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Show A CRY IN THE CROWD MDISON street, Chicago high noon of the first hot May day and the breezy angel of Lake -Michigan declining to do business. The pavements were thronged with cafeteria-eyed men and women clerks, glad of the warmth, after keen east winds, yet somewhat stifled by summer's sum-mer's first ardor. I thought how little the crowd had to differentiate it from other crowds, th- atoms of it from one another; prigishly likened the whole to a herd, and pressed for-i ward as rapidly as the mass permitted permit-ted to wider State street. "Hot," remarked a voice at my el-, bow. "Rather," I responded, as we kept step perforce. "Fine day, though." '1For some," was the gloomy rejoinder. re-joinder. "Hell for mo." I looked up at him, for ho wag, taller than I; a slender, neatlyx dressed, pale-faced, indoor man in the early thirties, he had troubled blue eyes, sensitive lips. I handed him the stock bromide. "Keep smiling," I said. 'How wide would you smile, if you'd just lost twelve hundred all you had in the world?" "I'd give many times twelve hundred hun-dred to have your youth and health," I cheered. The human pressure brought his hand in touch with mine before I knew it in an appealing grasp. H6 had long, delicate fingers, the digits of an acountant. His hand was soft. But his clasp demanded response, notwithstanding my surprise and distaste dis-taste for confidences, stray or otherwise. other-wise. "Forget it," I advised. "Losing "Los-ing money means nothing at your age." "It means misery to some older," ho replied. "My father ' A passing band of natty marines, from the Great Lawes, blaiing its invitation in-vitation to naval recruits, drowned the young man's utterance. We had reached; the jammed corner of State and Madison, where I hoped to rid myself of my unsought confidant. About to wish him good luck and push through, I was arrested by his anxious query: "Do you know anything any-thing about law? Are you a lawyer?" "No," I answered, stepping back out of the main crush. "But you're old enough to know tricks," he said, then broke off with a sardonic reference to the crowd. "Every chump in the bunch thinks I himself the whole damned shown." J "Good way for getting on in the world," I replied. "Get the habit." "I've lost It." "That's worse than the twelve hundred, hun-dred, boy." "Margins," ho confessed. "Well, just so you've learned your lesson." "From A to Z. But it wasn't all my money. My father i " "What kind of a man is your father?" "Got no money to back me up. He would if " "Married?" "No." The young man looked into my eyes with eyes of chastity. "There's no skirt in this," ho said, "just pure spec." "Well, that's to the good," I congratulated. con-gratulated. "Women complicate things. How much of the ' twelve hundred are you actually in for?" "To my firm?" So that was it. I waited to hear what I anticipated. "I expected to pay it back," asserted assert-ed the troubled chap, without saying how much. "Yes." "I can't now. How can I?- I'm broke." "How long have you been with your firm?" "Five years." "Pay fair?" ".Saved a little money. Tried the quick rich. Then " "Employers easy to appioach?" "Junior's a good sort. I don't know " "Buck up," I said, sure that the boy had himself pondered the only advice I could possibly give him. "Go to your firm. Make a clean breast of it. If you have to take medicine, take it like a man. You're young. There's no money like time." "I will," the young man replied, grasping my hand again. "I will." His soft hand seemed firmer, but it was soft. He released his clasp, thanked me and struck off across State street. It's fine to be young I had to wait for the policeman to halt the triffic. My penitent of the moment left me wondering how ho would pull himself out of his nasty hole. I am wondering still .... "No, I can't give you the time. Sorry. Fact Is, I've lost my watch." The Narrator in Town Topics. |