The Washington herald., 1916-05-07
A Character.
BY JOHN ID. BARRY.
(In Three Parts-Part II.)


deficiencies of mine due to insufficient familiar
ity with hunger and cold. He even took a
sympathetic interest in my work. Now and then
he would suggest a subject always good one,
too. He astonished ME day by telling me
that ought to prepare lecture on "The Birth
OF Ethics and he mentioned books l might read
for the purpose. Our talk led me to inquire
into his reading and I found that for years he
had been reading the best books Nietzche and
George Bernard Shaw were his particular delight,
though they, too, had suffered through being
too steadily fed and warmed
l gradually acquired much respect for the
judgment of Fat that l asked him if he would
read the proof sheets of the book of essays I
was just seeing through the press. Sure" he
said. I'll read 'em tonight"
The next morning he brought them to the Of
hce He apologzed for coming so late, at II
o'clock. "You see, there was meeting l had
to go to and l didn't get back till IL o'clock.
Then l sat down and l read the book through.
I'm slow reader Jimmy and l didn't want to
miss anything Here's some notes | made.
Maybe you'll see something that'll give you an
idea"
In astonishment l looked at the mass Of notes
DO you mean to say that you sat up all night
to read those sheets"
Sure" Fat replied. That's nothing. often
sit up all night"
We went over the notes together. Some OF
them were critical; most of them were construc-
tive. suggestions for amplifcation kind of help
seldom given writer, the most valuable kind.
SO strong was the social instinct in the ma.
turc OF Fat, so deep was his love of his own
kind, that he escaped being infected by the bit
ternesS character istic of many sincere and
ardent radicals, always the alert~to find some
thing to resent. He willing to be friendly
with any ono, no matter how successful He could
love millionaire, provided they called each
other by their first names
Indeed, he felt such pride in his friends that
he could not nelp romancing about them, to en-
hance their importance. He considerably i'm:
proved the matrimonial chances of clever lady
we both knew, who supported herself, by spread
ing the report that she had a huge income, de-
rived from a deceased relative, and that she
worked from choice.
My earnings from writing he placed at
a figure that caused me to gasp in astonshment
Nothing was too good for his friends as he
showed by the feeds" he used to invite us to-
had mastered in his extensive wandcrngs. He
never told me much about his experience a
cook but occasionally he would refer to some
incident relating to them, such the feeding OF
costly decacies to a dog belonging to the daugh-
ter of President Of the United States on tour
through the country in a car where he was an
assistant chef.
He became indignant over that experience
| as he could be over anything. He really de-
hcient in capacity to feel indignation. The worst
epithet he could apply to any one "crabby.'
He liked to like people. If that daughter of a
President had once smiled at him, or permitted
him to smile at her. he would have loved her
and he would have loved her dog, too.
| The social activities of Fat last winter threat.
ened to destroy him by making him conven-
tional, One of those born interferers lectured
him on the practical Importance of wearing q
starched collar To the dismay Of his friends
who loved him just as he was. Fat suddenly .ap-
pearcd in condition approaching strangulation
| One of them tried to save him by lmploring him
! to go back to the old way, but he resisted. Dur
! ing the rest of his stay he wore starched col
| lar, either too small too large, sometimes
damaged, to be sure, but always more or les;
white, accompanied by black tie crumpled
that it protected him from the suspicion OF in
dulgng in false pride vanity.
! Now and then I would catch intimations o
somber passages in the career Of Fat, shadow:
not unrelated to transient occupying OF JaIls But
! his confidence in me did not reach far enough
TO provide me with particulars. He may have
been afraid of shocking sensibtics. kept ten
der by many years Of sheltered living. Ht
| liked, however, to discuss social problems witt
me and used to enjoy his Unconditional anc
shrewd point of view.
and refer with noble scorn to the vast number
of "succulent chops" I had consumed in my
| life, those chops being he up an insurmount
able barrier to a real understanding of thht
follow me out of the hail. walk up the street be
side me and say, You did fine tonight, Jimmy y
Once l rebclled you're always telling. me
did fine after you've made me ridiculous before
the audience. What do you do that for?"
WELL you see" he softly replied "Ive got tc
keep up the interest. You don't understand au
diences, like do. You're too quiet for EN- They
ger they'd 60 away disappointed"
In spite, Of the references to those "suceu
lent chops" Fat would frequently telephone tha
I he ted O1et 70 or tha
he might throw feed" into me.
During the course of the winter Fat met many
of the journalistic and literary fraternity. TIL,
result was inevitable. He became fred with thu
desire to write himself.
one day, 'if only knew how to put it over.
He thought seriously of going to university tc
take a special course in English composition
though he despised universities. But the pros
pect Of making tip for his defects Of training ap
paled him. Besides, his money was giving out
ITS back to the mines for me" he said one day
back to British Columbia must make, an