Year: 1872

DO W " HILL


BY J. B. T. MARSH.


In sliding down hill while boy, when
we started at the top we went slow
enough. We hitched along with our
heels, and scarcely seemed to move at all.
But once started we went faster every
second. Since then / have noticed that
there are a great many sorts of going
down hill, but that this same down-hill
principle applies to all of them-slow at
first, but swift and swifter when one gets
to going; easy to stop at the outset, but
almost impossible to stop when under
good headway, without q smash-up.


No one becomes drunkard all at once
ragged clothes, red eyes, steaming
breath, tangled legs, trembling hands,
beastly life. That is the bottom of the
hill-or so near that there is not much
hope of his stopping before he gets to the
bottom. No, he began as boys and young
men begin every day, by lounging around
saloon and seeing others drink. That
is start down hill. He gets used to it,
and begins to think there isn't so much
harm in it after all. Then he wonders how
il tastes, and thinks he will try sip some
time when he has a good chance. Now
he is moving, sure. Pretty soon some
OuC tIcdlS HILL IlC OAOC dnu luCh
again, and before he thinks of it is un-
der full headway. Or if he does think of
it he fancies he can stick his heels in and
stop any time. But in going down hill
there Is never so good time to stop as
when just starting. Of those men who
get to going so fast on the drHnkard's
hill that they drop into the saloon every
day or two for a drink, few stop and
turn back, the most slide right on to the
bottom.


A hardware merchant here in Chicago
told me very pitiful story the other day.
Two or three years ago an honest-faced
boy applied for place in his store. His
former employergave him a good name
and my friend hired him. He had come
down from his farm home in Wis
consin, a while before, to make his
way in the great city. If starting
work, getting started up hill is generally a
great deal slower. 1t was but a small sala-
~ he could get at first, scarcely enough to
pay his way at the cheap clearinghouse
where he ate and slept. By and by his
clothes began to wear out. He had not
been able to save money enough to buy
new ones, and he must mend up those as
best he could. But he had no scissors,
and so little money that he could not
afford to buy a pair. 1t occurred to
him that he might borrow a pair from
the store, and carry them back when he
got through with them. Nibbling around
that thought as a fish nibbles around the
worm on a hook-a fish would not get
caught, if, instead of eyeing and nibbling
at the worm wriggling so suspiciously at
the end of q string, he went straight by
without stopping to wish he had bite of
"a sl .. Ill
quite familiar to him, one day he took
the scissors, when no one was looking,
stole theml Little thought he on what a
steep hill he was startedi By and by a
lady at the house where he boarded
asked him to purchase some article for her
at the store, and gave him the money for
it. He slipped it into his pocket and car
ried it to her, but kept the pay himself.
Then, after little, he stole something
else to send home as a present to his
father and mother. His pilferings grew
larger and more frequent. Finally il oc-
CURED to him that he might steal goods
enough to start a store of his own some
where. So he hired an old stable near his
boarding place, put a lock on it, and
stored away there whatever he could
carry off unnoticed. He made strap to
go over his shoulders and around his
waist, with number of hooks on il, on
which he could hang the stolen articles
under his coat. In the hot summer
weather he continued to wear his over
coat to and from the store, the better to
hide these packages. When the clerks
laughed at him for such freak, he told
them he wore it to hide his shabby clothes,
and, believing him, the kind-hearted fel-
lows made no more fun of il.


All went finely for his scheme. No one
suspected that anything was going wrong,
and he got good name for industriousness
for STAYING so late at night-when he was
only waiting for the rest to get out of the
way so that he might carry off his stolen
load with less danger of detectioni But
what an anxious life he must have lived
afraid of every person who turned his head
to look at him on the street, dreading lest
the keen-eyed policeman would see that
something was wrong and arrest him;
never knowing when the boys playing
around the alley, and peering into cracks,
might discover the secret locked up in
his stable. By and by he had got to-
gether several thousand dollars worth of
these goods. He shipped them off to a
country town hundreds of miles distant,
gave up his situation on some excuse that
excited no suspicious, and away out in
Nebraska started his store. All had gone
smoothly, but it was at fearful down.
hill speed. Months passed, and one thing
and another came to light that wakened
the suspicious of his old employers.
They put this and that together and
concluded that he must have robbed
them. One of them started imme-
diately for Nebraska. As soon as he en-
tered the young mans store, he saw by
the color that came and went on his
cheeks the evidence that their suspicious
were well founded.


My friend sat down and chatted with
him of this thing and that. As he tried
to talk about these unimportant topics
great drops of sweat chased each other
down his checks, and in a few minutes
such terror had taken hold of him that his
clothes were wet through and through.
Then at last my friend told him why he
came. 1t was of no use to deny the
charges made against him. On every
shelf and nail were the stolen goods. The
sheriff was called in, pair of handouts
handouts which he had stolen-were
put on his wrists, and he was carried of
to Jail. To-day as l write, he is in his
cell waiting for the trial that will most