Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1913-09-12
Fathers Day Of Judgment
By Edith Barnard.

way of the house which sheltered the
dead body Of his son there was no sign
of fathers grief upon his face. He
stood awkwardly with his black felt
hat in his hand and looked with disap-
proval at the cheaply furnished hall and
long flight of shabbily carpeted steps.
Asa Cutler had come from the coun-
try within an hour. The journey had
been trying to the old man, but not for
a moment did he waver in the inten-
ton which brought hira to the city.
When news came of the death Of
Ralph he knew at once what he should
do-go to New York, rescue the child,
and carry 1t home with him, away from
the contamination Of the evil sur
roundings in which it had lived since
its birth. For the child was his, all that
was left Of his flesh and blood. The
woman, the child's mother, might pro-
test, probably would do so; but the old
man had yet to meet the woman who
could defeat his will. +
Ralph's death seemed to Asa Cutler
rather a cause for congratulation than
for grief. Asa Cutler had been q dea-
con for many years. The moral and ma
terial circumstances of the neighbors
all were of Importance; to Ralph none
of these things had mattered. His faith
er's keen avarice was as repulsive to
him as his hard morality and uncom-
promising bigotry. AT first Asa Cutler
had been proud of Ralph's mer tai abil-
| ity, and had given him such school,
ing as the neighborhoSd afforded. La
ter, when Ralph seemed to be out
growing his authority, he took the most
cruel means Of enforcing 1t, insisting
that the boy should stay at home and
farm, doing the work that had been
good enough for his father and that
should, therefore be good enough for
him. Ralph responded with his first
exhibition of recklessness. and Deacon
Cutler before long had to bear the ig-
nomy of his sons being known In the
neighborhood as wild, fast, and finally
as a drunkard.
When the boy begged his father to
give him money to go away and study,
the father denied him and bitterly de-
clared that a ne'er- do well could never
learn: as for painting, which the lad
had set his heart upon, it was well
known that the ways Of artists were
the ways of the devil.
When Ralph was missing, Asa Cutler
asked no questions. Thereafter his
elder son was dead to him. During the
years which had passed he had, in
deed, heard of him now and then; he
knew that his wife sent the boy money
and II he had been willing to ac-
knowledge that son of his was living
in what he believed to be haunts OF
vice, he would have forbidden her hold
ing any communication with him; but
rather than admit to himself or to her
that Ralph still lived he let her more or
less openly send him Inney.
It did not need the reports coming
from the city to confirm Asa Cutler in
his conviction that Ralph was ire
deemably lost.
AS a matter of fact. the reports did
not tell half the truth concerning
Ralph; talent enough he had and a
faculty OF making friends; and luck
followed him, so that there always
seemed to be money enough at his
command to satisfy his needs and
cravings. Vice Of the cheapest satisfied
him, and he followed 1t increasingly;
for years he knew no revulsion OF feel
ing, but in the course Of time 1t came.
Safety and repentance appeared to-
gether. BY that time his faculties were
impaired; his hand was not as sure as
It had been. Though his imagination
had not decreased, he found torture in
the realization that his conceptions
were far finer and greater than his
powers of execution, and his wasted
years revenged themselves upon him.
When he heard Of his mothers death
sudden loneliness overlook him and
he married The woman was grateful.
She, too, had been lonely; sordidness
Of life crowded upon her, and If it was
no less sordid with Ralph 1t at least
possessed an object. The girl had some
measure Of refinement and an intellec-
tuality which life's friction had consid-
erably sharpened; she took Ralph vices
knowingly when she married him, and
1t was her understanding of them as
much as her faith in him which helped
him in his effort to overcome them.
To Asa Cutler, therefore, his sons
death seemed but shortening Of years
Of evil living. He had not come to New
York for a last look at his son, but for
first look at his sons boy; and when
he was at length directed to a large
room beneath a skylight he had so far
forgotten Ralph that he was startled to
find himself in the presence Of death.
After a moment Of hesitation he
drew near and looked upon the face of
| his son. 1t was lighted by candles
which burned yellow in the glare of
daylight from above, and a crucifix lay
in the cold hand. Asa Cutler had new
er before seen candles and crucifix
with the dead. To his puritanical mind
these signs Of foreign faith were fur
ther evidence of poor Ralph's ruin.
On the white face the fiickering shad-
ows could not hide the marks Of dissi-
patton nor the ravages of disease. Asa
Cutler marked them all. He had not
known of the disease, but there was
no mistaking it's nature; the temples
were sunken. the face pitifully thin, but
the sight of it touched no chord of pity
in the old mans heart.
| The furnishings Of the room also
shocked his instincts. The cheap hang
ings of fiimsy cotton, the few much
used chairs, the easel on which were
thrown a woman's coat and the outer
garments Of a child, the dingy casts oi
a torso and of the Louvre Venus, al
contributed to the general untidiness
of the place Asa Cutters innate sense
of order revolted; nc looked upon the
cheap casts as upon the candles ant