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Show EDDIE'S NEW YEAR'S RESOLUTION. By KEN NEXT HARRIS. (Copyright. 19C2, by Dally Story Pub. Co.) despair that this girl habit does? Eddie's right, too, he'll never get over it It it isn't this one it will be another, an-other, and so the old thing goes. It would be a good time, though, for him to swear off." Xhe reason that the person of experience ex-perience said this was that it waa New Year's Eve. So obvious was the idea that it occurred to Eddie aIso and he t imed it over in his mind all the time that he was putting on hi clean collar, and he thought of It over and over, and in all its various aspects as he walked to the house, and all .. the time that her father was talking politics and the war of the rebellion to him he was still thinking what n' good time it would be to swear off. After a little he had an opportunity to talk to the girl himself. If a young man conducts himself In a proper manner, and there is nothing In particular par-ticular to be urged against him, these opportunities are bound to occur oc-cur sometime or another. At first they did not talk very much, -which was principally because they had so much to say that they didn't like to-talk to-talk about, but it was not hard to get-to get-to New Year's resolutions. "I don't drink more than a strictly temperate man should," said Eddie, "and I don't smoke to excess. I'm In doubt what to give up. Most people peo-ple have bad habits or vices, that they may abandon, but I am In a dickens of a fix, owing to the state of perfection I have arrived at." "You have my sympathy," said the girl. "It's very sad; haven't you single redeeming vice?" "Xhere is one habit I've got that! I might give up," continued Eddie, reflectively. re-flectively. "It's got a terrible hold of) me, and I'm getting anxious about it, but I've got to have help. Your father It altogether depended ou the point of view whether it could have been called a bad habit, but it had become a habit, and Eddie Baxter was completely com-pletely its slave. First he dallied with it occasionally. He did not have to acquire the taste; it si ruck him as rather pleasant from the first, still, if he indulged himself once in two weeks or so it was as much as he particularly cared for. Tht.t might have gone on much longer, or at least merged by more imperceptible gradations Into the habit he had not left town for a month. It is one thing to be near thing of that sort, where you know that it you are in pressing need of it you can satisfy your yearning at almost any time, and another to be miles away from anything approaching the altogether alto-gether superior quality of the article you have become accustomed to. bnder these circumstances some men will take what they can get and make the best of it, but Eddie was not that kind of a man. What there was in Calamus Center did not appeal to him in the least. He was conscious of a vague feeling of uneasiness and emptiness empti-ness all the time. He took it for dyspepsia at first and endeavored to overcome it by abstaining from the hot biscuits that they served with every meal and dosing himself with some little white pellets that he procured pro-cured ai a drug store. As these measures meas-ures failed to afford him relief he set clutches of the habit and held a long session of self-communion. Later he unbosomed himself to a friend of experience and asked for his advice. "My son," said the person of experience, ex-perience, gravely, "I don't see that you have any cause for worry, though these moments of remorse are inevitable. inevit-able. If you took a hair off the dog that has bitten you in fact, several hairs I think it would do you good. I have known that to answer in several sev-eral cases that have come under my observation. I can not recommend total abstinence, because I am pretty sure that you would not be equal to it. Do you really want to quit?" "I'm not dead sure," replied Eddie, frankly. "Well, if you do, you can easily enough, if you'll only allow yourself time." "Tha! may be in some cases, but an allowanc9 of eternity wouldn't affect me. I'm sure enough of that. That is, unless there was something else to bring my will power into action. I used to think that I had will power." "The longer most habits continue the stronger they get," observed the person of experience, "but it's different differ-ent with this one. To begin with, it Is seldom well nourished after it gets well started; it becomes hollow-cheeked hollow-cheeked and feeble in its movements, and after a little while it dies. You wouldn't think to see it begin its career, robust, bright-eyed and full of energy and vigor, but so it is. Frequently, Fre-quently, as I have said, it dies from neglect and starvation, but on the other hand it is easily overfed and coddled to death. It is a question which mode of treatment is the more fatal. Perhaps you had better try the over-feeding. Encourage it; don't be content with giving it its regular allowance, but let it piece between meals as often as it wants to. It will soon sicken." "I tell you," said Eddie, impatiently, "that you've never known of a case that's like mine. I don't think that you understand at all. The more I see of her the more I think of her, and the last time that I saw her I gathered the impression that she wasn't particularly glad to see me." "That's only natural." "That she shouldn't want to see me?" "That she should allow you to get that impression. However, I've got troubles of my own real troubles, and I can see that you haven't any idea of taking my advice in the matter, mat-ter, or any opinion of my judgment. All you wanted was to unload yourself, your-self, and now that you've done it perhaps per-haps you'll oblige me by clearing out of here. If you haven't got anything better to do, you might as well put on a clean collar and go and see her again." This last piece of advice Eddie took. It is perhaps hardly necessary to say that the girl was as pretty as a picture; that she had a pair of brown eyes, a head of hair that excited the envy of every other girl in her set; that her complexion was good; her teeth even and white, and her figure lithe and graceful. To say that expresses ex-presses nothing. All these things a girl may have and yet not amount to a row of pins, but if the combination is right and the something that looks out of the bright, brown eyes is the one thing the young man has been wanting, it is easy to understand the facility with which a habit may be formed. "Cocaine, opium, hemp, hashish, whisky and tobacco all these are nothing to it," mused the person of experience after Eddie had gone his way, to find out that the coldness of his last reception had been purely imaginary. "Can any of these produce pro-duce the delirium, the madness, the intoxication, stupefaction, drivelling idiocy, ecstatic delight, gloom and Unbosomed Himself to a friend of Experience. "Will You Help Me?" suggested that I should taper off som& time ago and offered to help me, but you're the only one who can do it." "Tell me what it is," said the girl. "Coming around here seven nights in the week to see you," said Eddie, taking her hand. She tried to withdraw it, and looked look-ed at him in some distress. "Of course, if you dont want to come " she began. v "No," said Eddie, "I don't want to come not oftener than I have to. I want to stop at home and see you seven nights in the week except when we have to go out. Will you help me?" "Hark! The bells are beginning to ring now. Look at your watch." "Will you help me?" "Oh, I don't know, Eddie, I I guess so." "Then," said Eddie, raising his hand as the whistles from the factories factor-ies and the blast of horns added their clamor to the bells, "I swear off right now." it down to the altitude and returned home a week earlier than he expected. ex-pected. Almost unconsciously his footsteps strayed to the place where the potion was dispensed and the draught that he took was somewhat deeper than any he had taken before, whereupon, though he did not notice it at the time, the feeling of uneasiness and emptiness left him and he went away experiencing an unwonted exhilaration. exhilara-tion. He ought to have realized the nearness of the slope of descent that in fact, he was already upon it, when within three days he returned for more of the elixir; but for some time after that even, he remained unaware that it was not a thing he could, in the customary phrase, "take or let alone." Other people noticed it and began to wag their heads wisely; some ventured to give Eddie a little well meant advice, but he only laughed laugh-ed at these solicitous friends. Shortly after that he tried it. It had disagreed with him and he decided decid-ed that he would be better off without with-out it He was restless and miserable for three days, and the feeling of uneasiness and emptiness returned to him -with tenfold force. Then he real-I real-I lzed that he had in truth got into the |