Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1913-08-04

memory In q minute he jerked himself
UP and said. abruptly:
You wouldn't think all this happened
before my time. 1t did. though. l had no
business in It, l was sixteen at the time
and / was in a gang of civil engineers
that laid out real estate lots. Ine NC
Alister boy was water boy to the gang,
disposition like his fathers. His sister
sometimes brought him his lunch. and
that's the way l first saw her.
MY, but she was pretty! All eyes and
hair and little soft lips! Sometimes
went home with the boy in the evenings
and can remember old Jimmy McAlister
I-sitting up against the stove in rickety
rocking chair. with his cap on-in the
house. mind you-no coliar-dirty-naon
shaved for days-clearing his throat,
notwithstanding cigarettes and read
ling dime novels-forty years old and look
ing sixty. ] wonder If can make you
understand things when ! tell you there
we're eight other children in that house
There was no keeping them clean, and
there was no keeping them from crying
i--bawling and dirty and sWarmlng IKE
nasty little monkeys-with old Jimmy
hunched up in his chair with rheumatism
and rafting with catarrh.
He used to roll his cigarettes. I re-
member, with his dirty hands down De-
tween his knees, spilling tobacco All over
the floor. Then he'd shufne his Shippers
over the mess and rub II INTO the carpet.
And Edith would come along and sweep
to get it out.
| He'd turn around slow on his chair.
like a little, old sick animal OF some
sort. and glare for a full minute at hef.
| why aren't those kids i'll bed?' he
used to shout at Edith. BY God, nice fam
it? Eh-eh!'
"Then he would send one of the brats
out after a can Of beer. At that time
In lfNysvn SNFrr
from his brother. He got SO much :,
month. just like pension. Oh. you don
know how easily my mind goes back ana
gathers up all these little things! That's
why l want to tell you this story. I've
seen a good many Jimmy McAlisters in
| these later years, and the hatred OF the
one has lived in me against the whole
rotten breed-every one that has been Ike
him.
'All of these feelings did not come
upon me at once. of course. They grew
| slowly when they did grow. and they
never began until after I was in the west
two years. I went to Colorado when
was about seventeen, you see.
lat that time a curious thing happened
to me. [ was a lonesome sort of a fellow.
and I used to sit around evenings Won
Idering what / could do besides my read
ing and studying. Finally, it struck me
to write back home! And when it did
strike me it came with an ache of realiza-
ton that l had been wanting to do that
very thing for months and months. Then
/ tried to think of some one to write
to-; and finally l scrubbed short letter
to little Dave McAlister, the water boy.
In a month / got an answer. His
sister Edith wrote it. because her brother
couldn't write-had never been to school,
Neither had She But she had brains,
that girl
Again he paused in his talk but ii
was merely an abrupt and presumably
meaning less hesitation. l saw its reason,
however. when he plunged ruthlessly on:
"She began to unfold herself to me
somehow. then. out there in the big. quiet
places. At first she came lightly-lightly.
And l waited. All of a sudden l felt a
quick passion, passion of pursuit after
memories of her. At first the memories
had mostly to do with the beauty Of her
big eyes. the pretty softness of her hair
and of the way her lips smiled. Then OF
the way she looked in the tumble-down
house, in the kitchen full of cigarette
smoke and noisy children. Then. by
hints in her letters-for they came pretty
regularly in d little While-I let go OF
the memories and began thinking of the
human problem of that girl in that house
Can't you see how my hate grew? Touch
by touch got the picture of the father
before me.
MY mind was made up. He had had
should take hand at building things UP
not around him. but away from him.
Il went to Chicago and saw Andrew
McAlster. the generous brother. AND
formed a plan with him by which / paid
a sum of money each month to send old
Jimmy's children to school. / announced
that 1 was going to marry Edith! was
twenty years old and she was sixteen
l am surprised now at the suddenness OF
my act: I was surprised then. So was
Andrew. He shook his head and said
You can't do anything
"'I'N show YOU, / replied.
"'You can't do anything he repeated
I didn't believe it; but he was right
II sent Edith a telegram telling hel
what had done. and got a haH-heart
ed promise from her. followed by a long
what the main thought in that letter was
have you? 1t read: You can't do any
thing
DO you understand why 1 did not
beat him? Probably not But / know
now that you never can beat the Jimmy
McAHsters of this world. for here is
what happened. 1 was advised not tc
take the girl away from all those grow
would be left alone If she came away
Doesn't that sound right enough?"
He peered grimly into my face. ''But
right there is where I lost. I granted
the justice of 1t, and l went away again
for three years in the west"
He went on from this point in ar
apathetic fashion, cracked Of It's fervor
| lukewarm and idle.
L
shocked by an awful thing, call it sad.
ness. remorse, what you will. I do no,
know how to say it. except that Edith
that six years of the eight children had
been too much. She appeared to be
thirty instead of-eighteen. She dragged
herself about the house in wretched
miserable fashion. 1t was terrible In
the corner sat the miserable old cause Of
it. reading racing chart He was bet
ting my money on the races!
"'Eh-heh. Close the door after you,
he said, in mucous protest.
Il tried to appear pleased. You see,
loved her-and l had waited. I-my
hope
You must not expect me to tell yor
of the two days which followed. Two
days! She herself told me to 60 How
the mind wears and tears itself ovel
what turns out to be a simple physica
fact. Fear. anxiety. love. despair-the,
keep you awake and nervous for Ions
lRarefoot DAVIS