Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-02-10
BY S e GoLLoMB,

Author Of Master Man Hunters Master
Spies,' Etc.
TIME cat as a symbol for life, play
ing with man, its mouse, is q
thought familiar enough. Ger
tainly life must have felt that
way to John Graham, a farmer,
who lived near Gotham, England
Others, too, in the clutches of the Law
must have felt similarly about justice.
But what complexities the symbol In
Grahan.'c case is that while justice
seems to have played at cat and mouse
with him, it Is a question of whether
from our point of view it did not enact
both cat and mouse.
Physically and in the way of temper
John Graham was anything but a mouse
of a man. Generations of farmer stock
gave him a huge frame and the stnewS
and muscles to go with 1t; his own long
struggle to make an obdurate farm pay
helped harden that big body of his. A
more patient man than he would have
better resisted the effect of that struggle
on his temper. But patience was never
a virtue with John Graham, and he
felt a smoldering anger against the soil
he owned, that it should be SO grudging
to him when he put so much toll into 1t.
His wife, Jane, with her gift of pa
thence and her understanding how to
handle her short-tempered giant OF a
husband, helped keep a bit of tender
ness alive in his heart. GrahamiS was
a single-track mind. He began by low
ing his wife and kept to that track.
Then a daughter was born. 1t was
more his wife'S wish than his, but he
tried to make it his. too. What followed
was natural enough. Having a baby to
tend, Jane Graham could not devote
herself to her husband and the farm as
much as before the baby came. Most
men would have adapted themselves to
the change. Graham did not. All he
felt was that the coming of the child
brought him more work and less help
from the woman who had been a buffer
between him and much of life.
Graham grew more dour, shorter In
temper, more prone to use his fists in
arguing with his neighbors.
The child, blue-eyed and fair-haired,
had little to distinguish it in looks or
temperament from many other children
of English farmer stock. Certainly sho
cid not distinguish herself in winning
the heart of her father.
THE childbirth had been hard on his
l. wife and involved a trail of all
ments of which eventually she died.
UOIu1 OId1Ldlu 4C1b tl4C d"yCdl yOullSSbCl
alone in the house while he went to the
cemetery with his wife. His temper had
grown so bad in the past two years
that none of his neighbors ventured to
attend the funeral.
When he came back to the house
late that night the child was crying.
Many a night that same voice had
broken up his sleep. But now there
was no n to understand what 1t
wa crying about and to Soothe it.
He glowered down at the Squalling
child until the noise became too much
for his nerves. II it had been the
young of one Of his farm animals he
would have known what to do: as it
was he could only shake it angrily.
The ~youngster only cried the harder,
now that fear took the place OF hun
ger; then the mans anger frightened
leaving the child to solve its own prob
lens. But, although little Susan did
not keep him awake that night, brood
ing over the loss of his wife did.
Graham was too poor to afford a
farmland o. servant, and had TO get
up very early to do his work. He ate
no breakfast, and forgot about lunch
It was not until he got home that
the thought came to him how little
the child had had to eat. Now he
would have to play nursemaid In adj
ditinn to farmer, and he did it with
very poor grace.
TT was a. tribute to the toughness of
L her stock that his daughter was
able to survive 10 years with him as
she did. He gave her no schooling and
less tenderness. She could not write