Middletown transcript., 1922-12-02
| | l..

do not know why it should have |
astonished me to find that Miss Ap- |
perthwaite was a teacher of mathe- |
.natics except that (to my inexperi- |
enced eye) she didn't look it. She |
looked more like Charlotte COrday.
had the pleasure of seeing her Op- |
posite me at lunch the next day (when |
Mr.. Dowden kept me occupied with
Spencerville politics, obviously from
fear that l would break out again).
but no stroll in the yard with her re-
warded me afterward, as l dimly
hoped, for she disappeared before l
left the table. and did not see her
again for fortnight. On weekdays
she did not return to the house for
lunch, my only meal at Mrs. Apper-
thwaite's U dined at restaurant near
the Despatch oflice), and she was out
of town for n little visit, her mother
informed us, over the following Satur-
day and Sunday. She was not alto
gether out of my thoughts, however
indeed, she almost divided them with
the Honorable David Beasley.
A better view which I was afforded
of this gentleman did not lessen my
interest in him; increased it rather;
it also served to make the extraordi-
nary ddoes of which he had been the
virtuosQ and the audience more than
ever profoundly ineXplicable. My
glimpse of him in the lighted doorway
had given me the vaguest impression
of his appearance, but one afternoon
a few days after my interview with,
the office and met him full-face-on as
he was turning in at his gate. I took
as careful invoice of him as I could
without conspicuously glaring.
There was something remarkably
taking" as we say, about this man
something easy and genial and quizzi
cal and careless. He was the kind of
person you like to meet on the street;
whose cheerful passing sends you on
feeling indefinably little gayer than
YOU did. He was tall, thin-even
gaunt, perhaps-and his face was long,
rather pale, and shrcwd and gentle !;
something in its oddity not unremind-
full of the late Sol Smith Russell. His
hat was tilted back little, the slight
est bit to one side, and the sparse
brownish hair above his high forehead
was going to be gray before long. He
looked about forty.
The truth is, l had expected to see
cousin german to Don QuiXote; l
had thought to detect signs and
CLEANS of wildness, however slight
something little "off." One glance
of that kindly and humorous eye told
me such expectation had been nom
sense. Odd he might have been-Gad-
cooks. he looked it-but "queer?''
Never. The fact that Miss Apper-
thwaite could picture such a man as
this "sitting and sitting and sitting
himself into any form of mania or
madness whatever spoke loudly of her
own imagination, indeed The key to
"Simpledoria', was to be sought un-
der some other mat.
AS l began TO know some of
nv co-laborers on the Despatch, and
TO pick up acquaintances, here and
there, about town, l sometimes made
Mr.. Beasley the subject. of inquiry
Everybody knew him. ooh, yes,
know Dave Beasley" would come the
reply, nearly always with chuckline
sort of laugh. l gathered that he had
II name for "easy-going" which amount
ed to eccentricity. 1t was said that
what the ward-heelers and camp-fol
lowers got out of him In campaign
times made the political managers
cry. He was the first and readies
prey for every fraud and swindler thai
came to Wainwright, heard and yet
in spite of this and of his hatred o.
"speech-making' Giles as silent a.
Grant," said one informant), he hat
large practice, and was one of tn,
most successful lawyers in the state
One story they told of him Cor, a!
they were apt to put 1t, ION" him) wa.
repeated so often that 1 saw it hat
become one of the towns traditions
One bitter evening In February, the.
related. he was approached upon th
street by ragged, whining and shiv
ering old reprobate, notorious for tn
various ingenuities by which he ha,
worn out the patience of the charit
organizations. He asked Beasley fo
q dime. Beasley had no money in hi
pockets, but gave the man his over
coat. went home without any himself
and spent six weeks in bed with ba
case of pneumonia as the direct re
suit. His beneficiary sold the Ovel
coat, and invested the proceeds in
five-days' spree, IN the closing scene
Of which a couple of brickbats wer
featured to high, spectacular effec
One he sent through jewelers. show
window in IN attempt to intimidat