The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-06-25


 wanted only that which suited him most. Occasionally, just to add spice to life,
 he gambled a little. If he won he was extravagant in the masses of roses he sent to some footlight favorite, and
 more than one so honored thought she had captjvated the elegant MT. Bell
 wether. If he lost he forgot the fact or, at least, seemed to forget it. After the theater MT. Bellwether usually had two or three congenial persons at table with him. How long he remained de-
 pended largely on his mood or theirs, but
 when he or they tired of one resort they wandered to another. There was no thought of. going homeward while there
 were other places to go.
 It was a surprise and shock to MT.
 Bellwether when, bothered somewhat by
 an obstinate cough, physician told him his condition was serious and he would
 have to get out of New York and stay out.
 The physician was brutually frank
 "You've wrecked your constitution" he said For years you have taken no ex
 ercised turned night into day. poured enough liquor into your stomach to float ship and violated all laws of health while you have dawdled and | idled away your life Now you have | tuberculosis. Go into the mountains and
 
 chance. but only slim one. Continue | your present mode of existence a few more weeks and you'll be dead within | six months"
 M-. Bellwether had serious thoughts | that night of blowing out his brains | but in the morning he and his valet were northward bound and the few per | sons who received notes from him knew nothing about him except what he i sa'9: that he had been compelled to leave town suddenly and might be ab- sent quite time.
 Broadway missed him at first and then forgot him. Nobody is remembered long by Broadway, but MT. Bellwether did not forget. It was frightfully drcary for him in the hotel in the Ad- irondacks to which he had gone. He | lacked the frivolity he craved, the
 conipanionship to which he. had been laccustomed and the pleasures which had become second nature to him. He tried to find subjects to divert his mind from his dread illness and
 he endeavored to school himself to outdoor occupa ations, but ii was hard + vas difficult too, to sleep at night
 after years of sleeping in daylight. A
 month of the monotony of the hotel
 V .th only invalids for companions drove
 him to desperation More to take his
 thoughts out of the channel into which they were drawn constantly than with ideas of profit he began to speculate. He
 had plenty of money, so he determined
 to Itsk a trfle in Wall street. He
 was delighted to find this stimulating.
 H. stopped breeding and developed lively interest in all the news and gos-
 sip of the street. As h.; interest grew so did the size of his ventures. The
 telegraph office in the hotel mover did
 a larger business than at that time but
 one day there was a halt. He was ca ught in one of the convulsions of the market and nearly all of his fortune wiped out.
 MT. Bellwether did not whimper or
 whine. He was too much of a thorough
 bred for that. It rather surprised him to
 discover that with fortune gone and
 health shattered he was more eager for
 life than he ever had been before. He
 could not continue his precent expensive
 method of living, so he dismissed his