The Greenville journal. [volume] (Greenville, Ohio) 1850-1918, 1915-07-22
CHAPTER I.
At Chaudlere'R.

At Chaudlere's.
Il was at Chaudier6's that Griswold
had eaten his first breakfast in the
Crescent city, and it was at Chau-
diere's again that he was sharing
farewell supperSwith cambridge of the
Louisianian. CNx weeks lay between
that and this " iorty-odd days Of dis
couragement aid failure superadded
upon other similar days and weeks
and months.
Without meaning to, cambridge had
been strewing the path with fresh
thorns for the defeated one. He had
just been billeted to write up the ba-
mana trade for his paper. Boyishly ju-
bilant over the assignment, he had
dragged the New Yorker around to
Chaudiere's to a small parting feast.
Not that it had required much per
suasion. Griswold had tasted for "a
hours, and If cambridge were not a
friend in a purist's definition Of the
term, he was at least a friendly ac-
quaintance.
The burden of the table talk fell
upon cambridge, and it occurred to
the host that his guest was less than
usually responsive, a fault not to be
lightly condoned under the joyous cir
cumstances. Wherefore he protested.
Whats the matter with you to-
night, Kenneth, old man? You're more
than commonly grumpy, it seems to
me; and that's needless"
Griswold looked up with a smile
that was almost ill-natured, and quot
ed cynically: "'Unto everyone that
hath shall be given, and he shall have
abundance; but from him that hath
not, shall be taken away even that
which he hath"
Bainbridge's laugh was tolerant
enough to take the edge from his re-
tort.
That's a pretty thing to fling at a
man who never knitted you or pistoled
you or tried to poison you! An inno-
cent bystander might say you envied
me-"
Il do" reioined Griswold gravely.
Il envy any man who can earn enough
money to pay for three meals day
and place to sleep in
"Oh, cats foot!-anybody can do
that" asserted cambridge, with the
air of one to whom the struggle for
existence has been a mere athlete
practice run.
'I know; that is your theory. But
the facts disprove it. l can't, for one. u
Griswold was fair man, with red.
dish hair and beard and the quick and
sensitive skin of the type. A red flush
of anger crept up under the closely
cropped beard, and his eyes were
bright.
cambridge scoffed openly; but he
was good-natured enough to make
amends when he saw that GriswolC
was moved.
II take it all back" he said. Il sup
pose the book-chicken has come home
again to roost, and a returned manu-
script accounts for anything. But
seriously, Kenneth, you ought to ge
down to bedrock facts. Nobody bu
a crazy phenomenon can find a pub
Usher for his first book, nowadays
unless he has had some sort of al
introduction in the magazines or tn
newspapers. You haven't had that
so far as l know, you haven't trie
it."
"Oh, yes, l have-tried and failed
It isn't in me to do the salable thing
and there isn't magazine editor i
the country who doesn't know it b
this time. l tell you, cambridge, tn
conditions are all wrong when a ma
with a vital message to his kind can
get to deliver it to the people VIII
want to hear it,"
cambridge ordered the small CO
fees and found his cigar case.
"That is about what l suspected,
he commented impatiently. "Yo
couldn't keep your peculiar view
muzzled even when you were writin
a bit of a pot boiler on sugar plan
ing. You drop your fool socialist
fad and write book that reputabl
publisher can bring out without con
mitting commercial suicide, and you
stand some show"
Call it what you please; name
don't change facts. Listen"-Griswol
leaned upon the table; his eyes gre
hard and the blue in them became m
tallic-"For more than month
have tramped the atreets Of th
cursed city begging-yes, that is th
word-begging for work Of any kin
that would suffice to keep body an
soul together, and for More than ha
of that time have live5 on one mes
a day. That is what ~ have com
to-; we of the submerged majorit.
And that isn't all. The wage worke
himself, when he is fortunate enoug
to find a chance to carr ais crust,
but serf; a chattel amoNg the othe
possessions of some fellow man VIII
has acquired him in the plutocrati
redistribution of the ea~th and tn
fullness thereof"
BaiAbridge glanced at his watch.
'I must be going" he said. 9TH
Adelantado drops down the river {
eleven. How are you fixed for tn
present, and what are yo1 going to d
for the futures"
Griswold's smile was not pleasaI
to look at.
"T am fixed to run twenty-foT
,n~ooe@~~SNN~~N