The Beaver herald. [volume] (Beaver, O.T. [Okla.]) 1895-1923, 1917-05-10

of the queer experience.
"Why will you stay stranger to
yourself? Why don't you begin to
know who you are?'
The speakers words arrested his at
tention. II seemed as though she were
talking directly to him.
"'Know ye not ye are godsr As
long as you keep on, like the Prodi'
gal, eating husks, you will never know
Arise and go to your Father. He is
willing to give you all that you can
possibly need or want. But you mus,
go to him. You must claim your re-
lntionshlp."
Much more she said that seemed TO
thrill and light up dark corners In
the mans consciousness. After the
others We're nearly all gone he went
up to her. "AIay I-when you have
more time-speak to your" he asked,
"Why, yes" she said pleasantly,
"Can you come" She was about TO
name an hour the next day when some.
| thing in the mans face arrested her.
Right now?" she added. But wait
Have you had any breakfast?"
II was new sensation for him to
be ashamed to admit he had not. But
with this woman 1t must be the truth
So he told her. At once she took him
to the dining room. and asked another
lady TO see that he had lunch, and
| then to come to her. After his meal
he was taken to an upper room hand
somely furnished like combination of
study and library.
"Does It seem sure to you" he
asked, "that what you have said this
morning Is true?'
81 am sure" she said. "I have proved
It. If | had not l wouldn't dare to
speak"
81 think I am not the same man 1
was when l came in. It's strange,
you know-I don't want to be the
same man."
Then she drew from him something
Of his early life. He had left the high
school with great hopes of literary
success. His father had died when he
was n small lad, and his mother could
not afford to send him to college.
Routine work at q desk or counter
simply drove him mad. He was born
n dreamer, and he meant to put his
dreams on paper, and live by them.
But the stories and poems he wrote
came back to him. He did not study
the popular taste with a practical eye.
He would not make concessions, he
was not pliable to the general. His
relatives one and all united In giving
him advice which was to stop fritter-
ing away his time. and go to work.
"In the sweat of thy face shalt thou
eat bread" But as Ruskin adds: 1t
was not written, an the breaking of
thy heart" His mother had encour-
aged him, but when she died, and to
bitter discouragement was added dire
poverty, one day he tried to end II
all. but had been found before life
was quite gone, hurried under arrest
to hospital, and brought back to
the struggling, unhappy living. He
was hauled up in court, properly pun
ished and set adrift without kind
word, an offer of help. or the slight
est inducement to not again try the
experiment with better chances OF
success. She, Mrs. Berlan, the speak
er, did not tell him he was weak and
good for nothing, because he had lie,
himself become tramp and a dere
lict. She told him to wipe the past
off the slate, and begin then and there
to know himself. She asked him II
he was willing to work at anything
till he could get his start at his owl
work. Yes he was. The next day Mrs
Berlan found him clothes, and job
He also did some secretarlal worl
for her. One Sunday the pretty cir
and Mrs. Berlan was troubled tina
they were to have no music.
. "Wlll you let me try?" Trasl
asked.
Mrs. Berlan assented with som'
Q trepidation. Against her own teach
: ings, the lurking devillshness In hi
eyes made her fearful. But when on
r of Mendelssohn's "Songs Withou
: Words" vibrated through the room
played with fine feeling she sat back
a closed her eyes, and enjoyed 1t.
$ This was the way the pretty cir
!, and the man became acquainted. Sh
g told him he must write something, an'
e let her try to sell 1t. He insisted l
$ was no use. But something in he
@ made him do it. She took 1t TO he
e brother who was a magazine editor
Y and told him he must read 1t at once
a When she walked into the Office ol
e schedule time she looked at the ed
: itor and said: "Wellw
t "Where did you find it?" he asked.
"That isn't to the point. Are yo,
a going to print 1t and pay for it?" sh
@ demanded.
+ 81 am. And am also going to fal
o on your neck for bringing the story
;. Why, the man is genius"
n az SUPPOSE" she remarked, "that