The Chanute times. [volume] (Chanute, Kan.) 1897-1913, 1911-06-23

omestic trouble, and by weeping "a
w copious lines in the schoolhouse,
OF the country vote lost his own
ward and went to the Legislature
here he was ION the inside" He
ot u good committee and was a lead
u of the group of politicians who put
lings through with rush in the last
ld of the session. Thus he came to
ave a little reputation outside OF his
ONE county, and went into state
,olitics. The Lord still seemed to be
.vay-some said to Kansas City,
hers to St. Joe and come back
Their the worse for wear. After
very big lawsuit he would lock him
elf in his Office and corn up, and for
, day or two would 60 about looking
rowsy and bad; then take a brace,
,at hold of himself, buy some new
othes and after having himself
,,rbered and massaped, he would APP
ear on the streets looking as fair as
May morning: but he had faraway
ook that made people distrust him.
}ut he wasn't punished. The Lord
apparently wasn't keeping books on
him. 1t doesn't seem to cost him,
linking of something else, and his
scandal with the young woman who
tent down to Topeka from neighbor-
ng town during the Legislature, had
egun to smell pretty rank.
And, some way, the bright young
nan couldn t come to the state conven-
.on except on a proxy, and he
ouldn't find even proxy to get him
nto the convention after that More
YER, most of his practice was in ad-
lining counties.
Some way, at home the juries re-
lsed to weep and his creditors annoy
ed him.
He got interested in a number o.
took propositions that didn't pan out.
md sold out some of his friends He
,cquired bad reputation at the
anks and changed bankers. He
wed lot of bills around town and
pots appeared on his fancy vests
But he was having fine time and
yhen business was dull, he would go
nuch to lie to women, so he tried it
IN men and was known as mighty
slick proposition. He gave his note
freely, kited his checks from bank to
bank; kept within the law, and If a
victim squirmed, the victim was told
10 test the matter in the courts.
And so the years wore on. Women
couldn't fool him, so he did not
marry; he knew when he was having
good time, and as he passed his
ortieth birthday his face grew hard,
his eyes shifty and cruel, his hand
bit unsteady at times and his friends
distrustful. They said he was smart
as chain lightning and they had
about the same feeling of security to-
ward him that they had for chain
lightning. For he was just as treach-
erous. He was Endorsed for a high
appointive Office, but his old trouble
came up and he was turned down.
An equity in the best proposition ne
had, went to satisfy a debt, because
he could not raise any money at either
bank; he finally married and the town
smiled and his clothes wrinkled and
bagged, and he shaved only twice
week. Then he grew cross and mean
after his sprees, and made enemies.
He appeared more or less in police
court lawsuits, and his outside-of-the-
country practice gradually dropped,
for he was found once or twice on
both sides of a lawsuit.
So, in the wagonette, riding to the
graveyard, the pallbearers didn't
really have much to say about him.
Each was afraid to speak what was in
his heart for fear the others would re-
peat it, They planted him both wide
and deep, and rode home in a happy
frame of mind, talking of something
else. And when his estate was figured
it was found in the Big Book that he
had neither friends nor a good name;
that he died stranger in a strange
land, in the very town of his birth;
that he blackened whatever he touched,
and that the only tears that were shed
for him were by woman who did not
come to the funeral-7the first wife, who
remembered him in his youth, when he
was clean and full of vision, before he
said in his heart, "There is no God. "
The newspaper containing his obitu-
ary came to the Gazette Office this
week. The article was headed, IA
Good Man Gone''-a true caption; but
he went twenty years ago when he
poked his toe across the dead line and
found it did not hurt. But now that
it is all over may we not ask; In the
contest between the Lord and Old