Evening star., 1918-04-14

months'-in injured tone. You can
bet your life I'll dodge him. don't
And he didn't Memory Of his friend
Swanson was nauseous to his mind
a nasty spoonful from the bitter goblet
of the past.
It was Swanson who initiated him
into the losing joys Of pool It was
find street corners more homelike than
home Swanson's covetous eyes had
been the first to linger on that allur-
ingly lonesome limousine; and later
when jennings a bullet-eyed heuten,
ant from the central station, nabbed
him, 1t was the surly and annoyed
Swanson who was SO unwise as to give
some Zip" to that representative OF
peace and force. It happened that
Officer Jennings was not in the humor
In the day he had been threatened with
ten days suspension for neglect of
duty, and his spirit was sore: So he
Immediately cuffed not only swanson,
but also the sullen though submissive
Slimmy, who naturally felt much IN
jured. And a year later when he got
two long years more than Swanson for
an offense which both had shared
equally, that feeling Of injury returned
nightly intensified.
1t had never left him. The last time
that he saw Swanson, a little more than
a year and a half back, when two
silent lines passed each other crossing
corridors. one containing Sltmmy. sui
len and still, among its listless units.
the other containing Swanson. big
boned. sulky, vicious-eyed, not even
the bond Of common imprisonment SUI
feed to put cordiality into Slimmy's
glance of recognition. No. He did not
desire to meet Swanson outside-not
a whit more than he desired to meet
Jennings, or Judge Piokney. or Muir
ply, or Murphy's confrere. Burchkins.
or Jerry Hogan, the bull-jawed. testy-
tempered plain clothes gentleman who
Of getting confession from s1immy
Brightly Edward) Holick and George
Swanson by testing whether cell wall
would dent or be dented by their two
heads.
. Hogan had been drinking-whieh
perhaps caused that test to be more
vivacious than it might otherwise have
been. During the years that had fol-
lowed. Hogan's heavy whisky-fumed
breath and his own heavy. sore skull
noxious remembrance to Slimmy. And
the blur had spread to include Swan
son. To tell the truth. the sight of
his friend in that sullen, silent. striped
line was more obnoxious to Slimmy
than were the fifteen unfair months
that Swanson got out ahead. Prison
garb had not been becoming to Swan
son. 1t had seemed to make his hulky
form hulkier, bigger-boned, moro un-
couth; had seemed to bring out un-
sulky face. He sickened Slimmy's eyes.
The condition of mind of such one
as Slimmy stepping out Of prison back
into the ranks of the free has been
thoughtfully considered many. many
times by many, many men.
There Is no fctionist, dead or alive,
who has not wasted much good thought
and more good paper describing it.
Noyelists, playwrights. dramatists. es-
sayists and historians have taken num-
berless whacks at 1t. With its touch
ing grim-gray-gate setting, 1t has be-
come the short-story writer's grand
old standby when all other inspira-
ton fails. It has tied the eternal
ticians have brooded over 1t. Sociolo-
gists. socialists. physiologists. philoso-
piers. theologists. scientists, philan-
thropists. humanitarians. utiIitarians.
politicians and political economists
have wondered over it. pondered over
it. bisected it. dissected 1t. vivisecsed
it, held 1t up for discussion. for pity.
for contempt, for charity. for interpre-
tation.
Perhaps If Edward Holick had known
how largely and how interestingly he
and his situation figured in the mental
gymnastics and the literary pabulum of
the world. he might have walked quite
jauntily through those gates and down
lu0 tiIA-Auou IOduWt4y TO the SIAI1On
But he did not know. He had gone
only as far as the seventh grade at
school. So he simply walked fast, anx-
ious to get back into the outside world
and find out the truth or the untruth
of what he had been told by fellow
prisoners, in prison ways Of communi-
cation. with prison emphasis: That his
part thereafter in the game of life
would be that of rabbit, and the
hounds would never lose his trail; thai
though he had paid fully for his crime.
he could never pay for 1t in full; that.
mingled with hate Of those prison
walls, would be a strange sense of
kinship. of belonging to them; that
forevermore they would seem home to
him, a hatefuE home, a loathed home,
but nevertheless home: that he would
dread the recollection Of them, but that
he would find the outside world a place
Of dread, too. His record wou1 dhang
about his neck like a heavy stone.
Slimmy walked faster SO as not to
think too much about It. It might not
be true. But he could not help wonder
ing, though he had absolutely no desire
to see him, how Swanson had Jared
since he got out. Had Swanson been
bounded?
Well. he did not want to think of
Swanson. He could not forget the
repellent hulk of him, the vicious fea-
lures. He thought instead Of his sister
Bella to whom he was going.
He remembered her In the courtroom.
Ordinarily she was rather . good-look.
Ing Sirl. In plump heavy s}y1A But
then nha had went noiaflH $tfl hAP full