The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, January 3, 1904, Page 5

THE SAN FRANCISCO SUNDAY CALL. by T. C. McClure.) HE cattle were quiet Gerald slipped to the ground at a-safe dis- ce and eased the iches to give the black pony a breath- A rim of d wid- the sky me rushing cool is hot brow. How s ago, when r -'neath the In place of silvered One -night in a swered “yes” to ut .there on the San Marco. He re- ad watched the as it toiled up inessage—the message e- sweetness from thé #ht, hushed the music alive to onl = was on the way ly. a brief note, I v the wrong womanhood ving brain, v It ‘had all & with the pit- himself* as sole e long days when ev- d the wrong that had men and helpl his dness of specule his father, seemed tc HEY had been telli ghost .s*ories veranda of the house,. anl Wilson whercin & man, tak- ing refuge in an old hoyse .from a storm, hed felt the pree —~o-cf horrible, black- draped figures movin abo- him, and ng & lghtning flash the hideous! distorted pressed sgainst the window. ‘Wilson i he knew this to beé true, because was -a. chum of his and had from fright. There was the tale, broken only by f icé In the long glasses, and d passing down many had- seen @ face of & ‘woman to know,” commented that ghosts are always 1. They are- never hatty. and famillar ex- den book Dapperly as he cocked his legs on -the ralling: “That’'s all you know You ridicule ghosts generally, because you only hear the highly col- ored stories of people ‘who run away before they really get acquainted with the specters. They are not such fools as they look, and I know what I am telling about. I met one last March, and he was as pleasant and sensible as you please. You remember when Raeburn was married last epring? -Of course I. hed a bid to his good-by dinner. 1 was living in Jersey then— Bathinghurat-in-the-Pines, nee Jones- ville. It was after 12 when I caught the owl train from ‘town, and consid- erably later when I walked up the main street. b “There 18 a whort cut to my house st an old church and & graveyard. 1 4idn’t particularly care for grave- yar Jate at night—not afraid, you know, but they are sort of ghoulish and creepy, and I wouldn’t have taken this cut only I was. in & hurry to get home. However, the place seemed quiet and ful enough. The gravestones g out white in the ~moonlight the nearest to spectral forms I saw until I reached the en- wce gate. Near that is an old-fash- ned table stone—slab - on four legs, u know—and I tell you, boys, the hills played tag up and down my ck when 1 saw sitting on it the fig- re of an old gentleman clad in a by< e fashion and having a sort of white k gathered around his shoulders, “The figure was translucent, with a mery whiteness caused by the re- flected light from the stone beneath. « enough, 1 could read the in- scription on the stone right through it: Stlas Stubbs, departed this life Decem- ber 2, 1845.° “He was rather short, was Stubbs. His legs were curled up and his arms folded about him as though he were chilly. Waves of cold were rippling over him just like wind over a wheat- field” stand were had just ended one, “they are over there—half a dozen like Jake, all mad with the mescal—and they go to rob the Anguilla stage when it passes Antelop: Run. Senor, they will they’ll kill me when they find I've i; but Caracas Johnny came in t ightfall from up above, and told he got a message, while at An- guilla, in cipher from a pal of his in Santa Fe, and it sald there was Gov- 1ent gold a comin’ through, and t there was a woman, too, who was and had money along with her. ve got it all planned how to do r and the guards, and Ca- iy is to have the woman. - the love of the mother that you get out your men and save r kill her. Don't let that devil .. It's -twenty miles to Ante- Run, but ike and the boys tart till midnight, and they'll be drunk with the n e “And how about you?” asked Gerald. Juana gathered her blanket closer. “Sengr, if you let Jake come back, he will know I told you; then God and Our Lady have mercy,” and the squat figure slipped away into the night. He not question the truth of the woman” states nt. There was work for the Blue Star outfit at Antelope’s Run. It worried him, that this should e come just as they needed all their est ‘men for the big drive; but where a woman's honor 1ld be r Ten was at stake, there question of cattle minutes of hurried galloping to and Gerald led off his cattle ing a half dozen,” out the s they shot up the Santa Fe s watch showed 11 o’clock by the s rays. . swift poniés laid down to ‘their and the earth rolled back their hoofs, as they in the trot bver miles sage dog vork be- ry where the foothills. . where it its lair his watch. The clock, and they an hour to wait. » the men Boys, we i meet them; then there e of their getting us no his sign of C; men: but, as would be likely 1til the last men rode trail to a point about ond the run. Then d waited antil they of wheels and the thud clattered > trail. T were two gus with their rifles cock- Mnees. Gerald rode i as he raised his hand a bul- t, as the stage the outside ross their ' DAPPERLY’S GHOST -»+=. . watonr let whistled by his head. “Don’t fire; there’s trouble ahead of you,” and the driver pull- ed up sharply. A few words explained the situation. One of the hS ‘guards went to the door and talked with some- one inside; then the word was given to move on. Gerald and his men rode fust behind, their Win- chesters ready. . Seemingly the road was clear. Gerald almost doubted if Juana had told the truth. But suddenly the shadows were alive with men, that sprang at the bridles of the leaders, cutting the traces; from all sides the hooting, yelling, drink-crazed MeXicans swarm- ed llke wasps. There were more of them than Juana had said, and as Gerald 1ged into the taick it he made straight s Johnny! It work for the rifles—a hand-to- hand duel with the terrible knives. Short, seribably brutal, a bare five minutes and ‘t over; but one of Ger- ald’s men would ® ride no more, and Gerald himseif as bleeding pr ) from an ugly had searched heart. Thanks to the mescal Johnny's alm was bad, and John- days e in conse- Jake lay be- neath his pony a lifeless heap from which Juana had nothing to fear. But the guards were all but hacked to death where they had fought to protect thelr treasure bags. Gerald leaned against the black pony, faint from loss of blood, but fighting it off, ‘while he saw that those of the Mexicans that did not get away were safely bound. With the last knot tied, the dead and- wounded were to be disposed of. It was gray dawn when at last the stage was ready to go on to An- guilla, Gerald had fancied that a smoth- ered scream came from the stage when the fighting began. Since then it had been quiet inside, but as he tried to mount the pony he was not surorised to hear a woman's voice, She came toward him through the g light — tall, v “Oh, come now,” interrupted Hurley: 1 don’t mean to tell us you noticed that as you stood there.” “Certainly not,” returned Dapperly, erward I recalled how he look- At the time I was too paralyzed h fright to take any conscious in- ntory of these details, but just stood “but af ed old man didn’t like this a bit, and ed up like a turkey cock. ‘Well, sir,” he said, ‘may I ask what 1 see strange in my appearance that stare llke that? In my day, young it was not considered polite.” I wasn't good for much, but I was able to m>'ter something about no of- being intended. Oh, very well,’” answered he. ‘T'll no more about it. I'm a bit testy, perhaps. ““It's right chilly, and that's a fact,’ he said.-drawing his legs up closer and hugging h 1f the tighter, ‘and I wish the directors of this City of Peace would be a little more careful about the .drainage. Last Faiday the rain leaked in on me so that when mid- night came I was positively glad to climb up out of the wet and sit on this stone of mine. If people only knew what a convenient form of monument this was there would be more of them put up, I can tell you. You can sit on it or under it, and the only improve- m I can suggest is a cushion. When the only seat a man can call his is the sharp edge of a stone, why he wants all the trimmings. Then, too, it's often chilly,’ he added, coughing violently. “He seemed such a chatty old party that T felt quite easy with him by this time, and suggested that it was rather imprudent in him to be out without an overcoat. ‘I shouldn’t think,’ I added, ‘that you ought to be out in the night alr any way, at your age.’ “ T can't help it,” said he. ‘You ought to know well enough that at 12 precise- ly “churchyards yawn and graves give up their dead.” Shakespeare called it a witching hour, but I'll wager he don’t think so now—unless he's got hold of something good in the haunting line. It's the biggest plece of foolishness I know of,’ he burst out impatiently. “Just take my case. Sixty years ago I was a decent, respectable merchant, brought up to rise early and go to bed early. After I had my supper I read the paper and then locked up, put on my nightcap and slept. And yet here am 1, by gravy, obliged to get out of a comfortable grave at the dead of night and sit around until an infernal rooster crows in the dairy around the corner. I'm growing sick and tired of it, I can tell you. I might get a doze here once in a while if it were not for that blamed club yonder. He pointed to a large family vault as he spoke. “‘Is that a club? I asked. ‘I thought it belonged to the Grogginses.’ “ It used to be, but the present Grog- ginses thought the place untashionable and moved the old ones off to Cedar Hill, and there were no takers for the old vault.’ ng on to the gatepost and staring.- “‘And who belongs to the club? I ked. ‘They call themselves choice spir- but I don’t like such choiceness. some its, They raise the devil in there nights, I've heard ’em say, and gamble thelr souls away. Don’'t you hear the rattle of the bones?’ “I listened and thought I heard a fa- miliar sound. “ ‘I don’t object to cards,’ the old boy went on, ‘though I never play myself, bein’ a Presbyterian and a deacon, and I've often lent my stone for a quiet game of whist or casino—but further than that I don’t go.’ “A cold breeze whispered through the weeping willows around, and the poor old gentleman shivered so he became a mere blur. “‘I wish I was a hunter, I do,’ he said when he had rectified his outlines, ‘but I've no friends nor relatives living and no home in consequence.’ He sort of choked here, and his ton. was so sor- rowful that even I could hardly keep from weeping. It seemed a sad and Icnely thing. “I hated to bother him in his sorrow, but I really wanted to know, so I asked him if he was compelled to haunt only rdatives. “‘Unless you have an hereditary ghostship for a term of years,’ he re- plled. ‘We used to have some condi- tional limitation ghosts, but they’'ve dropped off. Ghostships limited to end on the happening of some condition—- such as finding buried money, or burial of one's bones in consecrated ground, or the—' “Just then way off somewhere a cock began to crow, and as true as I am sitting here on this ver- % OU are hurrying along a narrow street, intent on some errand, when suddenly a form looms up big, bulky, unyielding. Right in your path, it at once arrests your progress. The man acts as if the street belonged to him alone. You have to back and tack and’if finally, after a long detour, you succeed in getting around him you are delayed quite a bit in your journey and the “blocker” gazes at you resentfully, as he resumes his wonted position in the middle of the way. The big, obstinate man in the mid- dle of the narrow street is the type of the individuals who make a point of interposing objections and obsta- cles to every progressive step. Now the radical needs the conservative perhaps and the conservative needs the radical. One acts as a wholesome check upon the other and the world gets on because of the action and in- teraction of these two great forces. v anda that old boy Brew mistier and mistier, and fainter and faint- er, until thers wasn't anything there at all—he Just evaporated. “The next r knew the town by and vselt that the shoulder, I founq o, sitting op 8lad, ang it wag broad daylight, And that's why 1 if you a Tight 1t win peens you right. oOf course, I'm not saying that all ghosts are pleas- ans company. They are probab- 1y irritated by be- ing sneered at or run away - from. And now I sug- gest we drink,” ended Dapperly, “to the memory of the ghost of Silas Stubbs. It's on me.” And the club as one man drank the toast. A 8 D i e R S R el PEOPLE WHO BLOCK THE WAY ‘We must have a certain number of careful watchdogs over against every State or national treasury. But when a man conceives of his position in the church or the community to be sim- ply that of a brakeman, to bring things to a halt as often and as quick- ly as possible, he is something more than a conservative. He becomes a reactionary and he would better get up in a cab and ride with the engin- eer a while. Think of the way s-cial and industrial progress i8 handicapped by ultra-con- servatism. In almost every place a lit- tle knot of earnest, patriotic, disinter- ested men and women are working for a finer public spirit and a better social order. They would see more comfort- able and safer dwellings for the poor, more educatione’ opportunities for the unprivileged, 'a wiser expenditure of the --blic moneys, a more beautiful city from the point of view of both es- thetics and of morals. But how often way. Sometimes, too, corporate inter- ests erect themselves as an impassable wall ~7ainst which the reformer pushes in vain. 3 To come a lttle nearer the region of personal life, one cannot help thinking of the people who make it harder for other people to be good. A wife nags her husband, or a husband nags his ‘wife simply because one or the other is trying to be his or her best self. A high minded promising youth becomes interested in religion, and straightway he is the target for the jokes and ridi- cule of nearly all his associates in the shop or factory. There are people who delight to sow the seeds of scepticism and infidelity in youthful minds, to point out trivial mistakes in the Bible, to argue plausibly in favor of the non- existence of anything more substantial and enduring than the things which our eyes behold and our hands handle. ight and strangely familiar. “I can- not let you go without thanking you for your timely rescue, for my very life itself,” she was beginning, when he turned and the light fell full upon his face. He heard her catch her breath, like a stifled sob, “Jack! Jack Gerald!” and there, before the eyes of the old driver and the Mexicans, she fell to crying in his outstretched arms for very gladness, while he, with the dead men at their feet and the wound- ed moaning in the shadow of the- trees, bowed his head and thanked the God of his childhood that had sent him to the rescue of the Angullla stage. WHICH MAKES MEN REMEMBER (Continued ¥From Page Four.) 27 S S S R his in the one hand and mine in ‘the other--and he look- ed at me and we under- stood each other. So he drove mine ‘to the dne side and I drove his to the other, and we took with' us our rifles and shot them to the last one, while the man who had kiiled Afty horses cursed us till' his throat .cracked. But that. man, with' whom I welded’ brothership .on the Desad _Horse Trail—" 3 “Why, that man was John Ran- dolph.” ~ Fortuxne, sneering the while, completgd the climax for him. Uri nodded and sal “I am glad you under stand.” “I am ready,” For- tune answered, the old, weary bitterness strong In his face agalh. “Go ahead, but hurry.” Uri Bram rose to his feet. “T have had faith in God all the days of my life. I believe he loves justice. I believe he is looking down upon me now. choosing between: us. I belleve he waits to work his will through my own ffght arm. And such is my belief, that we will take equal chanceand let him jpeak his own judgment.” Fortune’s heart leaped at the words. He did not know much concerning Url's God, ®ut he belleved in chance, and chance had been coming his way ever since the night he ran down the beach and across the snow. “But there is only one gun,” he objected. “We will fire turn about,” Uri re- plied, at the same time throwing out the cylinder of the other man’'s Colt and examining it. “And the cards to decide! ‘of seven up!” Fortune’s blood was warming to the game and he drew the deck from his pocket as Uri nodded. Surely chance ~rauld not desert him now! He thought of the returning sun as he cut for deal, and he thrilled when he found the One hand shuffled and dealt; and Uri cut him the jackot spades. - ward. blood * deal was his. He - laid down their hands. Uri's was bare of trumps, while he hed ace, deuce. The outside seemed very near to him as they stepped off the fifty paces. “I¢ God withholds his hand and you drop me, the dogs and outfit are yours. You'll find a bill of sale already made out, in my pocket,” Uri explained, facing the path of the bullet, straight and broad-breasted. Fortune shook a vision of the sun shining on the ocean from his eyes and took gim. He was very careful. Twice hé lowered as the ‘spring breeze shook the pines. .But .thé third time he dropped on one knee, gripped the re- volver steadily in both hands and fired. Urt whirled halt about, threw up his arms, .swayed wildly for a moment, and sank into the snow. But Fortune knew' he had fired too_far to one side, ‘else the man would rot have whirled. When Url, mastering the flesh and strugsgling to his feet, beckoned for the weapon, Fortune was minded "to fire again. But he thrust the :idea from Yim. Chance had beén very good to him already, he felt, and if he tricked now he would have to pay for it after- * No, he would play fair. Besides Uri was hard hit and could not possibly hold- the heavy Colt long enough to They “draw a bead. “And where.is your God now?” he taunted, as he gave the wounded man the revolver. And Uri answered: .“God has not yet spoken. Prepare that he mdy speak.” Fortune faced him, but twisted his chest stdeways in order to present less surface. “Uri totteréd about drunkenly, but waited, too, for the momerit's calm between the -vatspaws. The revolver was very gheavy, and he doubted, like Fortune, because of its weight.. " But he held- it, arm extended, above his head, and ‘then let: it slowly drop fors ward and down. . At the instant For- tune's left breast and the sight flashed into lne with his eye he pulled the trigger. Fortune did not whirl, but gay San Francisco dimmed and faded, and as the sunbright snow turned black and blacker he breathed his last male- diction on the chance he had misplayed. ————————— Concerning Conservatism. It is good to be ‘not over-quick to enthuse over the future prospects of large projects; but it seems to us bet- - ter. not to be blind to-evident prom-~ ises. Conservatism’is not merely the reverse of go-ahead-activeness. Now- adays it has become a cloakword for those who, through ignorance or mo- tive, ery down all that is mew; It is, in fact, & business with somg-—it- takes time to prove them wrong, mean- while they are bullding reputations for cautiousness. + Is there to-day any conspicuous railroad, mine or. other ernterprise that, at the outset, did not meet with the discouragement of influenced" or incompetent expert opinion, .fo say nothing of natural and fostered ad- verse public opinion? Is there a going business of any sort that has not had its share of more or less genuine in- itial disfavor? And the fact that to- day there are thousands of going busi- nesses shows how much sounde® and, therefore, more admirable, was the faith of their founders. Conservatism is & good quality, but ulterior purposes of irresponsibility, masking as “conservatism,” deserve all the discredit that can ‘be given. Conservatism on the part of investors is good—if it is of the right sort, and not a miscalled timidity, lack of faith ar. suspicious distrust. Nothing can more seriously injure a country’s in- terests than - conservatism—of the wrong sort.—Cent. per Cent. MAN WHO GOT WELL, ANYHOW. By Billy Burgundy. - Copyright, 1903, by Steve Floyd, N. Y. NCE upon a time there lived in the town of Agieville, which is situated in Chillfield County, midway between Mi- asmaburg and Ty- phustown, a geezer of the name of Allman Shivers. Allman worked for the local drug- gist. That is, the pillsmith got all that Allman made by shipping frog legs to the Bastern market, for he had the goshdingmythrogitis of the infernal- fibustofrangiphasteum—if there |is such a thing to be had in this country. Allman was put wise te the fact that he was in bad health by a circu- lar which came to him by malil from a patent medicine factory. The circu- lar stated that nine out of every ten persons had something the matter with them which could be cured by taking from one to six bottles of Com- pound Extract of Do-Fine. On the back of the circular there was a symptom blank which made it very easy for a person to find out whether he needed the remedy or not. The questions, in part, were as fol- lows: Q. Does eating affect your appe- tite? A, — Q. Does hard work make you feel tired? A. — ‘-Q. Do you feel the heat in summer? Q. Does the loss of money make you low-spirited? A. — Q. Does spinnirg around make you dizzy? A. — Q.- Do you yawn when you are sleepy? A.— Q. Do you feel that you are growing old? A. — If the answers were “Yes” the medi- cine should be taken at once. If the answers were “No” it shouldibe taken anyhow. While it was not absolutely neces- sary to flll out the blank and send it in to the main office, it was advisable to do so for the reason that Compound Extract of Do-Fine always ‘works bet- ter when the patient puts his troubles Wrapped around each bottle of the e e 2 remedy there was a little booklet which explained everything. Allman read each one. Then he was convineed that he was ill and would have to be care- ful. : When he had consumied the six bot- tles he felt no better and began to worry and losa flesh. He switched and went up against another advertised sure-cure to the extent of a dozen bot- tles. Still he did not round-to. In time it became noised around Agueville that Aflman was in & bad way. When Widow Mullenleaf got wind of it she sent him a pint of herb tea which had been used by her family for more than forty years. Allman started in on it, but before he had taken one-half Deacon Sudraiser heard of his sad plight and persuaded him to try a prescription which his grand- father, who was a cracking good doc- tor, had used with wonderful results. After trying It without success, Afl- man’s friend, Erasmus Mudfudder, in- duced him to throw the concoction out of the window and get well by using his stand-by, which was an infusion made of a root he had bought from an old squaw who kept the place of its growth a secret. It did him no good. Finally a traveling doctor with long hair struck Agueville. Ailman consult- ed him $10 worth. The doctor told him that he had swallowed a lizard while drinking spring water and prescribed for him some powders which smelled like an antiquated egg. The dogtor's departure is sald to have saved All- man’s life. The invalld next stacked up against & remedy recommended by a friend who claimed that it had cured several persons who had been given up by doc- tors. But there was nothing doing in the way of an improvement in Ail- man's condition. No matter how hard he tried to get on edge, he continued to go to the bad. Well, in time Ailman went broke, ard could not even raise the price of a trial bottle of medicine. Then he lost his eyeglasses and could read no more r.lrcli;lsrm h'rhen he became deaf and could not hear advice, so he promptl; became hale, fat and sassy. 4 Moral—The smaller the dose, shorter the spell. the