set of circumstances and IN a months time the rob-
Der gang might be war dancing around his financial
carcass. This very day street car might run him
down or sign fall from building and smash in his
skull. Or there was disease, ever rampant one of
Lucks grmmest WhtmS. Who could say? T0-mor-
row or some other day ptOmaine bug or some other
OF thousand bugs might jump out upon him and
drag him down There was Dr. Bascom Lee Bascom
who had stood beside him week ago and talked and
laughed, picture Of magnificent youth and strength
and health. And in three days he was dead-pneu-
mOnia, rheumatism of the heart and heaven knew
what else-at the end screaming in agony that could
be heard a block away. That had been terrible. 1t
was fresh, raw stroke in Daylight's consciousness
And when would his own turn come? Who could
say? In the meantime there was nothing to do but
play the cards he could in his hand and they
battle, revenge and cocktails. And Luck sat over all
and grinned