The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1913-02-27


respects at each hamlet, and finall,
crawled into New York only fifteer
minutes ahead of the limited itself
But every minute was worth dollars
and cents to the Office Striving was
accustomed to fast trains and hated
slow ones, besides he was not in q
very amiable frame of mind. He felt
overworked, below par
I'D Striving addressed the sta
ton porter who carried his bag.
"Sat?"
Striving regarded the man imper
sonally I'm tired. I'm sick Of it,
Yes, sab. what seat did you all
have, sall?'
Seventeen snapped Striving.
The negro led the way, deposited the
bag fussily and remained standing
nearby with the usual air of anxious
expectancy. His hopes gratified, he
expressed his thanks by grinning
display of white teeth and touched
his cap. Striving flung his coat and
hat up in the rack overhead and
dropped into seat number seventeen
sick Of it, sick of it," he muir.
INJURED, of the fight for money.
never cared for 1t, anyhow"
The train started. Striving was due
in New York at eleven. That after.
noon he was to try disagreeable and
respects at each hamlet, and finally
Of Appeals. No one knew 1t better than
Striving. He didn't feel up to it. but
he knew he would do it well. Every
one said he would do 1t well. That was
why the Office had sent him. What he
needed, he told himself, was rest; a
good, long rest out OF doors, away
from the sight of a desk.
The train acquired speed. and Striy-
Ing watched the moving scene; ele-
waited trains that kept pace for awhile
and then little by little dropped be-
hind; smoke-begrimed tenements, with
washings that swung id the November
breeze. between windows, from which
women scantily clad leaned, calling to
one another across dark areas which
the sun never penetrated; children
playing wildly at some game in the
streets and alleyways.
The city was left behind. A row Of
cheap suburban cottages followed,
each with its quarter acre Of land.
Striving hreathed more freely. They
we're getting into the country. The
country! He had almost forgotten
what 1t looked like. A dog raced mad
" toward the train, pursued it bark
Ing. factory came next, one entire
wall covered with huge letters in black
and white recommending wellknown
morning after" drug; then a corn
field, meadow, a silver brook, post
and-rail fence, ditch, an abandoned
raee-track, the grand stand tumbling.
grass growing In the unused track.
Striving noticed that scrub game of
football was in progress in the ellipse
where once steeplechase course had
Hourished. His face clonded; he had
ioyed. the sport once. He had done it
well they said. 1t was the only thing
Striving thought that he had ever
done really we'll
The speed of the train increased. 1t
passed rumbling over trestle strad-
ding small stream. On the opposite
bank leaves were burning. They made
great glare even in the morning
light. Striving watched indifferently.
ne was thinking of the Surrogate
court OF Appeals. In q meadow ahead
ne saw a mare and foal drinking at
Tiny stream of clear water, who sud-
denly, as the roar of the train reached
Them, tossed their heads high and went
galloping off, nostrils dilated, names
and tails flying. Striving imagined he
could almost hear the thoroughbred
snort OF mingled fear and rage. The
mare and foal were aristocrats, any one
could see that at glance In an in
slant they were lost.
Striving knew he ought to be going
over and over the printed brief in the
green bag at his side. What was that
tne senior partner had said just as he
was leaving? What aUds 1t? Striving
knitted his brows. Anyhow what diff
ference did 1t make? Oh, yes, now he
remembered.
Striving" the senior partner had
remarked, in that perfectly arid,
Dioodless way of his, Striving, keep
one thing in mind, and that is that
reslduary devise, il it fails, goes in
,estate Hammer EN-. Make 'em see
y, dye hear?''
&. Uh. yes, he heard. OF course. he'd
hammer em. But he couldn't help
thinking of that mare and foal by the
stream The mare reminded him of
ma ~, gypsy. How Gypsy could gallop!
Souiuu CdtCu ueT once Sn6 got
wen away,-and only fifteen one at
Ina, hardly more than pony.
The train passed into broad, open
country Striving leaned back more
comfortably. 1t was good to see the
great rolling fields checkered. with we'll
Kept stone walls and fences. He
Nmmed his heavy carry-all bag to one
sac and stretched his long legs past
me chair in front of him. Then he
yawned and continued to gaze at the
fully.
striving was your hard-bitten type,
oorh FOR the saddle, nice depth of
.hest, a narrow waist and lean, fat
.ees. Even years at a desk where cleo
srlc lights burned half the day had not
spoiled his gift of birth. His skin, too,
was hard still, and IL one looked close
most people did at Striving, one
saw saw It had once been a deep reddish
q. surviving yawned again, then opened
Tue leather case at his side and ex-
slac,ed bundle of papers and print
gu prlef some hundred and twenty
pages long He glanced at the latter
casually, disinterestedly at first, and
.neh gradually, with an effort, forced
Himseif to a final careful nerusal