Evening Republican, Volume 18, Number 154, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 July 1914 — HIGHER PRA[?]M [ARTICLE]

HIGHER PRA[?]M

Story of How a C , w Got Out of the Class. - • 7. - ' * ■ «' t By O. HE! Oncp upon a time I! ent magazine lying on a t ttle city park. Anyhow, amount he asked me onthe bench next to s a musty, dingy, tattered ?ith some queer stories bou vaa out “I am a newspaper > aid to him, to try him. “ de _ tailed to write up som eri . ences of the unfortu^. ho spend their evenings ii 4ay I ask you to what yot our , downfall in—” ; I' was interrupted b om my purchase—a laugh un . practised that I was s een his first for many a da; “Oh, no, no,” said h t a reporter. Reporters hat way. They pretend to b ind say they've just got ind baggage from St. Loui j a reporter on sight. Us get to be fine judges of hu sit here all day and w ple go by. I can size u walks past my bench 3at would surprise you.”. “Well,” I said, “go ne Sow do yotf size me u “I should say,” said of human nature with un. 581 . tation, “that you was, on . trpcting business —or r , in a store—or was % gjg Ptoowned glooirffly. “But, judging again the reader of men, “I’d sa t a wife.” “No,” said I, rising 1 No no, no. I ain’t. flßut 1i arrows of Cupid! That My voice must hav and muffled Itself in 1 &d deifcair. “I see you have a ls .. said the dusty, vagrantseemed tcrme. “Suppos j ur dime back and spin yo ae _ I’m interested ifiyself nd downs of unfortunate < nd their eveningsjn the p Somehow that amuse e<J at the frowsy derelic [fl , terest. I did have as ot tell it to him? I had tL y friends..« I “Jack/’ said L I “Mack,” said he. | “Mack,” said I, “I’ll ff “Det you want the di^d▼ance?” said he. ; I handed him a dollu “The dime,” said I, B e Of listening to your sto | “Right on the ‘ point o L he. “Go on.” And then, indredible | m . to the lovers in the wo Je their sorrows only to ld and the gibbous moon, secret to that wreck of tt you would have suppos< Q pathy with love. v I told him of the days d months that I had sp Mildred Telfair. I spoke * my grievous days and ’ my dwindling hopes t j mind. If even picturec prowler her beauty an ‘ " “Why don’t you cop asked Mack,. bringing Q earth an.d dialect again to him h was so small, my inct a and my fears so large t ” courage to speak to her I told him that in her p rj only blush and stammer e looked upon me with a Wj dening smile “Now that reminds 1 case. I’ll tell you . at. Mack. I I. was indignant, bu| t “Feel my muscle,” s J lon, suddenly flexing hiU’ so mechanically. The f are always asking you t [g arm was as hard as ca “Four years ago,” could lick any man in t side ot the professions " case and mine is just th from the West side—bel h and Fourteenth —I won’ Q _ her on Uie door. I was a I was ten, and when I • amateur in the city coul [r rounds with me. ’8 a& ‘ Bill McCarty? No? H* smokers for some of th “ Well, I , knocked out <’j brought up before me- _ weight, but could train . ter when necessary. I ** the West side at bout and private entertalnu never put out once, f “But, say, the first tim tn the ring with a prof * no more than a canned no how it was —Iseeme 7* I guess I got too muc There was a formality ’ about fl that kind of pefve. I never win a sis * lightweights -and all k a used to sign up with m; then walk up and tap n “ and see me fall.. The mil * crowd and a lot of get ® clothes down in front, a • fesslonal come inside t £ as weak ar ginger ale. “Of Course it wasi j have any more’chances * - ■ - ■- ——- . -

Mpiemme tell you—l was as good as most men inside the ring or out It was just that dumb, dead feeling I had when I was up against a regular that always done me up. “One evening I was walking along near the Bowery, thinking about things, when along comes a slumming party. About six or seven they was, all in swallowtails and these silk hats that don’t shine. One of the gang kind of shoves me off the sidewalk. I hadn’t had a scrap in three days, and I just says, ‘De-lighted!* and hits him back of the ear. “Well, we had it That Johnnie put up as decent a little fight as you’d want to see in the moving pictures. It was on a side Street, and no cops around. The other guy had a lot of science, but it only took me about six minutes to lay him out. ’ “Some of the swallowtails dragged him up against some steps and began to fan him. Anothei* one of 'em comes over to me and says: “’Young man, do you -know what you’ve done?’ “ ‘Oh, beat it,’ says I. ‘l’ve done nothing but a little punching-bag work. Take Freddy back to Yale and tell him to quit studying sociology on the wrong side of the sidewalk.’ " ‘My good fellow,* says he, ‘I don’t know who you are, but I’d like to. You’ve knbeked out Reddy Burns, the champion middleweight of the world. If you—'

“But when I come out of my, faint I was laying on the floor in a drug store, saturated with aromatic spirits of ammonia. If I'd known that was Reddy Burns I’d have got down in the gutter and crawled past him instead of handing him one like I did. Why, if I’d ever been in a ring and seen him climbing over the ropes I’d have been all to the sal volatile.”’ “Well, I must be going,”' I said, rising and looking with elaborate care at my watch. When I was 20 feet away the park bencher called to me. ‘. ■ “Much obliged for the dollar,” he said. “And for the dime. But you’ll never get ’er. You’re in the amateur class.”

“Serves you right,” I said to myself, “for hobnobbing with a tramp. His impudence!"

But, as I walked, his seemed to repeat themselves over and over again in my brain. I think I even grew angry at the man.

“I’ll show him!" I finally said aloud. “I’ll show him that I can,fight Reddy Burns, too —even knowing who he is.” I hurried to a telephone booth and rang up the Telfair residence. A soft,, sweet voice answered. Didn’t I know that voice? My hand holding the receiver shook. “Is that you?” said I, employing the foolish words that form the vocabulary of every talker through the telephone.' “Yes, this, is I," came back the answer dn the lbw, clear-cut tones that are an inheritance of the Telfair*. "Who is it, please?"

“It’s me,” said I, less ungramatlcally than egotistically. “It’s me, and I’ve got a few things that I want to say to you right now and immediately straight to the point”

“Dear me,” said the voice. “Oh, it’s you, Mr. Arden!” / I wondered .if any accent on the first word was intended.

“Yes,” said I. “I hope so. And now to come down to brass tacks.” I thought that rather a vernacularism, if there is such a Word, as soon as I had said it; but I didn’t stop to apologize. “You know, of course, that I love you, and that I have been in that idiotic state for a long time. I don’t want any more foolishness about it—that is, I mean 1 want an answer from you right now. Will you marry me or not? Hold the wire, please. Keep out, Central. Hello, hello! Will you, or will you not?” That was just the upper-cut for Reddy Burn’s chin. The answer came back: “Why, Phil, dear, of course I will! I didn’t know that you—that is, you never said—oh, come up to the house, please—l can’t say what I want to over the phone. You are so importunate. But please come up to the house, won’t you?" Would I? • I rang the bell of the Telfair house violently. Some sort of ' a human came to the door and shooed me into the drawing-room.

"Oh, well,” said I to myself, looking at the ceiling, “any one can learn from any one. That was a pretty good philosophy of Mack’s, anyhow. He didn’t tpke advantage of his experience, but I get the benefit of it If you want to get into the professional class, you’ve got to—’’ I stopped thinking then. Some one was coming down the stairs. My knees began to shake. I knew then how Mack had felt when a professional began to climb over the ropes. I looked around foolishly for a door or a window by which I might escape If It had been any other glfl approaching I mightn’t have— But just then the door opened and Bess, Mildred's younger sister, came in. I'd never seen her look so much like a glorified angel. She walked straight up to me, and—and— I’d never noticed -before what perfectly wonderful eyes and hair Elizabeth Telfair had.

“Phil/* she said. In the Telfair, sweet, thrilling tones, “Why didn't you tell me about It before? I thought It was slater you wanted all the time, until you telephoned to mea few minutes ago!** I ruppoae Mack and I always will be hopeless amateurs. But as the thing has turned out in my case, I'm mighty glad of it (Copyright, by th.. Frank A. Munaey CO4