Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1920-09-22

Set not thy. heart ON any good or
gain!
Life means but pleasure, or it means
but pain.
When time let's slip little perfect
Oh! take it, for it will not come
again!"
"Set not thy heart" And he had
set his heart on Sylvia as all his
good and gain--and lost! What
then? Only one answer could be
given. 1t framed itself, with singu-
lar mockery, cynical, derisive. from
the very words of the hymn he had
heard the girl sing in the Boggs
Court mission thesfirst night he had
beheld her:
II will arise and go,
I will arise and go.
Back to my fathers home,
l will arise and go,"
~ will arise and go." The words
involuntarily forced themselves from
his lips. Why not? Comfort, peace,
safety, all the pleasant and conven-
tional things awaited him there.
Reconciliation would be easy, yield
ing to his fathers will. He could go
back to Marlborough street, to the
| life he knew so we'll, to q mothers
! love, sometime to marriage with
some girl of breeding. education,
wealth. There would be culture,
travel. pleasure--all the usual things
that fall, as by some kind of pre-
destined beneficence, into the laps of
| those to the manor born. In time.
perhaps, all this nightmare OF ugii-
ness, pain and disappointment would
| be forgotten; old wounds would
heal; old SORROWS fade and vanish in
oblivion. All this, of course. must
mean surrender: must mean defeat
and crucifixion of the soul--but aft
er ALL why struggle against currents
too strong for human powers to
combat? Why not drift in comfort
with the tides OF fate? Why not
/ arise and go, arise and go, back to
his fathers home?
Deeper the poison of temptation
sank into his heart, which. reacting
from the padn OF his loss. from the
blank emptiness OF his future,
yearned for the easier way
II will arise and go." seemed ring
ing In his ears. ''Arise and go," 1t
echoed. as stern imperative. Al
ready ne was yielding. Then. sud-
denly. reaction came. The pendulum
of his despair. reaching the limit of
its swing, turned back again toward
other hopes and higher purposes.
Swiftly a larger vision dawned be-
fore his mind, and with 1t came re-
vulsion against the weakness that
had almost engulfed him Hands
seemed reaching out to him--gnaried
hands, worn hands, hands soiled with
sin and evil: hands deformed by la
Dor that had ended only in defeat;
hands brutal coarse. dirty: hands
emacjated and trembling:i hands
that seemed clntching upwards from
the Abyss. silently entrcating with
the supplication of despair. Faces
| appeared, looking at him with qies-
tioning sadness, with dismay, with
dumb appeal-rough faces that had
longed for better things, weak faces
that had hoped for greater strength,
eager and wistful faces, the faces of
his men. of old Jim, OF Mnggs Raft
ferty, of crippled Joe, 'of Jethro Law
less, the sailor, even of Dopy DAN
and these sad faces all peered at him
with still, wondering melancholy,
infinitely eloquent.
l. Bradford's closed eyes grew hot
with sudden tears, tears of renuncia-
ton, tears of martyrdom. The Ha-
ven must go on Even tho the tenn
pie OF his hopes had fallen, aspira-
tons toward the ideal of duty must
arise upon It's ruin. AS Albert of
Belgium, tainted by his enemies with
having lost all, answered simply:
II have not lost my SOUL" even SO
/ his own. Tho Sylvia now was gone
out Of his life, tho she could never
share this work with him, the work
! itself must still continue. AS q
memorial to her it must be kept
alive. Desertion now were treason
to her memory, base betrayal of
these men who had put all their
faith and trust in him. Life must
not mean retreat, cowardice, self-in-
dulgencA So long as misery and
want cried out to him, it mustmean
standing by the fight; it must mean
| winning thru to victory. To Brad
ford was borne in, as never until
now, the sublime ideal of self-sac-
rifice for others need; and with that
consciousness he knew the battle
with himself was won.
And at the moment of this victory
the spirit Of murder entered the Lit
tie Haven in the venomous, Shiny
person of Meiny agg-Meiny, in
carnation of every evil thing, Meiny
loved by old Stage because of his
unspeakable viciousness, even as
Bradford had been repudiated and
cast aside by Eliot Vinton for hav-
ing followed out the dictates Of his
conscience and his heart. Antithet-
ical to Bradford In every quality OF
body, mind and soul, this evil and
crawling thing crept, in on him
stealthily, to triumph over him and
set his work at naught.
! Soft-shod in noiseless shoes fitted
for such work as he meant to do
Meiny skunk in, reptile of the MAS
matte, green scummed swamps and
marshes of life. "A single glance OF
those evil eyes, thru the window
had sufficed to transmit ito that dis
torted brain the information that
Bradford was sitting there inert, ben,
over table-sitting there all alone
defenseless, open to attack. Splen-
did and unhoped-for opportunity! -
At the door Meiny paused a sec
ond, swept the prospect and found
it safe, His cowardly heart would
| risk no cha nee of conflict OR retalia-