Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1912-11-13

Had he really ever tried to OYer
! come this monster? Had he not wait
ed for the propitious moment (Which
you and I know never comes) to
throw off this species from Hades?
It is all very well, when you are old
and dried UP, to turn to worries and
metals ard precious stones; but when
a fellows young! You can't shake
hands with an ivory replica of the Tai
Mahal, nor exchange -pleasantries with
a Mandarin's ring, nor yet confide joys
and ills into a casket of rare emer-
aids; indeed, they do but emphasize
ones loneliness. If only he had had
q dog; but one can not carry a dog
half way round the world and back, at
least not with comfort. What with
all these new-fangled quarantine laws,
duties, and fussy ships officers who
wouldn't let you keep the animal in
your s~tate-room, travelling with a four
footed friend was almost an impossi-
bility. To be sure, with
poOdles. And then, there was
the bitter OF acid in the knowledge
that no n ever came up to him and
slapped him on the shoulder with a
Hello, George, old sport; what's the
good word?" for the simple fact that
his shoulder was always bristling with
spikes, born Of the fear that some one
was making fun Of him.
Perchance his mothers spirit, how
ering over him this evening, might
have been inclined to tears. For they
do say that the ghosts of the dear
one r thus employed when we are
near to committing some folly, or to
exploring some forgotten chamber Of
Pandora's box, or worse still, when
that lady intends emptying the whole
contents down upon our unfortunate
heads. If SO be, they were futile
tears; Percival Algernon had accom-
plished it's deadly purpose.
Pandora? Well, then, for the bene-
fit of the children. She was a lady
who was an intimate friend of the
NEUROLOGICAL gods. They liked her ap-
pearance so well that they one day
gave her a box, casket, chest, or what
ever it was, to guard. By some mar
Vicious method, known only of gods,
they had got together all the trials
and tribulations of mankind (and some
of the joys) and locked them up in
this casket. 1t was the Golden Age,
as o may surmise. You recall Eve
and the apple? Well, Pandora was a
forecast of Eve; she couldn't keep her
eyes off the latch, and al length her
hands-Fatal curiosity! Whirr! And
everything has been at skies and at
sevens since that time. Pandora is
eternally recurring, now here, now
there; she is a blonde sometimes, and
again she is a brunette; and you may
take 1t from George and me that there
is always something left in the casket.
George closed the book and consult
ed his s~ailing-list. In a short time he
would leave for Port Said, thence to
Naples, Christmas there, and home in
January. Business had been ripping.
He would be jolly glad to get home
again, to renew his comradeship with
his treasures. And, by Jove! there
was one man who slapped him on the
shoulder, and he was no less a person
than the genial president Of the firm,
his fathers partner, at present his
ewn. If the old chap had had a daugh-
ter now. And here one comes
at last to the bottom Of the sack. He
had only one definite longing, a
healthy human longing, the only long
ing worth while in all this deep, wide,
round old top; to love a woman and
by her be loved.
At exactly half after six the gentle
man with the reversible cuffs arrived:
and George missed his boat.