The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1920-07-03

mean who have known the rags Of
want-the actual gnaw OF the unfed
stomach? I knew them and I rernem-
Der. am not going into details Of
how and why; suffice it for me to say
that one night I looked through the
un-curtained window of a room and
saw something good to eat on a side
board which was covered with glass
and glittering silver.
This room was in a succeed man
sion, which belonged to alter NIinshun
Dresslar. I knew that it belonged to
him. I was there quite by accident.
understand. There was a tempest Of
January rain and wind and I had gone
inside his gateway for shelter. 1t was
then that I saw the something good
to eat on the sideboar6 which weighed
half ton.
"A temptation? Hardly that. A
temptation implies a sense of doing
wrong. and a struggle against 1t. But
experienced not the smallest prick
Of conscience; I underwent no fight
whatever. I was starving-just that.
When a mans lungs are bursting for
air he gulps at any sort Of atmosphere
which chances to be about him; when
! a man is starving for food he just
takes the nearest. don't put up
defense, a justification; I state a fact.
The sheer power of the unfed
human animal drew me to the window.
There were two doors in the room. and
| one standing open led to another room,
part Of which could just see. was
wondering If any one were in there
when a man came striding through
| the door. He walked three times round
the immense dining-room table and out
again through the same doorway.
| Suddenly in he came again. Round
and round he went His face was
turned to the Persian rugs upon the
floor. There was as much blood in
that mans face as you will find in
marble bust. He kept moving his
arms up and down, his fists clenched,
as If he was striking something. saw
the ircn set Of his jaws, the glitter
| Of his eyes, which reflected God knows
what agony tearing at his heart. Sud
denly he went out again, continuing
his insane promenade in the adjoining
room.
This man was Dresslar. knew
him from his photograph which had
| appeared in newspapers. alter Min
shull Dresslar, the financier. I re-
membered recent whispers Of his diff
culties. Evidently those whispers did
/ not lie. Here was a man who found
| lip Of the gulf.
'I remember a grim sort Of chuckle
rising to my lips. I. too. had been a
| Spectator in a small way. Here was
another of them; foremost of his time;
one Of the great gilded gamblers of
New York City; here was the prismatic
bubble about to .bebcome a splash of
dirty water
The speaker paused, struck by his
own bitterness of tone, checked by his
own eloquence. self Inconsistencies re-
turning. Some one handed him a cigar
case.
At this juncture I noticed, with the
merest flicker of casual interest, a
stranger standing by a pillar well out
| side the group Of listening men. Half
in shadow, he leaned against the mar
BILE column and smoked a cigarette. It
was only the fact that he was a new
member Of the Oddments-to me at
least-which drew my momentary at
| tention.
The voice of Standish came again
"Dresslar did not reappear in the
dining room; but then he might have
| done so at any moment. He was. as
I said, in the adjoining room. the door
Of which was a trifie ajar. Possibly he
had dropped into a chair there, or
| flung himself on q sofa I tried one
Of the dining-room windows. They
had not been locked for the night, and
it yielded to my pressure. I pushed it
higher and higher. making no sound.
What did I mean to do? I meant to
snatch a meal from the sideboard; that
is to say, was obeying the call of
hunger, Of starvation. And If there IS
any man here who has not known that
CALL he Is altogether incompetent to sit
in judgment on the case.
III e wind romped through the win
dow I had opened and blew the cur
sairs inward. I climbed to the sill. It
| was Il ticklish proposition. I did not
want more than five or ten seconds
without interruption; but then Dress
lar E.'stt come out again before one
OF them had passed.
| I listened intently for any sign of
his temperance. Some one was play
ing a piano in a room above I did
not know that strange, that bizarre
melody at the time. I was scarcely
aware that 1t penetrated my conscious
ness; yet I recognized it when
heard 1t two years later at a grand
concert. 1t was the Ballade in G
minor. by Chopin.
! IT got one leg across the sill Of the
window then the other. Now or neveri
I dropped lightly into the room. The
sideboard was dozen PAGES distant
had covered half of them when
Dresslar came raging into the room
again,
II received a terrible shock. had
thought myself a desperate man, but
If the pluck of desperation had been
mine confess that it ebbed suddenly
and left me chastity afraid.
For a moment or two Dresslar did
not see me- He came striding round
the table and I was on the safe side
Of it. Had I dived underneath should
surely have saved myself; but a par
alysis OF terror kept me crouching
down. every nerve benumbed-
Suddenly he walked right into me.
] Ha sfaceared. ha almost sfeiI roza