The Farmington times. (Farmington, St. Francois County, Mo.) 1905-1926, 1915-02-05

germs"
And you can't see these germ
things, Granser," Hare-Lip objected,
land here you gable, gable, gable
about them as If they was anything,
when they're nothing at all. Anything
you can't see ain't-that's what. Fight
ing things that amt with things that
amt! They must have been all fools
In them days. That's why they
croaked. l amt goin to believe in
such rot. tell you that"
Granser promptly began to weep,
while Edwin holly took up his defense.
Look here. Hare-Lip, you believe in
lots of things you can't see."
Hare-Lip shook his head.
you believe in dead men walking
about You never seen one dead man
walk about"
Il tell you see EN-, last winter,
when was wolf hunting with dad"
well, you always spit when you
cross running water" Edwin chal-
lenged.
That's to keep off bad luck" was
iare-blpS uelenSe.
You believe in bad luck?"
Sure"
An you amt never seen bad luck"
Edwin concluded triumphantly. You're
Just as bad as Granser and his germs.
You believe in what you don see. Go
on. Granser"
Hare-Lip, crushed by this metaphysi-
cal defeat, remained silent, and the old
! man went on. Often and often, though
this narrative must not be clogged by
the details, was Granser's tale inter
rupted while the boys squabbled
among themselves. Also. among them
selves they kept up constant, low
voiced explanation and conjecture, as
they stroye to follow the old man into
his unknown and vanished world.
THE Scarlet Death broke out in San
Francisco The first death came on
Monday morning By Thursday they
were dying like flies in Oakland and
San Francisco. They died everywhere
in their bed, at their work, walking
along the street. 1t was on Tuesday
that ! saw my first death-Mlss Coll.
bran, one of ry students, sitting right
there before my eyes. in my lecture
room. ! noticed her face while | was
talking. 1t he'd suddenly turned scar
let, | ceased speaking and could only
look at her, for the first fear Of the
plague was already on all Of us and we
knew that it had come. The young
women screamed and ran out Of the
room. So did the young men run out,
all but two. Miss Collbran's convul-
sions we're very mild and lasted less
than minute. One of the young men
fetched her glass of water. She
drank only little of 1t, and cried
out:
MY feet! All sensation has left
them
After minute she said, I have no
feet | am unaware that have any
feet And my knees are cold. can
scarcely feel that have knees
She lay on the floor, bundle of
notebooks under her head. And we
could do nothing, The GOODNESS and
the numbness crept up past her hips
to her heart, and when it reached her
heart she was dead. In fifteen min.
utes, by the clock--I timed it--she was
dead, there. in my own classroom,
dead, And she was a very beautiful,
strong, healthy young woman. And
from the first sign of the plague to her
death only fifteen minutes elapsed.
That will show you how swift was the
Scarlet Death.
yet in those few minutes | re-
manned with the dying woman in my
classroom, the alarm had spread over
the university; and the students, by
thousands, all of them, had deserted
the lecture rooms and laboratories,
When emerged, on my way to make
report to the president of the faculty,
found the university deserted. Across
the campus were several stragglers
hurrying for their homes. Two of them
we're running.
President Hoag l found in his Of
fee, alone, looking very old and very
gray, with multitude of wrinkles in
his face that had never seen before.
At the sight of me, he pulled himself
to his feet and tottered away to the
inner office, banging the door after
him and locking 1t. You see, he knew
| had been exposed, and he was afraid |
He shouted to me through the door to |
go away. shall never forget my feel
ings as walked down the silent cor.
ridors and out across that deserted
campus. was not afraid, had been
exposed, and looked upon myself as
dead. 1t was not that, but
feeling of awful depression that i'm
pressed me. Everything had stopped.