The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, December 10, 1905, Page 5

THE SAN FRANCISCO SUNDAY to say many the t day o had never er house before, iropped in for time, whil doctor, after 1 next door, ishake with the latter's hand a d The e afternoon Miss' Black, of the most wealthy h one or tw see 1f there oated bewildered be de- ssed my free you made to rrest cen otest be under 3 The him s tramn. ain to one other who man who had bought & Clothier that for it with a twenty- ng ‘coun- er he protested his v the me for reflection. sped only the mere He, Ezra Tyler, 1d Congregational inder arrest. He tried to re- w the newspaper items read in of the' such cases, and the first definite thought that struggled through his brain was ot the publicity that would be given his case. He almost smiled as de wondered how his church would take it—the church that had been unable to bear their pastor's shabby coat. For a moment he thought of giving an assumed name. Then his real identity would not be ed in time for publication to-morrow. and before an- y they would see the mistake and m go. John Jones would do as well y name. Dr. John Jones would con- more dignity. But when a few mo- later he was called to give his rame his truth-loving nature rebelled against the falsehood and in a clear volce he answered, “Ezra Tyler,” going on, without further questioning, to explain that he pastor of the Gimfleld Con- gregational Church. He heard the charge against him and for the first time began o realize the fact that the bill—that pre- twenty-dollar bili—was valueless, ere could be no doubt of it, they told him. An officer more kind-hearted than the one who had arrested him explained it all and assured him there would be no trouble if he was really Innocent and could prove where he got the bill. He had a confused sense of many peo- around, most of them looking miser- d unfortunate. One woman, carry- a baby, staggered as she tried to cross the room. She was il beyvond ques- tion. He wondered why they didn’t do ng for her, and felt relleved when ant-faced matron approached and Tl Cu ATF: LN W \! \ \ NN A coaxed the baby f the th to her arms. How piti- n little arms contrasted with the rosy ba at home. In one corner sat a ragged man of middle age, from face crime had banished = of better nature. Opposite him was a well-dressed young fellow, his face buried in his hands. The minister's heart throbbed with pain as he looked at them and wondered how long since the was like the other and what depths y between. He wished ugh to lay his hand on of degra he w atic the head—not much older heads at home. His own ed from his mind. What bi d it so long as he was innocent? n emotion akin to the divine love pity moved him he gazed on these rs‘who perhaps were guilty. have been so hard for them— so strong and wills so w He himself after a little to a cell with two others. two on whom his d. The attendant—Mr. Tyler what his exact title might remarked that he hoped they ducted N didn’t mind crowding; they were unusu- ally full to-night To Mr. Tyler's relief his elder com- panion dropped upon the floor in a half- drunken sleep. The boy, as if anxious to repel all advances, had retired to the op- posite corner and resumed his attitude of deep dejéction. The minister watched him thoughtfully for a long time. At last he drew nearer and touched the boy's arm ge haggard, miserable face was raised to his—oh. so young. “What do you want?’ was the impa- tient auestios “My boy,” Mr. Tyler said gently, “tell me how it happened.” The boy shrank g and ungraciously demanded to be left al Then some gentler im- pulse seizing him, he muttered a half apology and, as if to atone for his 1udeness, added a few words of ex- planation. Then slowly the longing for sympathy overcame him and he poured forth a story of overindulgence, dissipation and debt, a pressing need for money, and—the use of funds not his own. Before him now was cer- tamn disgrace, perhaps years of prison. e The ministerss:t silent. 1n his coun- try parish he hud never met a case like this. He could recall nothing in his theological training that fitted it. According to his best knowledge and belief he should speak words of con- demnation and warning. But the pity swelling in his heart choked them back. And when he opened his lips at last there came from them only words of sympathy. He seemed pos- ed by some power beyond himself t tender, all-absorbing love for the guilty ones of earth, for whom too often he had felt only contempt. He struggied with himself in vain. His brain told him he should have ex- horted the young man to repentance before it was too late. His heart would let him speak only of a heaven- ly Father's love. When he ceased speaking the rooem . was very still Even the heavy breathing in the other corner had ceased. Presently the boy raised his head with a defiant gesture. “See here,” he said, and slipped a little vial into the minister's hand. “I didn't mean to go to prison. If it came to that there was stuff enough in that bottle to have taken care of me. If they'd put me alone in a cell I should have swal- lowed it before now. I haven't any friends left. My relatives will all re- fuse to speak to me after this, and I didn’t suppose there was any one in heaven or on earth that cared. But I believe you. I never heard it put that way before. And I'm going to stand my trial and whatever comes after it because of what you say.” —tha BOLL00050508 . ¥ THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH CALL. //’ [§ \ The two clasped hands warmly. And as they did so the ragged criminal In the corner staggered to his feet and stood before them. Had they but known it, it was years since he had stood so erect. “Squire,” he said, “the youngster's right. 1f somebody'd said to me twenty years ago what you've just said to him I might have been a man to-day in place of what I be. Oh, go on: don’t talk any foolishness. It's to late to work any such racket on me. Well, pray for me if you want to; ’twon’t do no hurt maybe, though I can tell you 'twon't do no good. I tell you 1 don't want to be any better. I wouldn't change if 1 could. But in the name of the boy I was twenty years ago I want to thank you for givin’ this young feller a lift.” He staggered back to his corner, as it ashamed of the momentary interest he had shown, and the brief intelli- gence died out of the hardened face. The boy, worn out with deep cmo- tion, dropped upon the hard cot and slept. The migister sat through the long night wrabped in meditation. It was not untjl the first gray streaks of dawn stole through the grated door that he roused to a remembrance that he was a prisoner, charged with crime. Early that morning, in one of the sumptuous homes of the city, 2 woman past middle age was partaking of a sol- itary breakfast, glancing over the morning paper at the same time. For Mrs. Marsh: was. a business woman and watched the markets closely. Running her eyes slowly down the news col- umns, she suddenly started so violent- 1y as to overturn the coffee urn, and regardless of the amber liquid soaking into the snowy cloth and dripping upon the rug, she sat motionless, her eyes riveted upon these words: + “A suspicious looking character pur- chased a coat of Claus & Clothier yes- terday morning paying for it with a twenty-dollar bill which proved to be a clever counterfeit. The swindler, who was arrested as he was about to take the evening train for New York, claims ‘e to be the pastor of a church in Gimfield, and gave the name of Ezra Tyler, which is belleved to be assumed.” Mrs, Marsh rang the bell for a maid to repair damages, and, paper in hand, left the room. “I wish I cowd think it was a mistake,” she soliloquized as she tied on her bonmet. “But it's too much like him. Nobody but Ezra could get himself inito such a scrape as this. Well, he was quite right when he declared he had no head for business, and after all I shall have to acknowledge it.” Marsh’s quarrel with her only er dated from his entering the min- vears younger than she, he had until that time been entirely sub- missive to her wishes. She had selected his books, his clothes, his college, even his friend But, when it came to choosing a professicn and a wife the young man’s will asserted itself. He would study the- ology instead of banking, and he would marry the girl of his choice. The result had been utter estrangement and a silence which no effort on the brother's part could break. This morning Mrs. Marsh's lawyer, list- ening to her story, smiled to himself, as he read beneath her calm, almost indif- ferent manner her longing for a recon- ciliation. “For he’s proved me in the wrong,” she said candidly. “As a busi- ness man bhe would have ruined himself and all his friends by this time. And I intend to keep an eye on him after his.” And the lawyer, as he closed his desk and prepared to accompany her, remarked under his breath that the working of a woman's mind was past his comprehen- sion. It was a busy morning. But wealth and influence can accomplish much, and be- fore noon Ezra Tyler walked forth a free man, the charge against him withdrawn. He hardly knew how it was -brought about. His sister, greeting him as though they had parted but the day before, had A Fable for the Foolish—By Nicholas Nemo R. NAGIT was one of the most competent men in the advis- ing business. He was fully supplied with excellent sug- gestions for the conduct of anyth n general and if he could vave had his way all human error would have been eliminated from the tace of the earth. His ideas on the po- litical situation were flawless, at least, and he haé an tne industrial troubles that have afflicted ind ce the invention of the ! , or garden gentlemen's, agree- ment settled out of hand before the other people had awakened to the fact that there was anything wrong. The only fault to be found with Mr. Nagit's panacea’ was that he could wever get any one to try it. Day after day he eat around with his feet on his desk and assured the rest of the population that if they would only leave it to him it would be all right. In politics, too, Mr. Nagit was pre- pared to solve the problems as fast as any one could put them up to him. The great thing about Mr. Nagit's ability was its ubiquity. He was the he said they were, real inventor of wireless telegraphy; at Jeast, he had had a dream one night in the cold winter of 1881 that looked like a Marconigram. He even declared that he could remember having heard of the places mentioned in the dispatches from the Far East before the Japanese knocked all the vowels out of them with shrapnel. While Mr. Nagit was prepared to ac- commodate any cne with advice as to the proper way of managing his busi- ness, he was particularly strong on suggestions to his wife as to the man- ner in which she should conduct the affai of the household. It is a pe- culiar fact that a man no sooner de- velops this habit of indiscriminate ad- vice than he immediately turns his at- tention to his long suffering wife and begins to tell her what she doesn't know about her department. 'This par- ticular specimen of the genus homo turned on his advice as soon as he hove in sight of the family fireside in the evening and from that time till his departure tor the cracker-box the next morning there was a steady driz- zle of happy thoughts bearing on the superintendency of the culsine and re- war * PRSI R GG EGEGRETRNN000558 lated matters. Although he would have had trouble in distinguishing plain calico from a superior grade of organdie he knew just how his wife's dresses should be made and what steps should be taken to produce a result that would make a Parisian costumer look like a milliner from Hackensack. Then he knew just how everything should be cooked. At any rate he could put up a bluff to the extent of criticising dinner every night. This doesn’t require any great amount_ of expert knowledge, but few men insist on exercising this recognized privilege of the masculine sex more than three times a week. Mr. Nagit, however, was as regular as the dinner bell. Tt is doubtful if he could have boiled water without burning it, and it s gertain that any beefsteak subjected to his tender ministrations would have come out of the encountér looking like a Pompeilan relic 2000 years after, but & mere detail like that didn’t even jar him. The most inspiring moment for Mr. Na- git was when he could snatch a few minutes from his contemplation of the great industrial and political problems of the day and tell his wife what an e life she could lead if she would only sys- temize her work, as hc_\dldA He would point out to the poor woman that ali she had to do in the morning was to get up and conduct an exploration into the kitch- en with a' view to discovering whether the cook had recovered from her evening out. If that personage was not on deck it was a very simple matter to turn in and_ broil a chop and compound a little breakfast food and see that the coffee didn’t boil over and set the table and cali him and do a few little odd jobs, like carrying up a couple of hods of coal and bringing in a pail of water, ctc. This was nothing compared with the things that he thought about doing every morn- ing of his life. After she had performed these few duties and had pushed him out of the house she had the rest of the day all to herseif for the improvement of her mind and the cul- tivation of her better nature. Mrs. Nag- it's beétter nature required a whole lot of cultivation to help her ki her grip on some of the words that she bit in two every day, but, of course, her alleged better half didn't know anything about that. To be sure, she had a few little odd Jobs to do about the house, but nothing to compare with the task of saving the nation and averting a great foreign war and thinking about how much better tiles used to be before the electric light and the telephone and the wireless corpora- tion were invented. The conclusion of this tale of a man of genius is one that pains us deeply. but the ends of justice require that we should push it out into the cold world as a warn- ing to other men of too heavy intellects. In the midst of his noble and far-reaching plans for the settlement of things in gen- eral the Sheriff blew in one day and ;:/eked up a notice on the door of Mr. agit's place of business announcing to the community in general, and to his creditors in particular, that the property had been seized in satisfaction of a judg- ment. The wipding up of his affairs was really a source of gratification to Mr. Nagit; now he can spend all of his time, discussing large problems of finance and politics and betting on the next baseball score, while his wife runs the business in the intervals of her household work. People who insist on learning something. all the time may discover from this nar- rative that while it may be true, as the poet sings, that a littie knowledge is a dangerous thing, it isn’t half so bad as being up with a job lot of unas- sorted rmation that no one wants. (Copyright, 13, by Albert Britt.) I BRI I TS Hayvos, o - announced the facts t@ him, : ing she had attended ‘to it troubled his head with detail far more interested in th young friend, and insisted on c once upon the employers, where h the matter with such persisten: they finally consented not to prosecute the money was refu Mrs. Marsh grun wrote a check for amount, and the much-amused attorney added his mite by consenting to give the young man a position in his office, where he would be under strict supervision and out of temptatiofi's way. Altogether, a lunch in his sister’ means ishioners If he only ie. little, Mr. house Tyler sat at he was by even though his par- to be confronted. where that bill came from! That was a mystery which must be solved before the world could be entirely assured of his inocence. As the train drew into Gimfleld that stepped from it with cern. It had ceased to be of any consequence what his par- w knew ishioners thought. The few people he met greeted him warmly. Ome or two stopped to e hds and express their regret at his disagreeable experi- ence. He felt his hypocrisy in allow- ing them to call it an unfortunate mis- take. His w net him at the door, full of que: d comments, but he brushed them all aside. only in- quiring, with a sarcasm she had never heard in his tone before, if his over- coat was quite Satisfactory. Suppes was a silent meal: even the children, awed by the general gloom, spoke lit- tle. Tommy was sent away from the table for dropping his knife and Lizzie was sharply reproved for putting her elbows on the table. All the time Mrs. Tyler was pu‘ting the children to bed her husband medi- tated. The doorbell rang, and Mrs. coming down at that momer into the room Miss Bl Tyler, tle nephew. Miss Blac v expression of righteous indigna Jimmie's eyes were swollen and ung ve no words to row d we behind his aunt. “I h tell you,” she began, are at the result of Ji pangnti= ness. It was he who put that counter- feit bill in the pocket-book—just be- fore the party dispersed. My brother- in-law took it at the bank and had brought it home to examine by car microscope. This all comes from al- lowing youns children at such ga-a= erings unattended. Jimmie knew tn bill was counterfeit”— “I only just took it to show the boys,” faltered Jimmie, “'n, then I thought what a gocd joke, "twould be to put it in there. I never thought a man that knew so much as the minister'd be foaled Sy it.” “We are very much annoyed,” com- menced Miss Black, but her pastor, his face wreathed in smiles, interrupted: Vever mind, Jimmie,” he said. “You're a nice littie boy, and I am giad you did That is"—for Miss Black looked sean- dalized—I should say, I am very glad to know who did it. And it has proved how even our mistakes—for I think we won't call it anything more serious than a take, Jimmie—may be used for others good. Some time, when you are a little older, Jimmie, I will tell you a story of another boy who made a mistake.” “Martha.” Mr. Tyler said, after the guests had gone, “can we not sing ‘Praise God from Whom All Blessings Flow’?” “I'm afraid it would wake the children, Ezra,” replied the tired mother. “Then let us read the 103d psalm; and after that I have a long story to tell you about last night and to-day.” But there was one part of the story that Mrs, Tyler never heard.