The theocrat. [volume] (Zion City [i.e. Zion], Ill.) 1914-1949, 1919-06-14
Reading
"The Man i'm the Shadow"
By Miss Lois Wiedmau

RCSC was young HAL, Id1HeQ carter SleWS,
full of ability and promise = the brightest
and most prominent of them all. Everyone
predicted splendid career for him.
Upon the death of his father, soon after
ward, aside from having the care of his
mother and two sisters, he discovered that
he had been left an inheritance of heavy
debt, which would take life time to clear
away if he assumed the burden. He
married and resigned himself to a life of
close economy and patient toll, determined
to meet every obligation as rapidly as he
could.
Gradually his classmates forged ahead,
some of them into high positions of trust
and honor After a time, he ceased at
tending the annual class reunions, as he
felt that he no longer belonged among his
old classmates who had become success
full in the political, business and professional
world and as he moved from one city to
another they finally lost sight of him.
While he toiled on through the years,
his shoulders becoming slightly stopped, and
his hat and coat shiny from his wife's end
less brushings, the hardships could not
remove fund of persistent hope and will
power from his heart nor the expression of
patience and refinement from his eyes.
When he came home one evening, his
daughter met him with a postal card which
had gone the rounds of all the cities where
they had lived, before reaching him. AS
he read it, his hand trembled little, and
then, as he tossed it aside, all the pent-up
disappointment of years sought expression
and he bitterly exclaimed: GIVE been a
miserable hzzle! Unknown and forgotten
Everybody hocks around a victory, but who
cares where the man is who failed to do
big things? Once [ marched in the front
line, but now I watch the procession from
the sidewalkp'
His daughter, approaching him and look
ing lovingly into his eyes, said gently,
Don't Fatherp'
Recalling himself, he looked at her. and
squafing his shoulders said with trembling
lips, "Well, perhaps we all have our COM
pensations"
"You are going to your class-dinner,
aren't your" she asked anxiously.
"No," he replied, "I don't think I shall
go this time. Perhaps next year."
ooh, yes, for mew she coaxed. "I'll
get your evening clothes. They're put
away"
He could not resist
When he appeared in them little later,
he looked at himself doubtfully in the mir
ror, remarking on their quaint style and
speaking of the happy times he had spent
dressed in Them in the days gone by.
Later in the evening, as he passed into
the room where the class-dinner was to be
given, no one recognized him. Several
prominent members were present who usual
11, c. IL. 1
the event was an especially joyous one.
During the mutual greetings of old class
mates and the various addresses of the
evening, he sat apart, unnoticed, grimly de-
termined never to suffer another such ex-
perience.
Finally the POSTMASTER arose and said,
Before we break up, wish to say few
words in memory of a man who is not
here"
The room became very quiet Perhaps
it was to be a eulogy of some classman who
had died
Twenty-Five years ago, after our last
college-dinner, there were six men in our
class sitting together under a tree in the
yard and talking about what we would do.
We said we would all be successful at
forty-fve. | was one of those men; Billy
DrowSon was another; Wright was there
he died the next year. Then there were
Lapham and Riggs. But there was another
He was a prominent figure in our class
the cleverest one of the six = very honor
able and good-hearted. I shall not name
him. He is not here. We all thought he
would have brilliant career He came out
of college and was married, and his father
died and left him mother and two sisters
and an Inheritance of debts. That cut him
off from the professional schools and he
went West, and I have found out that he
went into a business where there was nc
chance in the world for advancement. But
it had to be done because that offered a way
of bearing the burdens and obligations thai
were upon him. 1t was just like him Their
he had to take care of a wife and three
others besides
"His health became very bad = he used
to work sixteen hours a day sometimes
and when he was forty years old he found
himself very much out of order. Then
he came back East Part of his burdens
had been removed, but it was too late to
start life as he might have started it once.
He had burned out in the service like a
faithful, honest, well-nade candle His
light had been dim, but it had also been
steady. I suppose he is alive, although
don't know. But all Of us who knew him
best are sure that wherever he is, he is
still putting up "a good fight, and though