The Columbus courier. [volume] (Columbus, Luna County, N.M.) 1911-1920, 1915-03-12
HAPTE TX.

Christmas came to Misery wrapped
in a drab mantle Of desolation. At
the cabin Of the Widow Miller Sally
was sitting alone before the logs, She
laid down the slate and spelling book,
over which her forehead had been
strenuously %puckered, and gazed some
what m%ournfully into the blaze. Sally
had a secret Il was a secret which she
based on a faint hope. II Samson
should come back TO Misery he would
come back full Of new notions. No
man had ever yet returned from that
outside world unaltered. No man ever
would. A terrible ~premonition said he
would o come at all, but, II he did
Il he did-she must know how to read
and write. Maybe, whaA she had
learned a little more, she might even
go to school for a term OF two.
The cramped and distorted chlrog-
raphy on the slate was d-iscouraging.
It was all proving very hard work. The
girl gazed for a time at something she
saw In the embers. and then a faint
smile came to her lips. BY next Christ
mas she would surprise Samson with a
letter. It should be well written, and
every "hain't" should be an Isn't"
The normal human mind Is a res
ervoir which fills at a rate Of speed
regulated by the number and caliber
OF It's feed pipes, Samson's mind had
long been almost empty. and now from
so many sources the waters OF new
things were rushing In upon It that
under their pressure II must an fast,
or give away.
He was saved from hopeless com
plicatious OF thought by a sanity
which was willing TO assimilate with
out too much effort to analyze. The
boy from Misery was presently less
bizarre to the eye than many OF the
unkempt bohemians he met in the life
Of the studios, men who quarreled
g%arrulously over the end and aim OF
Art, which they spelled with a CAPT.
tai A-and. for the most part, knew
nothing Of He retained, except with
In a small circle OF lntimates, . silence
that passed for %taciturnity, and a
solemnity Of yisage that was often
construed into surly egotism.
He still wore his hair long, and,
though his conversation gradually
sloughed of much OF its idiom and
vulgarism, enough OF the mountaineeI
stood out to lend 10 his personality q
OF the crudely picturesque,
Meanwhile he drew and read and
studied and walked. and every days
advancement wal a forced march
Lescott. tremendously interested in his
experiment. began to fear that the
boys too great somberness OF dispo
sition would defeat the very earnest
ness from which II sprang. So one
morning the landscape-maker called
on a friend whom he rightly believed
to be the wisest man, and the great
est humorist in New York.
II want your help" said Lescott
Il want you to NEE a friend Of min,
and take him under your wing In
fashion. He needs you.
The stout mans face olouded. A few
years ago he had been peddling hi
manuscripts with the he~art-sickness o
unsuccessful middle age. Today mel
coupled his name with those OF KiT
ling and De Maupassant One OF hi
antipathies was meeting people VIII
sought 10 lionize him. Lescott reaI
the expression, and. before his hos
had time to object, swept into his 70
cital.
Al the end he summarized:
The artist is much like the settle
pup. II It's In him, it's as lnstinotlv.
as a dogs nose. But 10 become eli
cient he must go a-held with a stead.
veteran Of his own breed"
Il know" The great man. who wa
also the simple man, smiled reminii
Gently. They tried to teach me Z
herd sheep when my nose was itchin
for bird country, Bring on your man
want 10 know him"
Samson was told nothing Of the b,
navolent conspiracy. but n evenin
shortly later he found himself aittin
AZ a cafe table with his sponsor an
a stout man. almost as silent as hin
self. The stout man responded wit
something like ohurlish %taeiturnit
20 the halfdoEen men and women VIII
came oven with batteries. But late
nrhon the trio vas left alone, his fac