The Press., 1911-02-08
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CHIT. loOs. BY AUGUSTUS THoMAs

or four weeks ago you had for MT. Holcomb-you still love him?"
 'aToo much to let him throw himself away on girl of my shallowness. Tell me-what shall I dor"
 'I promised to give my opinion in the presence of your friends. I am ready to do so."
 He went to the door and called Mrs. Winthrop and Elliott.
 q am sorry, judge" he said as the latter entered, "that you are not feel ing quite we'll"
 ''You said something like that in the dining room," responded Elliott. "I don't know what you mean. feel all right"
 'I am very glad that it is so," said Vavin, 'but your face is pale, and your eyes-have you seen doctor re- cently?"
 q don't see any necessity for my seeing a doctor. It is true that was up a little late last night''-
 Perhaps it was that" said Vavin, ''but I would be very careful about regular hours and plenty of sleep"
 "But I got eight hours sleep after all," said the judge excitedly.
 Don't excite yourself, judge"
 "Sit down, judge," said Graham. "Won't you let me get you something to drink?'
 Elliott sat down nervously.
 
 whisky straight. I do feel a little weak. Perhaps it is the late hours. And now do remember that thought the elevator started and stopped lit tie suddenly"
 Graham handed him glass of whis. ky.
 "You don't need that" said Vavin, changing his tones. with a smile "There's nothing the matter with you"
 "But I feel as weak as a cat" in- sisted the judge.
 Because I suggested it to you," said Vavin. You look the same as you have looked for three weeks. But I say you are i'll, and you feel it. And this young girl, not for five minutes. not for one afternoon, but fourteen. fifteen years, they suggest, suggest to her. and what suggestion? That she is like a mother who also ran away. Mon Dieu! When a strong man thinks he is sick after tell him twice, what of baby girl-impressionable full of faith7 Also you show her the moth CTS picture, and if she looks like the mother she is then to behave like the mother. Oh the crimes that good, ig- norant people make with their sug- gestions!'
 "And all of this," said Mrs. Win throp, Heads to what?"
 "The judge had hoped" replied Va win, ''that should persuade the girl to go back to that atmosphere-not if she turns a hand organ in the street! Lis- ten. visited once, to write story, a prison correctionelle, department of the Seine. There is fine young man, eye wide open, blue like a china doll. I asked this young man, What is your crime? Forgery from the bank Your family? Very good Tn pris- on any of them? One, an uncle.' What of him? I never saw him. 'Ah? 'Ah, monsieur. if I had only obeyed my mother-she warned me all ways: "You are just like your Uncle Emile. Be careful. be careful, my son. He went to prison."' Yes? For what cGimeY Forgery from bank Vavin paused signiti, antly. Then he went on: "All over this wide world good mothers say: Be careful of alco- hol my boy. Drink ruined your fa- ther.' And not alcohol, but that idea, gnaws and gnaws and corrodes. At first he can keep it from him by one little finger. But it is always there in the edge of his mind-always because 1t is his fear, his thought. After awhile not the finger, but the left hand, must resist 1t, then the right hand, then both hands to keep 1t at It's distance. Then one day the boy is weary in body or mind or spirit, and that shadow takes him. The struggle no longer is hereditary. Not an appe- tite, but a negative suggestion, makes him, too, a drunkard.
 ''This you have seen-that a strong man is i'll in minute, and only one man, myself, so tells him one after noon. What doubt must come into girls mind when a whole company tell her every day that she will feel so and so, that she will do so and so. That is not a bad heart, my dear; not something from the mother-just, a great law"
 linen you think I should play" said Dora eagerly.
 q cannot tell you," said Vavin.