The Nevada County picayune., 1911-08-25
Copyright, 1910 by Joseph E. Bowles,

l Hill lighting With black gtraHe who was recitiEg Lincoin's speech about l government for of and by the people 1 to the audience at the high school 1 commencement exercises in the old smoke house at home.
 By no means had 1t been Fourth of July celebration-at least of the sane kind-and he was glad it was over And yet he imagined he would do 1t again, so jolly and kind were all the good people at the hospital in the days that followed while he was rap idly recovering from the operation and from the shock.
 Bill went home and in due course of time they supplied him with a sill yer jaw which took the place of the one that Cringer had taken out-a silver jaw so neatly and artfully made and fitted that Bill himself-to say nothing of his mother-would never have known the difference.
 Now, I will not be sure that it was the possession of this perfect silver l jaw that caused Bill to feel that he was little better than the other young fellows in the neighborhood; nor is 1t possible In the present un- certain state of human knowledge to 1 assert with positiveness that the mere l possession of a silver jaw, however 1 perfect Is an extraordinary warrant for prefguring ourselves the favor ties of capricious chance.
 But apart from the merits of such question. 1t will be desirable to note 1 that Bill was soon busy preparing 1 himself for the practise of law, with the ultimate object of becoming pres ident of the United States. or in any event d United States senator-the particular state he purposed to repre- sent not being specified in the con l tract.
 To be perfectly fair to Bill and to ourselves, I must admit that he was q trihe crude; crude, l mean, in his notions about the ultimate constitution of human society; which means in the concrete the peculiar opinion of their own importance entertained. as a general rule by the rich. Likewise he was preternaturally slow-so slow as to be virtually motionless-in his ability to distinguish, by surface indi- cations. the essential difference be- tween the very best people-the blue points and cherry stones of the human race-and the oysters that come to us in bulk by the barrel. And if you supply this broad conception of Bill with a rank tendency to speak out his mind-but you will see how he carried 1t with Angelique Van Loo.
 Now although Bill had managed to push himself through Yale, and to squeeze himself through the law school, and to edge himself into the privilege of practising law at the bar of New York, he was poorer at the end of 1t than he had been at the be- ginning. His silver jaw did not com pensate him for the want of golden mouth. ahd he was beginning his jour ney to the White House In the capae- ity of a grub-staked hanger-on In the office of lawyer who needed for his own use the clients that sifted down to him from the upper world or that floated up to him from tho under. Bill was about to make up his mind one day that he would return to hls fathers house in Connecticut when the mystic and magic spell that lay in the silver jaw flung him up at the feet of Angehque Van Loo. as she stood on the edge of the sidewalk, her hands clasped upon her breast, her face transfgured with terror and her eyes fixed on some indeterminate point in space
 As Bill approached her she turned and seized him by the lapels of his coat. He felt with strange cmo- tion the force of her neatly gloved little hands drawing him toward her. and he was astounded by the look O. distress and horror in her eyes, and by her frantic appeal.
 "Oh save her, Save her. won't you? |? Please save her! know shall die if you don't"
 He gazed around In the general di- recton of the upper stories of the houses and then looked down into the face of his mysterious beseecher.
 "You fool," she cried. "Why do you look around you like that? Will you save her this minute or will you noto Do you wish me to so mad?"
 Again did Bill take in the circum- yallate avenue and again look down upon his petitioner. He was a shrewd young man with a smattering of the law and he therefore refused to be drawn into careless expression of a wish that madness should seize upon anyone. But while he was craftily thinking of all these things she re- faxed her grip upon his coat.
 Won't you please save herr" she begged. half coaxingly. half sad.
 Save WHO?" asked Bill. the en- tire structure of his four years of English collapsing at stroke.
 She was looking at him by this time | wit rat fnwhaor ri