The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1920-06-21


in blue velvet and white cats fur.
still did fancy skating at rink and
Hippodrome. The father sometimes
sat daxed and coughing in the chilly
waiting rooms of theatrical agen-
cies. Fortified by drugs and by
shabby fur overcoat, he sometimes
managed TO make the. rounds In
pleasant weather: and Continued TO
die rather slowly. considering his
physical condition.
But his father. who had so long
ago disowned him-the Rev. An
thony Quest-beine in perfect
moral condition, caught a slight
cold In his large. warm library, and
died of pneumonia in forty-eight
hours-a frightful example OF
earthly injustice, doubtless made
all right in heaven.
Young Quest, forbidden the
presence for years, came skulking
around after a while with a Jew
lawyer, only to find that his one
living relative, n predatory aunt
had assimilated everything and was
perfectly qualified to keep II under
the terms of his fathers will.
Her attorneys made short work
of the shyster. She herself. many
ceit in former years, and once hav-
ing stood between him and prison
concerning the matter of a sigma
ture for thousands of dollars-the
said signature not being hers by by
her recognized for the miserable
young mans sake-this formidable
and acidulous old lady wrote to her
nephew in reply to q letter OF his:
"You always were a liar. do not
believe you are married. ! do not
believe you have a baby. send you
not a cheque. because you'd prob
ably raise it--but enough money to
start you properly.
keep away from me. You are
what you are partly through your
fathers failure to do his duty by
you. An optimist taken at birth
and patiently trained can be saved.
Nobody saved you; you were merely
punished. And you, naturally, be-
came a swindler.
"But / can't help that now. Its
too late. / can only send you
money. And II it's true you have
child, for Gods sake take her in
time or she'll turn into what you
are.
And that is why / send YOU any
q I
that you are not lying. Keep away
from me, Harry.
ROSALINDA QUEST"
So he did not trouble her, he knew
her of old; and besides he was too
all, too dazed with drugs to bother
with such things.
He lost every penny of the money
in CUNTS gambling house within
month.
So the Quest family, father. moth
er and little daughter sifted
through the wide. coarse meshes of
the very last social stratum that
same winter, and landed on the
ultimate mundane dump heap.
Quest now lay all day across
broken iron bed, sometimes stupe-
fled. sometimes violent: his wife,
dismissed from the Hippodrome for
fragrant cause, now picked up an
intermittent living and other things
in an east-side rink. hTe child still
remained about, somewhere, any
where-a dirty. ragged, bruised, fur
tive little thing. long accustomed TO
extremes of maudlin demonstration
and drug -crazed cruelty, frightened
witness of dreadful alterations and
Of more dreadful reconciliations,
ened, more undeveioped than preco-
cious, as though the steady accu-
mutation Of dome horrors had
checked mental growth rather than
sharpened her wits with cynlcism
and undesirable knowledge.
Not yet had her environment dis
torted and tainted her speech, for
her father had been an educated
man, and what was left of him stu
employed grammatical English, Of
ten correcting the nasal, upstate
vocabulary of the mother-the be-
ginning Of many a terrible quarrel.
So the child skulked about. alter
nately ignored or whined over,
cursed or caressed. petted or beaten,
sometimes into insensibility.
Otherwise she followed them
about instinctively, like a crippled
kitten.
Then there came one sitting
night in that earthly hell called
New York tenement. when ; llttIe
Stephanie Quest, tortured by prickIy
heat, gasping for the Keller winch
the western lightning promised
crept out to the fire-escape and lay
there gasping like a minnow.
Fate. lurking in the reeking room
DenlnO ncT, WHtTt iuSb p"'
ents lay in merciful stupor. un-
loosed n sudden breeze from the
thunderous west. which blew the
door shut with crash. 1t did not
awaken the man. But, among other
things, it did jar loose a worn-out
gas Jet That was the verdict
anyway.
Pluris est oculatus testis unus
guam auriti deem.
But, as always. the Most High re-
NAMED silent, Offering no testimony
to the contrary.
This episode In the cnreer OF Ste
phenie Quest happened in the days
OF the great Admi.ist"sti ton an 40
ministration not grca' in the sense
of material national prosperity.
great only in spirit AL in things or
the mind and soul.
Even the carpenter. Albrcchf
Schmidt. across tho hallway in tn"
tenement, rose to the level or some
UNEMPLOYED spiritual stratum, for
he had wife and 1--WE children and
only his wages, and he did not work
every week.
"Nein." he said. when approached
for contributions toward the funeral.
81 haff no money for dead people.
l don't gift, ] don't lend. Vat y iss
dot Shakespeare says? Dor. neffer
borrow und don't peffer lend nod.