Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1911-12-30

nance. One cannot lift the imagination
to the prospect Of pfcturing a Jones in
ruffies and high boots. pinking n varlet In
the midriff 1t smells of sugar barrels
roads. of stolid routine in the office and
of placid concern over the daily news
under the evening lamp.
Mrs. Jones. lovely. lettered yet not
worldly. had dreamed of her boy, bayed
and decorated marrying the most distn-
she might be. Mr.. Jones had had no dreams
at all. and had put the boy to work in the
shipping department little while after
the college threshold had been crossed,
outward bound The mother. while sweet
and gentle. had will. iron under velvet.
and when she held out for Percval AL
Sernon and decent knowledge of mod
ern languages. the old man agreed, if, Oh
the other hand. the boys firsts name
should be George and that he should learn
the business from the cellar UP. There
We're several tits over the matter, but al
length truce was declared. 1t was
agreed that the boy himself ought to have
word to say upon subject which con
cerned him more vitality than any one
else So. at the age of fifteen. when he
was starting off for preparatory school.
he was advised to choose for himself. He
was an obedient son. adoring his mother
and idoliZing his father. He wrote him.
self down as George Percival Algernon
Jones. promised to become a linguist and
TO learn the rug business from the cellar
up. On the face of it. it looked like big
job: it all depended upon the boy.
The first day at school his misery be-
gan. He had signed himself as George
p. A. Jones. no small diplomacy for lai:
but the two initials, standing up like dis
mantled pines in the midst of uninterest-
ing LANDSCAPE reused the curiosity of his
schoolmates Boys are boys the world
over. and possess finesse in cruelty that
only the Indian can match: and it did not
take them long TO unearth the fatal Sc
cret. For three years he was Percy Algy.
and not only the boys laughed, but the
pretty girls sniggered. Many a time he
had returned to his dormitOry decorated
mot in accord with the fond hopes Of his
mOther) with a swollen ear, or ruddy
probOScis or green-brown eye. There
was a limit and when they stepped over
that why he proceeded to the best of
his ability to solve the difficulty with his
fists. George was no milksop; but Perci-
val AlgernOn would have been the Old
Man of the Sea on broader shoulders than
his He dimly realized that had he been
named George Henry William Jones his
sun would have been many diameters
larger. There was splendid quality Of
pluck under his apparent timidity. and he
stuck doggedly to 1t. He never wrote
home and complained. What was good
enough for his mother was good enough
for him.
1t seemed just an ordinary matter Of
German verbs. He was far from being
brilliant hut he was sensitive and his
roemorv was sound. Since his mothers
ambition was 10 soc him Az ACCOMPLISHED
lirerist he ar~'; hi-rse'f 10 tho task as
f evervthin" in thc lid de0erded uDOn
il lust az he knew that whom the tine
came ne would aprlv himself as thor
o-ehly to tie question of rugs and car
rets.
TFn'er all this eta LOYALTY ra, tho pure
strain ~ Golden romance. side nv de
with the lesser metal of practically.
When Re began to read the masters he
preferred their ROMA ices tn their novels
He even wrote poetry in secret, and whe"
his mother discovered the fact che cried
over the sentimental verses. The father
had TO he told He laughed and declared
that the bov would some daV develop into
good writer OF advertisements. This
Quiet laughter unburdened as IL was with
ridicule. was enough 70 set Georges muse
a-wfnsing. and she never came back.
After leaving college he was given a
modest letter of credit and told to go
where he pleased for whole year.
George started out at once in quest Of the
Holy Grail, and there are more roads to
that than there are TO Rome One may
be reasonably sure of getting into Rome,
whereas the Holy Grail diversified varia-
BILE, innumerable) is always the exact sum
Of bunch Of hay hanging before old
Dobbin's nose. Nevertheless, George gal