Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1912-07-09

moves Personally do not think that
the annals of the poor are either
short or simple. With us neither the
duello nor marriage by conquest are
things of the past Men give or strike
because their hearts are touched, and
80 men have through all the ages.
The city, sir, is the very cream of hui
man existence. Here life cries out to
you on every corner. That is what
appeals to me, sir; here even an old
man may throw his cap into the ring"
We had been walking rapidly, and,
as we walked. the old gentleman be-
side me had Strengthened up, and was
pouring forth his torrential eulogy of
his chosen fad with quite unexpect-
i ed fire and rapidly; and, as he spoke
my wonder grew until for moment
almost doubted his sanity. But al.
though his blue eyes had lost their
mildness and now sparkled with a
strange youthful vivacity, yet they
were steady and their look contained;
so that the old gentleman, concluded
was merely an eccentric enthusiast,
joyously astride his rearing hobby.
At Second avenue we had turned
down town, and now as my compan-
ion concluded, he stopped me with a
large gesture before the dark door of
rather dilapidated tenement
Here" he said lis the palace Of
the pauper, the parliament house of
mankind's majority"
He dived into the dark doorway like
an aged, but nimble, white rabbit
Better keep your hand on the
WALL" he said, as I stumbled on the
first step. Some of us have been
rather short of firewood of late, and
we have been forced to sacrifice the
balustrade.'
did as was bid, willingly enough,
although, even through my gloves, the
wall felt dirty, cold and greasy; so
that at the first touch / shuddered
with repulsi T. For the stairs were
in almost total darkness, save here
and there, where some door, left open
on a small and tumbled apartment,
gave some OF it's meager and needed
light escape.
"You will notice." the old gentleman
called back to me over mis- shoulder,
that the higher we go, the more bal
ustrade we have. What heat there
is rises, suppose, or it may be
chance. We're making long climb,
J 1
floor. as I have taste for seeing the
customed to living without sight Of It..
This next to the last step Is broken;
you'd better skip It,"
He paused before his door a little
out of breath, fumbling in the dark
ness for the lock. When it had click
ed back, he still held the knob for a
moment.
Perhaps should say" he said,
that l have allowed myself to live a
little better than my neighbors. A
man, take 1t, has right to what he
can get in life" and with that he
swung the door open.
The room before me was the most
amazing one have ever seen. The
sun flooded into it brilliantly, for its
two small, white-curtaiped windows
faced the south, and overhead the
larger part of the ceiling had been
replaced by giant skylight, with q
rolling shade, like that of studio.
A single Bokhara rug covered the
floor The walls were lined with
shelves almost to the ceiling, where
books disputed space with bewilder-
ing miscellany; Oriental curios and
European objets dart jostled one an
other anonymously, and, here and
there, some cheap German or Yankee
gimcrack rested with all the impertf
nence Of smart and Interesting mod
ernity. In one corner large phono-
graph stood with great heap OF
disks beside it, while It's other side
propped big banjo, fretted and inlaid
like a colored minstrel's. AS we came
blinking into the room, three birds
futtered up from the Uttered center.
table.
Don't keep them in cages" the old
gentleman explained, chirping to them
as they settled on his shoulders. I've
never been able to persuade myself
bears tne z -