The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1934-10-13
The Amateur Gentleman
By Jeffrey FarnoI.

: closed the door upon them and stood
to watch the rumbling coach down
the busting street until it had rum
bled itself quite out Of sight.
/ INSTALLMENT ONE HUNDRED
TWENTY-THREE
A BAD place by day, an evil place
IA By night. an unsavory place at
all times is Giles Rents, down BY
the river.
II is a place OF noiSome courts and
/ alleys, Of narrow, crooked streets,
seething with a dense life from fetid
cellar TO crowded garnet, amid whose
CRIME and squalor the wall Of the
newborn infant is echoed by the
groan Of decrepit age and ravaging
| disease; where vice is rampant and
ghoulish hunger stalks, pale and
grim.
Here, upon a certain evening,
Barnabas, leaning out from his mar
row easement, turned wistful-eyed,
TO stare away over broken roof and
chimney, away beyond the maze Of
squalid courts and alleys that
hemmed him in to where, across the
river, the sun was setting in blaze
Of glory, yet a glory that served only
TO make more apparent all the filth
and decay. all the sordid ugliness
Of his surroundings.
Barnabas noticed that dirty chill
dren and gossiping women turned
very often to stare and point up at
a certain window a little farther
along the court. and he idly won
dered why.
Now as he leaned there, with his
earnest gaze bent ever across the
river, Barnabas sighed, bethinking
him of clean, white, country roads,
Of murmuring brooks and rills, of
the cool green shades Of dewy woods
full of the fragrance of hidden flow
er and herb and sweet, moist earth.
And, as he thought, sudden, great
yearning came upon Barnabas and,
leaning has face between his hands,
he said within himself:
I will arise, and go to my IA
ther!"
But little by little he became
aware that the clamor below had
ceased and, glancing down into the
court, beheld two men in red waist
coats, large men, bewhiskered men
and square of elbow. Important
men were these, at sight of whom
the ragged children stood awed and
silent and round Of eye, while the
gossiping women drew back to give
them way. And after a while, he
saw the latch raised cautiously, and
the door began to open very slowly
and noiselessly. 1t had opened thus
perhaps some six inches when he
spoke:
rs that you, Mr.. Shrig?"
Immediately the door became sta
tionary and. after some brief pause
a voice issued from behind it, a
voice somewhat wheeling ard
hOarSe.
Which your parding I ak, sir"
said the voice, which your parding
'umbly AK, but it amt, me being
a respectable female, sir, name o.
Snummitt, sir-charging, sir, also
washing and clear sarching, sir!"
HEKEUPON, the door having
Il Il opened to its fullest, Barna-
bas saw stout, middle aged wom-
an whose naturally unlovely look
had been further married by the
loss of one eye, while the survivor.
as though constantly striving to
make amends, was continually roll
ing itself up and down and to and
fro, in a manner quite astonishing
to behold.
Which my name is Summit"
she repeated, bobbing a curtsy and
momentarily eclipsing the rolling
eye under the poke of a very large
bonnet, Mrs. Summit, sir, which
though wilder I'm respectable and
of Ugh character and connections.
Which me 'aving only one heye amt
by no manner Of means to be 'eld
agin me, seeing as it were took
away by a act o. Providence in the
shape of another lady'S boot eel
sixteen summer ago come Michael
mas"
TO Be Continued