Зображення сторінки
PDF
ePub
[graphic][subsumed][merged small][merged small]

"Sure, sure, SURE," she answered, jubilantly.

"Humph!" said the old man. He looked sharply at them, as though he expected to see the good news in their hands. It was Mrs. Braddock who told the his clasped hands. story.

"I was up in Braddock last summer, father, and I saw all the fine college buildings they have bought with the income of your grandfather's money, and it seemed so terrible for him to have given it away from his own children, and

[ocr errors]

"He gave his children a lot," said the old man, shrilly. "He was the only Braddock who was ever worth his salt. His college will be there when we are dead."

"But, listen, father. I thought-I thought it wasn't fair for them to have it when we are so poor

"Poor!" cried the old man. "You are not poor with your fine house and your fine clothes. I am poor!"

"I know," said Mrs. Braddock. "I know you are poor. But it is nonsense for you to be poor. Listen, father. I got his will, and he said if they didn't do certain things, the money would come back to us. And"Not to you." His old dislike for her flared up. "Not to you. To me." "Yes, father, to you." Her eyes blazed, but her voice was quiet. "To you and to Curtin and to Rollin's children. They were to do certain things, and they haven't done them."

[merged small][merged small][ocr errors]

"Bosh!" said the old man. "What does a minister know about a college? What does a boy want with Hebrew? Does your boy know Hebrew?"

"But listen, father. You don't see the point. If they didn't do those things the money was to be taken away. I went to Lorado Gray, and he says we can have it back."

The sound of that mighty name seemed finally to make the old man understand. He sat down, heavily.

"He said we could take it away from 'em?"

"Yes, we can take it away from them. Five hundred thousand dollars." Curtin turned to her once more. "Are you sure, Emma?"

The old man propped his head against

"Did Lorado Gray say anything else about taking the money away from 'em?" he asked.

Mrs. Braddock flushed.

"He said it was legal," she answered, sharply. "Isn't that enough?"

"And you want me to apply for it?" The old man's mind seemed to be quickening. "Yes. Mr. Gray will come out to see you. You won't have any trouble, father, but only comfort, luxury, everything you want."

The old man looked at her, grimly. 'What do you want with money? You've held on to enough."

"Enough? One never has enough. My girls must have dowers; they must have, oh, a thousand things. They have a name to live up to."

"A name! had a name." young Egbert. for?"

Bosh! Fifty years ago we He turned suddenly toward "What do you want money

[merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors]

The old man threw back his head and laughed.

[blocks in formation]

looking down upon them. His mouth the temptations before which he had fallen trembled. in his youth. He lifted his head. His face was altogether evil. There had been but

"Father," began Curtin.

"It won't do you any good to talk, not if one thing left in which he could take pride, you talk a hundred years."

Mrs. Braddock began to speak once more. "You might just as well have some of it while you live," she said, cunningly.

"Do you mean that you will get it after I am dead? Did Gray tell you that?"

"Yes." Her eyes commanded Curtin to be still. They seemed to say that a lie or two did not matter.

"Then Gray doesn't know what he's talking about. I know a little about law. I don't believe he said anything of the kind. And I won't do it." His voice rose to a shrill cry, as though he were an old, old woman. "I won't do it."

A stick of wood in the fireplace fell from the andirons and lay blazing upon the hearth. Then the old clock struck one, two, three, four. Their train left at five, and they had a long walk to the station. Mrs. Braddock crossed the room with her delicate rustle of silk against silk, and laid her hand on the old man's arm.

"Listen, father, it would mean comfort for you again, and horses and drink," her eyes met Curtin's and dropped before them, "and perhaps Ellen Tavish would come back to keep house for you, and

[ocr errors]

Young Egbert's lips opened in a question. "Who is Ellen Tavish?"

His uncle Curtin sprang to his feet. "Emma! Have you no mercy? And no sense?"

But Mrs. Braddock's voice went smoothly on, recalling to the old man the sins of his youth, the evil consolations which he had allowed himself in his loneliness after his wife's death.

"-and you could forget all this poverty and misery, father. If you will only apply!"

The old man's face was hidden in his hands. His was the proverbial third generation from honor. It was scarcely likely that in his feebleness and age he could resist

the college which his grandfather had established. That still held the Braddock name above the dishonor with which he and his sons had surrounded it. Why not let that go also? Since Lorado Gray was willing to take the case, it was already won. It was true that money had ruined them. It had made of his name a byword, it had sent Rollin to a drunkard's grave, it hadHorror of the past overcame him. But if money had ruined them, it should serve them now till they died, him, who was so desperately poor, Curtin whom he despised, Emma whom he hated, and this boy who would some day go like the rest. Let Ellen Tavish come back!

He looked at them all, one after the other, and then at the portrait above the fireplace. Suddenly he turned upon them.

"Get out of my house!" he shouted. "Go and never come back. If he knew you, he would curse the day he was born."

Curtin turned to watch his sister-in-law. What would she do now? Then he saw that young Egbert had moved. He stood beneath the picture, his face twitching. He looked like his grandfather in his wretchedness before him, and his great-great-grandfather, statesman, soldier, philanthropist, above his head. Curtin afterward tried to put the whole thing into a story, all his father's misery and Emma's commonness. Against them, he set the sudden, leaping pride and ambition in young Egbert's eyes. He said it was as though a torch had passed visibly from the dead hand in the picture to the young, living hand beneath. The boy was crying, his voice choked, he could hardly speak.

"Don't say that, grandfather! I am going to study and work and try! Don't, grandfather!"

Then, when the birth-pang of his soul grew too intolerable for speech, he hid his face in his hands, sobbing.

VOL. XLV.-37

[graphic][merged small][merged small][merged small]

F one were writing of France, of Germany, of Italy, of Russia, of Spain, no one would notice the omission of a chapter on sport. A few pages upon hunting and shooting in France, of which there is still a certain amount; upon the students' duelling, and the hunting of the wild boar in Germany; upon big-game shooting in some parts of Russia, and upon bull-fighting in Spain, would suffice to give an idea of the relative importance of sport in those countries.

It is very different in England. The first thing to attract my attention on this my latest visit to England, was the announcement on all the newspaper bulletins: England's Big Task. I happened to know that the Prime Minister was seriously ill, that there was fierce debating in the House of Commons upon the new estimates for the Navy, and upon the new licensing bill just brought in by Mr. Asquith, and that there was fighting upon the frontier of India, with a certain tribe of natives. But England's big task had nothing to do with these trivial matters. An English cricket eleven was playing in Australia. The Australian eleven in their second innings had made an unexpectedly big score, and England's big task was to beat that score!

Though England may be fighting somewhere in her vast dominions all the time, she is also playing somewhere all the time. Unless the war is a very important one,

there is more interest taken in the playing than in the fighting. They are verily a nation of game-players and outdoor sports

men.

If we could know just what circumstances, and what environment our children would be born to, and what tasks they would be set to do, we could in time do as well with them as with horses and dogs. The trouble lies not in heredity, but in the haphazard of what awaits them. A horse is bred to run, or to trot, or to draw heavy loads, and we know exactly what we expect of him twenty years before he is born. With ourselves it is different. Few parents know what a son will be called upon to face at the age of twenty-one. Whether there will be a war and he must serve his country in arms; whether family fortunes will be on the ebb and he must make money; whether a friend will offer him a start in anything, from a machine-shop to a newspaper office. It is impossible even to train him for a pursuit, or a profession, that is still in the hazy distance. Civilization is the great disintegrator. As we become rich we dissipate our energies, we think of our dinners, our horses, our dogs, our friends, our books, our clubs, our travelling. A little strength and power goes to each. The peasant, the poor man, must perforce direct all his powers to one end, and often he becomes master there, while the rich become weak and small in scattered interests. So families cannot keep their places. The rough and poor and strong come in and take them. Simplicity easily beats out

complexity and dissipation in a few generations. Hence the constant redistribution of wealth and power. Until we can overcome this ever-present obstacle to the successful breeding of human beings, socialism it would seem, is an unnecessary philosophy. Nature beats socialism hollow at her own game.

Yale. He was recognized as typical of one very prominent feature of British civilization. And so he was.

An accepted authority upon all matters of sport in England has compiled some figures as to the investments and expenditures upon sport, by the forty odd millions of inhabitants of Great Britain. His estimates, when they have been criticised, have been criticised mainly because they were too low.

His estimates are as follows:

Fox-hunting
Shooting
Fishing
Racing
Yachting

Invested
$78,035,000

Spent annually $43,190,000

40,640,000

20,335,000

2,750,000

2,945,000

41,610,000

52,965,000

28,000,000

15,160,000

But even these sums are not the whole

Coursing
Coaching
Polo

Spent

Invested

annually

$2,600,000

1,451,250
435,000

The English common-sense comes to the fore again in an attempt to solve this problem. She is old enough to know from experience that the world is still ruled by men, and in all probability will be for a long time to come. She breeds men therefore as strong and simple as she can. In these islands sport is not a dissipation for idlers, it is a philosophy of life. They believe in it as a bulwark against effeminacy and decay. A congregational minister makes a speech in which he confesses to "a feeling of bitter humiliation" when he reads that the Prime of the budget, for he adds: Minister is the owner of a Derby winner, and stands to win or lose thousands of pounds on the race. Lord Roseberry's attention having been called to this speech by a political opponent, he replies as follows: "Sir, I am desired by Lord Roseberry to thank you for your letter and its enclosure. He will offer no opinion on the latter, for these matters should be dealt with according to the good taste, Christian charity, and knowledge of facts possessed by each person who touches on them." The letter is signed by the Prime Minister's secretary. Lord Roseberry is one of the most accomplished Englishmen of the day. He considers it lacking in Christian charity, to abuse him for owning and breed- Rowing ing a great race horse. So do probably more than eight out of ten of his countrymen. From top to bottom of English society, from the Prime Minister to the Yorkshire foot-baller, sport is almost as much a part of national existence, as eating and drinking.

Harvard University, not many years ago, conferred the honorary degree of Master of Arts, upon a young Englishman, who devotes a good deal of his time to studying and furthering the interest in wholesome sport. It was Mr. Lehman, a graduate of Cambridge University, England, who received this distinguished mark of his acceptability to the powers that be at Harvard, and this in spite of the fact that the crews he coached were woefully beaten by

$1,587,000 1,188,975 552,500

[blocks in formation]

These figures have not been seriously questioned, except to add to their totals, so that we may conclude that some $233,066,250 are invested permanently, and $223,887,725 spent annually for sport. There is, in short, an investment in sport of some five dollars and twenty-five cents for each man, woman, and child in the United Kingdom, and a slightly smaller sum spent each year for sport. When aggregate investments and expenditures, reach such figures as these, we may be sure that the people who tax themselves thus heavily have, or believe they have, satisfied themselves that there is a valuable equivalent of some kind, that justifies the expenditure.

« НазадПродовжити »