Mexico Missouri message. (Mexico, Audrain County, Mo.) 1899-1918, 1915-01-14
CHARTER TX.

O1Rrri En- ~.
Christmas came to Misery wrapped
in g 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 mOurnfully into the blaze. Sally
had a secret. II was a secret which she
based on a faint hope IL 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 not come at all. but, If he did
II he did-she must know how to read
and write. Maybe, when she had
learned a little more. she might even
go to school for term or two.
The cramped and distorted chirog.
Taphy on the slate was discouraging.
1t was all proving very hard work. The
girl gazed for a time at something she
saw in the embers, and then faint
smile came to her lips. BY next Christ
mas she would surprise Samson with q
letter. 1t should be well written, and
every "hain't" should be an isn't"
The normal human mind is res
erVoir which fills at rate of speed
regulated by tue number and calibeT
of its 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 it must fill fast
or give away.
He was saved from hopeless com
,plicatiOns OF thought by a sanity
which was willing to assimilate with
out too much effort to anaiyZe. 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 quaTreled
garrulously 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
Il
that passed for taciturnity, and q
solemnity of visage that was otter
construed into surly egotism.
He still wore his hair long, and
though his conversation gradually
sloughed off much of its idiom anC
yulgarism, enough of the mountaineel
stood out to lend to his personality /;
!sayor Of the crudely picturesque.
Meanwhile he drew and read ant
studied and walked, and every day.
advancement was a forced march
Lescott, tremendously interested in hi
experiment, began to fear that tn
boys too great somberness of dispo
1sition would defeat the very earnest
ness from which it sprang. So on
morning the landscape-maker callet
on friend whom he rightly believe
TO be the wisest man, and the great
est humorist in New York.
Il want your help" said Lescott
81 want you to meet a friend of min
and take him under your wing in
fashion. He needs you"
The stout mans face clouded. A fey
years ago he had been peddling hi
manuscripts with the heart-sickness {
unsuccessful middle age. Today me
coupled his name with those OF Xii
ling and De Manpassant One of hi
antipathies was meeting people VIII
sought to liOnize him. Lescott rea
the expression, and, before his hos
had time to object, swept into his r
cital
Az the end he summarized:
aThe artist is much like, the settC
pup. If it's in him, it's as instinctiI
as a dogs nose. But to become eft
cient he must go a-ield with a stead
veteran OF his own breed" j.,
Il know!" The great man, who va
also the simple man, smiled remini
Gently. They tried to teach me
herd sheep when my nose was itchiI
for bird country. Bring on your maI
1 want 20 know him"
Samson was told nothing OF the b
nerolcnt conspiracy. but one eveniT
shortly later he found himself sittir
Al d cafe table with his sponsor al
4 stout man. almost as silent as hiI
SELF The stout man responded vii
solneihIng like ehQTIish taciturni
10 the haif-d0zep men and Women vi
came over with batteries. But late
when he trio was lett alone, his ia'