The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, October 21, 1900, Page 6

THE SUNDAY CALL. 10 the present age—twenty years—he has, and not unjustly, been regarded as an fdiot, for his judgment and reason and even gpeech rank with that of a child of two years. ng an affectionate nature, he n to the mem- return never og-like devot rds in his world harmon cadenc. wed, broken, w g, vet full of ty and stened I beautiful d s breath er undeveloped freedom made to He never had a it, blessed »ped to an the ehe t 11t were 1 with & memory whi abnormal mere r ter scrvice or the distant n ‘ 1t ¢ssing na of music, and fn his lmited . pourtngs T air with an # tim but seldom at e 1l of s his lips we resting upon an » in which » twisted our mo- nds Hght he n the context of the entire in- £ this boy. In intel- ment an im} ) and produce e ils upon hi the we influence over the child. Quieted in & mo- ment by melody, be it either vocal or in- strumental, a discordant note or harsh sound would cause the tiny body to writhe as with intense agony. Later, when the vears passed and the helple condition of this boy became apparent, the fact that melndies followed when his fingers touched the piano did not seem to cause comment among the members of the family, but was accepted as a matter of course. And the neighbors, who in this country of stock farm and frult ranch are few and far between, would 1sic of that foolish Blair lled him, but Instituted no Inquiry as to the cause of this phenom- n. In the course of conversation I am that Buddy has an inordinate love for flowers, birds and animals, fiylng into d paroxysm of rage when a horse or dog shed in his presence. Chancing one is brother, who was killing a chicken to be prepared for the noonday meal, he uttered a cry as of physical pain, and he hurried into the house, chattering and gesticulating. As he became quieter he rocked himself to and fro, looking at no one and for hours refusing all food. Actual physical debility follows this condition of mind. Consequently every- thing of a disagreeable nature is kept from him, and he now lives fn a world of birds and flow- essnices making him the pet of the family, the members of which are Intelligent and entertaining. Two of the brothers have until this last year been teaching school, and the sister, the only one at home. a bright, pretty girl, takes almost entire charge of Buddy, who obeys her every wish.. She washes his face, combs his hair and, tucking a snawy napkin dbout his neck, sets be- fore him his dinner, which she has cut for him, for though his ten fingers can exe- cute uvpon the plano that which would ta othera years to he taught, yet they fall to prop pulate the knife and fork; heseats his food after the manner of Adam. conveving it to his mouth by cern. i A preference for foods? Yes. He al- - ex on fruit and vegetables, but is fond of cakes and sweets. s we prepared to say good-by Buddy induced by the bribe of more candy s, but hiz mood changed now, of the last service At the Cross” was another hymn Rock of of his favorites. and this time ccompanied it with bis own queer listen to the n boy as they to! own with were fill- 1-by o sald go fragrant m arts were full of which bless you" as dear mother who- bea fully, a lvirg ample to the ent, discontented crmic. As we ped the corner a flood of melo rough went our way in to solve the solu- his compiex, imbe- nomenan 1 . QUIMBY. The Man Who woluld Wed ING for a wife, lde ose home is the Uniied States, has traveied $4,000 miles, visited more than ter thousand towns and elor ¢ a standing advertlsement ) rimenfal paper, and to » himself in his lifelong ques en a booklet in which he cooes rirg for a mate and tells some or those who may take an interest him. In its opening paragraph he thus s the reason of hils weary chase: “To have you understand better why I em a wanderer will say, once upon a time in the long ago I bad a sweetheart (dead now). / Met in school: love on sight. I was too bashful to spe “Ten years later she married ancther. Well, "tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all. Her memory has Kept me out of bad company.” Filled with that lonely feeling, even in the thickest crowds, he started on his travels, always going as far as his money would take him, pausing only to earn more. Searching femifine faces every- where, finding never a one which could take the place of that which he had lost forever by his carly bashfulness. The travel in search of a miate at last turned his passion from wife-hunting to travel for travel's sake alone, and he was willing at one time to marry any one who would bring him money enough to enable him to make his mileags reach the hun- dred thousand mark. 8o he continued to feel, until one day when he was picking oranges on the Pine- apple River {n Florida there came a letter and a photograph from the State of Washington in the opposite corner of the United States; an answer to the little advertisement in the Chicago paper. There was In the wording of the letter and in X ericas realesl Malrimonial TRAIN COLLIDES THE AAULE . ke the ger sides in the sleer ar o knows what station unty it is the name of the river is, never feels more sure what Stata he gt doesn't care where he is, as long as thers is a tip In sight Bu eo Then finished a season's k in esota and starts to float down to the gulf he permits himself t uxury of some bag- gage, and with a compant 1f he pleks up a congenial one, paddlés, salls and aritts down the meridians and es the parallels of tude There is 2 freedom n at ob- tains nowhere else. The are cosmopolitan, for they see mu passing, while the decadence river traffic has at the same t ated them from the Th t ns Is retu n, and al best. Fertility of soil conseguence of the flowing of friit and vegetables makes the farm- ers and one m. always have for the mere asking a bo the gardens and orc the willow veil Mr. Neff h: fssipp! an 1s supply from that Me behind the expression of the face something that promised to fill the void in his life. and away he went, walk canocing. REs- baating and by rall on his long way across the continent to meet the writer of the letter. He has just passed through San Fran- cisco on what may prove to be the last lap of his race for a wife. All is yet uncertain, for he has not that great suwide to short cuts and open sesame of Earrlers—money. It 1= 4 long story, this wife hunt of his, and now aside from his of money there her obstacle in way of his attalnment of his darling wish and that is his bashfuiness. That s the reavon that he gives his story to the public. Tt s not for all, for the one, that he fe that the avow on heretn- after get fort all be a declaration to the lady of his hopes, and in this way he tnakes the proposal that for a year has been hanging on his lips, which are all unused 10 amorouvs avowals, Like g0 many thinkere, Be fs hopeless as a speaker, and has so little egotism that he has never told even the inter- esting etory of hi« life which now appears for the first time in ptint. For twenty through twenty walled 000 miles, ridden 15000 on passenger trains and the same distance on steamers. and paddied 5660 miles in a canoe, making him- self the' champion In that line as well, The rest of the 8,000 miles has been va- rlously made on and under box and bag- gage cars, in stages, on bronco back, and even on the cowcatchers of engines, which last method was his favorite until a re- cent experfence put an end to his desires for that sort of excitement and nearly ended life and travels as well, This is his vivid story of that night cident: “It was on the St. Louls and San Fran- cisco line. T had a raflroad ticket, but [ like to travel for the sensations of trav- eling, rather than for the mere purpose of corporeal transportation. “Leaving Plerce City the moon was just aboat full, and the black smoke from the zine smelters drifted in picture-like clouds across its face. I did not care on such a night to be shut instde of a car, where all the world looks alike. Just as the train’ was ready to pull out I went ahead in the darkness and seated myself on the cow- cateher, well back under the extension front of the botler. “That is the best place of all for seeing things. Every object In range ahead of You seems to be flying straight in your face, and it takes some nerve to feel com- fortable there, even if nothing does hap- pen. It's like riding straddle of a cannon ball. ‘“We were going down an easy grade, with a long straightaway streteh of track in front. At the end of it was a white speck, which was growing constantly larger and seemed to be coming at me, a mile & minute. As we rushed upon it I saw that it was a white mule standing obstinately upon the track, while the whistle roared, the bell jangled double rings and steam screeched out of the cylinder cocks. “But the mule was a mule and he aia aot care. “I did. There was no place to %0 and no place to stay if the mule continued his mind to get suddenly aboard and with me. e “Never before did I make myself so small, as 1 tucked away in the little space under the projecting bofler front. “‘Bang! went the mule and my hat and cane over the top of the smokestack, while the traln went on with me, unimé The greater part of Ide Neff's adven- tures have been as harmless to him al- though less spectacular than this one: which demonstrates the remarkable fact that one may spend half of his life trav- eling and meet with not the slightest cident. Yet there are those who fear little ferry trip lest something befall them. Though Mr. Neff has tfaveled continu- ously and realized what has been merely a dream with thousands—the dream we hope to realize when our ship comes in— he has done it all without momey. He says that when vou want to tra way to do it Is to begin and travel start out. If you haven't any not let that stop you. liceman can do that if 3 mind to go, and no officer of the ever yet jald a hand upon Mr. he I3 a good man, and the constabulary are only looking for bad ones. Most of us are seif-manacled to a life which we detest. There is no reason wh we should not travel, except that we do not want to. We hamper ourselves by saying that we have our business affairs to attend to. Mr. Neff makes traveling his business, and he goes right on and attends to it. We would wait until we pack our trunks, or perhaps we have not one to pack and would have to walt until we got It. Neff has no trunk, does not want any and has nothing to pack In it. All he has is himself, and when he wants to travel he just puts one foot béfore the other and off he goes in the very way that nature intended him to do. If he wants to travel farther or faster than hig feet can take him, then he puts in a few days at work. which, by the way, he says can always be found anywhere in this much underrated country of ours by a man who Is really looking for it So when he travels on foot it is only by choice and for the reason that he wants to sce more of the country and its peo- ple than are on view from platform and des He carries no baggage, this traveler with £6,000 miles’ experience, and in that he is as was the great De Lesseps. It fs cheaper to buy than to pay freight and be incommoded by impediments He Is a miser, too, In his way. A miser in miles only. He cares mot for anything but niles, as the regular misér cares only for the-gol¥ Itself. When Neff travels he avoids shorgtlines, cutoffs and crosscats. The longest way round is the way that pleases bim best, for then he has more miles to add to his string. That is the only thing’ he carrfes with him. In his mind is the record of the miles and the events that .have happened as he trav- ersed them. Bvery day that he has been moving he spindsiin thinking miles, miles, miles. Some time he will write a book. That will be vihen he has traveled a hun- dred thousand miles or secured a wife. For he has a dual object, now that he has got so near the one without getting the other. There is one lirditation he has to his way of making hi€ juileage, though, and that is that until %4 has seen each and every one of the di nt States he will not leave his native Jangd. There Is a pa- triotic idea In that—spe’ desires to honor his own land to the fullest before he along’ the gulf, as far as Mobils Bay, by keeping within the chain of sea isi- which 1e the north shore of the gulf. It is not of his tr; talk, though, but the e story at is, the side tes to his search for a wif Strange how long one may b seek for that which surrounds every side. .He had many hur wers to his ad tle girls wrote to him time. Widow Romantic young girls which he held out in in the shape of “a h constant, who is good drink, smo) swear only nibbled. Some of young that their moth that they were out in Awful widow swooped with a paper chase, cor ters in a string, threatenir that he likes to aman inte part him buylng pos ) self against be woo ympe at least, love letter they must s of the shoals of ny three who e his “New Mexico girl,” 1 girl” and the “awful widow That was until he saw hi in Washington, and the purport of all this writing 18, in the eyes of Ide N just to tell that Washington girl with laughing eyes what he never can tell her when they are upon him— That he loves her,