Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1915-02-13

memorandum to can up the Todd hos
pital- Prom the hospital he received
word that Mrs Whiting had gone to
Rose alley and asked him to follow
her Some one was dying He did
not wait for dinner, but hai1ing cab.
set out on another journey to Rose
alley.
He stumbled hastily up the gloomy
staircase to Romans door and raped
lightly 1t was opened by an unkempt
foreign woman, doubtless neighbor.
and he entered. Save for her the
kitchen was empty. But by the light
of smoky lamp that stood ON the
table near an inner door, he saw a
group dimly outlined On narrow
bed lay a huge dropsica1 figure, SEEM
ing to Mark already dead. The Matka.
more faded than ever. sat at the dy-
ing mans side. motionless as he, her
gaze fixed rigidly upon him.
Thank you for coming" Kazia said
I'm glad you sent for me- Is there
anything 1 can do?
yes, get Piotr He went away early
this morning and doesn't know. 1t
was very sudden You'll probably find
him at" She named a corner mile
or more distant. He makes speeches
there every evening"
U6 CdD came TO a MATT at . COIAcf
| where many people passed. A small
changing crowd had gathered around
| a man who from his soap box ha-
rangued them He preached a gospel
| that, beginning with a germ of love,
had grown in him into creed of hate
| 1t was a rambling incoherent ha-
| rangue, full of bitter denunciation and
vague generalities that never came to
| a point-the grotesque but pitiful out
| pouring of a feeble mind obsessed by
a sense of injury real or fancied and
cracking under the effort to inoculate
others with its venom Mark listened
a moment.
| THE man must be mad" he thought
pitifully.
| Piotr in his ramblings came to the
late strike. He began a roll call OF
the masters of the Quinby company
Quinby himself. Henley. Higsbee.
! And Truitti" The hoarse voice be-
came. If that were possible. even more
bitter. He fairly writhed as he shrieked
out his charges. "Truitt the wife
beater! The rounder! With his
women-," For several minutes he
raved on, RECALLING his audience with
an array of disgusting but apocryphal
details of Truths life that to his dis
eased fancy must have become proved
facts.
60 tell him to come here" Mark
| ordered the cabman. Tell him his
father is dying"
Jaw, hell!" growled big Irishman
| In the crowd, audible even to the cab.
Shut up! Truths tn only wan av tn
lot wild BOWLS t. him.
"Foo1-fooll" Piotr shook clenched
| fists at the Irishman. Are you taken
in because he tried to stop the strike
Who was he working for then, you or
| Quinby? Where was he when Hen
ley's strike breakers came to steal
your jobs and shoot down your women?
| Where was his money when your
children were starving for bread?
| Where
But the cabman had reached him
with Marks message. For moment
Piotr stared stupidity. trying to take
in it's meaning. Then he uttered a
wild piercing cry.
"Dyingi" He leaned toward the
crowd. hands and face twitching in his
frenzy. my fathers dying, but he
can wait while 1 tell you about this
Truitt. When he was starting out
he came to our house, because my
father took pity on him. My father
loved him, better than he did his own
| son. He watched over him, cared for
him, taught him all he knew Of his
trade. Then the old man broke. He
wouldn't have been old anywhere else
but he had burned himself up trying
to make Quinby's furnace bells pay.
They threw him out, of course-and
Truitt took his job. Truitt-partner
of Quinbyi The old mans heart broke
Then his mind gave way. And now
he's dying-do you know where? In
Rose a1ley!"
The crowd had become very still.
To them, too. the tragedy that tor
tured the mailman was clear; infinite
| terness.
And that isn't ALL" The emotional
, delirium reached its climax. I'm that
house was a giri-just an ignoran,
Hunky girl but the kind men love. And
J Truitt made love to her. But when he
, left us, he left her, too-another
: broken hearth To forget him she mar
ried a worthless rummy she had to
leave. Then she went out into the
, city to make her own living-you
know the fight and the price women
must pay or go down. And she-the
girl he wouldn't take up with him
! she paid"
, Bewilderment choked hack the
t stream of words. For man-whose
, pallor was not due to the gaeish arr
! lamp-had leaped from the cab and
2 was elbowing a way swiftly toward
. him. The crowd fell back to let xhs
i man through. then pressed closer