Chaucer, Hazlitt, Marcus Aurelius, Montaigne and Hood. She was exquisite, she was a valuable discovery. Nearly everybody nowadays knows too much — oh, so much too much of real life. I could perceive clearly that Azalea Adair was very poor. A house and a dress she had, not much else, I fancied. So, divided between my duty to the magazine and my loyalty to the poets and essay- 10 ists who fought Thomas in the valley of the Cumberland, I listened to her voice, which was like a harpsichord's, and found that I could not speak of contracts. In the presence of the nine Muses and the 15 three Graces one hesitated to lower the topic to two cents. There would have to be another colloquy after I had regained my commercialism. But I spoke of my mission, and three o'clock of the next aft- 20 ernoon was set for the discussion of the business proposition. 'Your town,' I said, as I began to make ready to depart (which is the time for smooth generalities), 'seems to be a quiet, 25 sedate place. A home town, I should say, where few things out of the ordinary ever happen.' (on one of my imaginary tours) the Sultan of Turkey bowstring with his own hands. one of his wives who had uncovered her face in public. I have seen a man in 5 Nashville tear up his theater tickets because his wife was going out with her face covered with rice powder. In San Francisco's Chinatown I saw the slave girl Sing Yee dipped slowly, inch by inch, in boiling almond oil to make her swear she would never see her American lover again, She gave in when the boiling oil had reached three inches above her knee. At a euchre party in East Nashville the other night I saw Kitty Morgan cut dead by seven of her schoolmates and lifelong friends because she had married a house painter. The boiling oil was sizzling as high as her heart; but I wish you could have seen the fine little smile that she carried from table to table. Oh, yes, it is a humdrum town. Just a few miles of red brick houses and mud and stores and lumber yards.' Some one knocked hollowly at the back of the house. Azalea Adair breathed a soft apology and went to investigate the sound. She came back in three minutes with brightened eyes, a faint flush on her shoulders. It carries on an extensive trade in stoves 30 cheeks, and ten years lifted from her and hollow ware with the West and South, and its flouring mills have a daily capacity of more than 2,000 barrels. Azalea Adair seemed to reflect. You must have a cup of tea before you go,' she said, and a sugar cake.' She reached and shook a little iron bell. 35 In shuffled a small Negro girl about twelve, barefoot, not very tidy, glowering at me with thumb in mouth and bulging eyes. 'I have never thought of it that way,' she said, with a kind of sincere intensity that seemed to belong to her. Is n't it in the still, quiet places that things do happen? I fancy that when God began to 40 create the earth on the first Monday morning one could have leaned out one's win dow and heard the drops of mud splashing from His trowel as He built up the everlasting hills. What did the noisiest proj- 45 ect in the world — I mean the building of the tower of Babel result in finally? A page and a half of Esperanto in the North American Review. Azalea Adair opened a tiny, worn purse and drew out a dollar bill, a dollar bill with the upper right-hand corner missing, torn in two pieces and pasted together again with a strip of blue tissue paper. It was one of the bills I had given the piratical Negro- there was no doubt of it. Go up to Mr. Baker's store on the corner, Impy,' she said, handing the girl the dollar bill, and get a quarter of a pound of tea - the kind he always sends me and ten cents worth of sugar cakes. Now, happens to be exhausted,' she explained 'Of course,' said I platitudinously, hu- 50 hurry. The supply of tea in the house man nature is the same everywhere; but there is more color- er — more drama and movement and er- romance in some cities than in others.' 'On the surface,' said Azalea Adair. 55 I have traveled many times around the world in a golden airship wafted on two wings-print and dreams. I have seen to me. Impy left by the back way. Before the scrape of her hard, bare feet had died away on the back porch, a wild shriek I was sure it was hers-filled the hollow house. Then the deep, gruff tones of an angry man's voice mingled with the girl's further squeals and unintelligible words. Azalea Adair rose without surprise or emotion and disappeared. For two minutes I heard the hoarse rumble of the man's voice; then something like an oath and a slight scuffle, and she returned calmly to her chair. This is a roomy house,' she said, 'and I have a tenant for part of it. I am sorry to have to rescind my invitation to tea. 10 It was impossible to get the kind I always use at the store. Perhaps to-morrow Mr. Baker will be able to supply me.' I was sure that Impy had not had time to leave the house. I inquired concerning 15 street-car lines and took my leave. After I was well on my way I remembered that I had not learned Azalea Adair's name. But to-morrow would do. 'Dat is puffeckly correct, suh,' he answered humbly. I jus' had to have dat two dollars dis mawnin', boss.' I went to the hotel and lied by electric5 ity. I wired the magazine: A. Adair holds out for eight cents a word.' The answer that came back was: 'Give it to her quick, you duffer.' Just before dinner Major' Wentworth Caswell bore down upon me with the greetings of a long-lost friend. I have seen few men whom I have so instantaneously hated, and of whom it was so difficult to be rid. I was standing at the bar when he invaded me; therefore I could not wave the white ribbon in his face. I would have paid gladly for the drinks, hoping, thereby, to escape another; but he was one of those despicable, roaring, bands and fireworks attend upon every cent that they waste in their follies. That same day I started in on the 20 advertising bibbers who must have brass course of iniquity that this uneventful city forced upon me. I was in the town only two days, but in that time I managed to lie shamelessly by telegraph, and to be an accomplice after the fact, if that is 25 the correct legal term to a murder. As I rounded the corner nearest my hotel the Afrite coachman of the polychromatic, nonpareil coat seized me, swung open the dungeony door of his 30 peripatetic sarcophagus, flirted his feather duster and began his ritual: Step right in, boss. Carriage is clean - jus' got back from a funeral. Fifty cents to any — And then he knew me and grinned broadly. Scuse me, boss; you is de gen'l'man what rid out with me dis mawnin'. Thank you kindly, suh.' 35 I am going out to 861 again to-morrow 40 afternoon at three,' said I, and if you will be here, I'll let you drive me. So you know Miss Adair?' I concluded, thinking of my dollar bill. i belonged to her father, Judge Adair, 45 suh,' he replied. 'I judge that she is pretty poor,' I said. 'She has n't much money to speak of, has she?' With an air of producing millions he drew two one-dollar bills from a pocket and dashed one of them upon the bar. I looked once more at the dollar bill with the upper right-hand corner missing, torn through the middle, and patched with a strip of blue tissue paper. It was my dollar bill again. It could have been no other. I went up to my room. The drizzle and the monotony of a dreary, eventless Southern town had made me tired and listless. I remember that just before I went to bed I mentally disposed of the mysterious dollar bill (which might have formed the clue to a tremendously fine detective story of San Francisco) by saying to myself sleepily: Seems as if a lot of people here own stock in the Hack-Driver's Trust. Pays dividends promptly, too. Wonder if - Then I fell asleep. King Cettiwayo was at his post the next day, and rattled my bones over the stones out to 861. He was to wait and rattle me back again when I was ready. Azalea Adair looked paler and cleaner and frailer than she had looked on the day For an instant I looked again at the 50 before. After she had signed the confierce countenance of King Cettiwayo, and then he changed back to an extortionate old Negro hack driver. She ain't gwine to starve, suh,' he said slowly. She has reso'ces, suh; she has 55 reso'ces.' I shall pay you fifty cents for the trip,' said I. tract at eight cents per word she grew still paler and began to slip out of her chair. Without much trouble I managed to get her up on the antediluvian horsehair sofa and then I ran out to the sidewalk and yelled to the coffee-colored Pirate to bring a doctor. With a wisdom that I had not suspected in him, he aban doned his team and struck off up the street afoot, realizing the value of speed. In ten minutes he returned with a grave, gray-haired and capable man of medicine. In a few words (worth much less than eight cents each) I explained to him my presence in the hollow house of mystery. He bowed with stately understanding, and turned to the old Negro. Uncle Cæsar,' he said calmly, 'run up 10 to my house and ask Miss Lucy to give you a cream pitcher full of fresh milk and half a tumbler of port wine. And hurry back. Don't drive run. I want you to get back sometime this week.' It occurred to me that Dr. Merriman also felt a distrust as to the speeding pow-. ers of the land-pirate's steeds. After Uncle Cæsar was gone, lumberingly, but swiftly, up the street. the doctor looked 20 me over with great politeness and as much careful calculation until he had decided that I might do. 'It is only a case of insufficient nutrition,' he said. 'In other words, the result 25 of poverty, pride, and starvation. Mrs. Caswell has many devoted friends who would be glad to aid her, but she will accept nothing except from that old Negro, Uncle Cæsar, who was once owned by 30 her family.' 'Mrs. Caswell!' said I, in surprise. And then I looked at the contract and saw that she had signed it 'Azalea Adair Caswell.' royalty for a a coachman. Old Cæsar's grandfather was a king in Congo. Cæsar himself has royal ways, as you may have observed.' 5 As the doctor was moving off I heard Uncle Cæsar's voice inside: 'Did he git bofe of dem two dollars from you, Mis' Zalea?' 'Yes, Cæsar,' I heard Azalea Adair answer weakly. And then I went in and concluded business negotiations with our contributor. I assumed the responsibility of advancing fifty dollars, putting it as a necessary formality in binding our bargain. And then Uncle Cæsar drove me back to the hotel. Here ends all of the story as far as I can testify as a witness. The rest must be only bare statements of facts. At about six o'clock I went out for a stroll. Uncle Cæsar was at his corner. He threw open the door of his carriage, flourished his duster and began his depressing formula: 'Step right in, suh. Fifty cents to anywhere in the cityhack's puffickly clean, suhjus' got back from a funeral-' And then he recognized me. I think his eyesight was getting bad. His coat had taken on a few more faded shades of color, the twine strings were more frayed and ragged, the last remaining buttonthe button of yellow horn was gone. A motley descendant of kings was Uncle 35 Cæsar! 'I thought she was Miss Adair,' I said. 'Married to a drunken, worthless loafer, sir,' said the doctor. It is said that he robs her even of the small sums that her old servant contributes toward her sup-4° port.' About two hours later I saw an excited crowd besieging the front of a drug store. In a desert where nothing happens this was manna; so I edged my way inside. On an extemporized couch of empty boxes and chairs was stretched the mortal corporeality of Major Wentworth Caswell. A doctor was testing him for the immortal ingredient. His decision was that it was conspicuous by its absence. When the milk and wine had been brought the doctor soon revived Azalea Adair. She sat up and talked of the beauty of the autumn leaves that were 45 then in season, and their height of color. She referred lightly to her fainting seizure as the outcome of an old palpitation of the heart. Impy fanned her as she lay on the sofa. The doctor was due else- 50 in terrific battle the details showed that. The erstwhile Major had been found dead on a dark street and brought by curious and ennuied citizens to the drug store. The late human being had been engaged Loafer and reprobate though he had been, he had been also a warrior. But he had lost. His hands were yet clinched so tightly that his fingers would not be where, and I followed him to the door. I told him that it was within my power, and intentions to make a reasonable advance of money to Azalea Adair on future contributions to the magazine, and 55 opened. The gentle citizens who had he seemed pleased. 'By the way,' he said, 'perhaps you would like to know that you have had known him stood about and searched their vocabularies to find some good words, if it were possible, to speak of him. One kind-looking man said, after much thought: When Cas was about fo'teen he was one of the best spellers in school.' While I stood there the fingers of the right hand of the man that was,' which hung down the side of a white pine box, relaxed, and dropped something at my feet. I covered it with one foot quietly, and a little later on I picked it up and 10 pocketed it. I reasoned that in his last struggle his hand must have seized that object unwittingly and held it in a death grip. At the hotel that night the main topic 15 of conversation, with the possible exceptions of politics and prohibition, was the demise of Major Caswell. I heard one man say to a group of listeners: In my opinion, gentlemen, Caswell was murdered by some of these no-account niggers for his money. He had fifty dollars this afternoon which he showed to 5 several gentlemen in the hotel. When he was found the money was not on his person.' I left the city the next morning at nine, and as the train was crossing the bridge over the Cumberland River I took out of my pocket a yellow horn overcoat button the size of a fifty-cent piece, with frayed ends of coarse twine hanging from it, and cast it out of the window into the slow, muddy waters below. I wonder what's doing in Buffalo! HENRY ADAMS (1838-1918) Henry Adams, son of Charles Francis Adams and grandson of John Quincy Adams, represented the literary side of this New England family, so remarkable in its varied influences upon American life. After his graduation at Harvard in 1858, he served for seven years as secretary of his father who was American minister at London, he was for a period of years a Professor of History at Harvard, and from 1870 to 1876 was editor of the North American Review. For a time he was connected with official life at Washington: few of any generation have had wider or richer contacts with the leaders of their era. His publications were distinctive. Among them are lives of Albert Gallatin and John Randolph, and a history in nine volumes of the period covered by the administrations of Jefferson and Madison. His autobiography, first privately issued in 1907 and then published in 1918, bids fair to be his most important addition to American literature. În it, says Professor Foerster, "he retraced, with a sturdy honesty, his quest of the meaning and value of life. Combining both the modern critical temper-exemplified, among the poets, by Moody and E. A. Robinson-and a yearning for mystical rapture that reminds one of Jonathan Edwards and Emerson, together with an elusive personality and a gift of eager penetrative speech, he wrote an autobiography that reflects the later nineteenth century as vividly as Franklin's autobiography reflects the century previous. Not even the absorbing tumult of the greatest war in history preventing it from rousing a sensation among thoughtful readers and attaining a place among the 'best sellers' of the day." To the student of the later nineteenth century the book is indispensable. An excellent introduction to it is Stuart P. Sherman's "Evolution in the Adams Family" in his book Americans, 1922. For any American boy the fact that his 10 father was running for office would have dwarfed for the time every other excitement, but even apart from personal bias, the year 1848, for a boy's road through life, was decisive for twenty years to 15 come. There was never a side-path of escape. The stamp of 1848 was almost as indelible as the stamp of 1776, but in the eighteenth or any earlier century, the stamp mattered less because it was stand- 20 ard, and every one bore it; while men whose lives were to fall in the generation between 1865 and 1900 had, first of all, to get rid of it, and take the stamp that belonged to their time. This was their 25 1 This extract from The Education of Henry Adams is used by permission of, and by arrangement with, Houghton Mifflin Company, the authorized publishers. education. To outsiders, immigrants, adventurers, it was easy, but the old Puritan nature rebelled against change. The reason it gave was forcible. The Puritan thought his thought higher and his moral standards better than those of his successors. So they were. He could not be convinced that moral standards had nothing to do with it, and that utilitarian morality was good enough for him, as it was for the graceless. Nature had given to the boy Henry a character that, in any previous century, would have led him into the Church; he inherited dogma and a priori thought from the beginning of time; and he scarcely needed a violent reaction like anti-slavery politics to sweep him back into Puritanism with a violence as great as that of a religious war. Thus far he had nothing to do with it; his education was chiefly inheritance, and during the next five or six years, his father alone counted for much. If he were to worry successfully through life's quicksands, he must depend chiefly on his father's pilotage; but, for his father, the channel lay clear, while for himself an unknown ocean lay beyond. His father's business in life was to get past the dangers |