The daily Gate City and constitution-Democrat. (Keokuk, Iowa) 1916-1922, 1917-06-11

trains did not run at church time on
Sunday and his wife found 1t rather
far to walk.
For a long time / answered de-
mands for loans and by next mail al
ways received his check for the in
terest due me to date. In the most
guileless way he let 1t leak out that
he did not. underes innate the value of
his custom to me, since it was not
likely that any other customer of mine
paid his interest quarterly. and this
enabled me to use my capital twice in
six months instead of only once. But
alas! when the debt at last reached
81. 500 or $4,000 Ct have forgotten
which) the interest ate too formtdably
into his borrowings, and so he quietly
ceased to pay it or speak of it. AT
the end of two years found that the
chicken farm had long ago been aban-
doned. and he had moved into Keokuk.
Later. in one of his casual moments,
he observed that there was no money
in fattening a chicken on 65 cents
worth of corn and then selling it for
so.
~. Finally, If would lend him
$500 year for two years (this was
four or five years ago) he knew he
could make success as a lawyer. and
would prove it. This is the pension
which we have just increased to $500.
The first year his legal business
brought him S. 1t also brought him
an unremunerative case where some
Williams were trying to chouse some
negro orphans out of sT00. He still
has this case. He has waggled 1t
around through various courts and
made some booming speeches on It.
The negro children have grown up and
married off. now, / believe, and their
litigated town-lot has been dug up and
carted off by somebody-but Orion
still infests the courts with his docu-
|ments and makes the welkin ring with
his venerable case. The second year
he didn't make anything. The third
he made Sc. and l made Bliss put
case in his hands-about half an
hours work Orion charged $50 for
it-Bliss. paid him SIS Thus four or
FIVE years of having has brought him
S26, but this will doubtless be increas-
ed when he gets done lecturing and
buys that law library Meanwhile
his office rent has been $50 year.
and he has stuck to that lair day by
day as patiently as spider.
"s. Then he by and by conceived
the idea Of lecturing around America
as Mark Twain's Brother'-that to
be on the bill. Subject of proposed
lecture On the Formation of Char
acter.'
49, 1 protested, and he got on his
war paint, couched his lance. and ran
a bold tilt against total abstinence and
the red ribbon fanatics. 1t raised a
fine row among the virtuous Keokuk-
ians
30. 1 wrote to encourage him in
hts good work, but had let a mail in
tervene: so by the time my letter
reached him he was already winning
laurels as a Red Ribbon Howler.
I'll Afterward he took rabid
part In a prayermeeting epidemic;
dropped that to trayesty Jules Verne:
dropped that, in the middle of the last
chapter. last March, to digest the mat
ter of an infdel book which he Pro-
posed to write; and now he comes TO
the surface to rescue our noble and
beautiful religion from the sacrelig-
ious talons of Bob Inge1soll.
Now come, Don't fool away this
treasure which providence has laid at
your feet, but take 1t up and use it.
One can let his imagination run riot
in portraying Orion, for there is moth
ing so extravagant as to be out OF
character with him."