Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1916-04-27

| the failure-the odd one"-of the
family. Born during that most danger
Gus and anxious of the early years,
he was an ill-nourished baby, and
grew meagerly. only lengthwise,
through a feeble childhood. At his
christening he was committed for life
to "Bibbs" mainly through lack Of
| Imagination on his mothers part, for
| though II was her maiden name, she
had no strong affection for it. One
day when the sickly boy was nine, he
| requested with unwonted vehemence
to be allowed to exchange names with
his older brother. Roscoe Conkling
| Sheridan. or with the oldest, James
Sheridan, Jr., and upon being refused
went down into the cellar and re-
manned there the rest Of that day. And
the cook. descending toward dusk. re-
ported that he had vanished; but a
search revealed that he was In the
coal-pile, completely covered and still
burrowing. Removed by force and
carried upstairs, he maintained cryp-
tic demeanor refusing to utter a syl-
liable of explanation, even under the
lash. This obvious thing was wholly
a mystery to both parents; the mother
was nonplused. failed to trace and
connect; and the father regarded his
son as a stubborn and mysterious fool,
an impression not effaced as the years
went by.
At twenty-five Bibbs was physically
no more than the outer scafolding OF
a man, waiting for the building to be-
gin inside-a long-shanked, long-faced,
rickety youth, sallow and hollow and
haggard, dark-haired and dark-eyed.
with a peculiar expression of cOunte-
nance: indeed, at first sight of Bibbs
Sheridan he seemed upon the point of
tears. To a slightly longer gaze, not
grief, but mirth, was revealed as his
emotion; but Bibbs never, on any &C.
casion in his life, either laughed aloud
or wept.
He was a disappointment" to his
father. At least that was the parents
word after his first attempt to make
a business man" of the boy. He sent
Bibbs to 'begin at the bottom and
learn from the ground up" in the ma
chine shop of the Sheridan Automatic
Pump works, and at the end of six
months the family physician sent
Bibbs to begin at the bottom and learn
from the ground up in a sanitarlum.
"You needn't worry, mamma" Sher-
idan told his wife. There's nothin'
the matter with Bibbs except he hates
work so much 1t makes him sick.
put him in the machine shop. and |
guess l know what I'm dom about
as well as the next man. Ole Doc Cur
ney always was one o. them nutty
alarmists. Does he think I'd do any
thing d be bad for my own flesh
and blood? He makes me tiredp'
Anything except perfectly definite
health or perfectly definite disease was
, incomprehensible to Sheridan. He
/ had a genuine conviction that lack of
physical persistence in any task In
7 volving money must be due to some
subtle weakness of character itself, to
some profound shiftlessness or slyness.
"Look at me-" he said. look at
what l did at his agel Why, when
was twenty years old, wasn't l up ev-
cry morning at four O'Clock chopin
wood-yes! and out in the dark and
snow-to build fire in a country gro
Gerry store? And here Bibbs has to go
and have doctor because he can't
Pho! 1t makes me tired! If he'd gone
at 1t like a man he wouldn't be sick"
He paced the bedroom-the usual
setting for such parental discussions
in his night gown, shaking his big,
grizzled head and gesticulating to his
| bedded spouse. "My Lordp' he said
'If the little, teeny bit o. work like
this is too much for him, why, he amt
fit for anything! It's nlne-tenths imag.
nation, and the rest of it--well, ]
| won't say it's deliberate, but Iwould
like to know just how much of it's put
onv
"Bibbs didn't want the DOCTOR" said
Mrs. Sheridan. at was when he was
here to dinner that night and l noticed
HOW lie COuluu cat any tuiuS. iIOucy
you better come to bed"
"Eatv he snorted. Eat! It's work
that makes men eat! And there's all
other thing you'll notice about good
health, If you'll take the trouble to
look around you, Mrs. Sheridan; busy
men haven't got time to be sick. and
they don't get sick. You just think
it over, and you'll find that 80 per
cent of the sick people you know are
either women or loafers. Yes, ma'am!'
Honey" she said again, drowsily,
'you better come to bed"
Look at the other boys" her hus-
band babe her. "Look at Jim and Ros-
coe. Look at how they work. Right
now there isn't harder-workin'.
brighter business man in this city than
Jim. I've pushed him, but he give me
something to push against. You can't
push nervous dyspepsiar And look
at Roscoe; just look at what that boys
| done for himself, and barely twenty
/ cayan wars old-ma rripd p0t n fine