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Show .CopvriqhtJby DoubleSay. Page 4 Company. preme agony drew close, this whispering whisper-ing became continuous: "In making my first apearance before this honor'-ble honor'-ble membership I feel constrained to say In making my first appearance before be-fore this honor'ile membership I fee! constrained to say In making my, first appearance before this honor'ble mem i ... It had come. The chairman announced the subject of the fourta freshman twelve-minute debate; end Dora Yocum, hitherto unpereelved by Ramsey, rose and went forward to one of the small desks In the open space, where she stood composedly, a slim, pretty figure in white. Members In Ramsey's neighborhood were aware of ' a brief and hushed commotion, and a fierce whisper, "You can't! You get up there 1" And the blanched Ramsey came forth and placed himself at the other desk. . He , stood., before the silent, populace popu-lace of that morgue,' and It seemed t6 hlra that his features had forgotten that he was supposed to be their owner own-er and In control of them; he felt that they were slipping all over his face, regardless of his wishes. His head, as a whole, was subject to an agitation agita-tion not before known by him ; It desired de-sired to move rustlly In eccentric ways of Us own devising ; his legs alternately alternate-ly Umbered and straightened under no direction but their own ; and his hands clutched each other fiercely behind his back ; he was not one cohesive person, evidently, but an assembled collection of parts which had relapsed each Into lis own Individuality. In spite of them, be somehow contrived the semblance : of a bow toward.the chairman and the semblance of another toward Dora, of whom he ' was but hazily conscious. Then he opened his mouth and, not 1 knowing how he had started his voice going, heard It as If from a distance. "In making my first appearance before be-fore this honor'ble membership I feel restrained to say " He stopped short, and thenceforward shook vlsi- but they aren't Dutch, though gomf times called Dutch In this country. Well, and so so, well, the war began last August or about then, anyway, and the German army invaded the Belgian Bel-gian army. After they got there, the invasion begun. First, they came around there and then they commenced com-menced Invading. Well, what I feel constrained " lie came to the longest of all his pauses here, and the awful gravity of the audience almost suffocated him. "Well," he concluded, "It don't look right to me." "Four minutes !" the chairman announced, an-nounced, for Ramsey's pauses had worn away a great deal more of this terrible Interval than had his eloquence. elo-quence. "Opening statement for the negative: Miss D. Yocum. Four minutes." min-utes." As Dora began to speak, Ramsey experienced a little relief, but only a little about the same amount of relief as that felt by a bridegroom when it is the bride's turn to "respond," not really relief at all, but merely the slight relaxation of a continuing strain. The audience now looked at Ramsey no more than people look at a bridegroom, but he failed to perceive any substantial mitigation of his frightful consplcuousness. He had not the remotest idea of what he had said In setting forth his case for Germany, and he knew that It was his duty to listen closely to Dora, In order to be able 'to refute her argument when his two-minute closing speech fell due ; but he was conscious of little more than his own condition. His legs had nonr gone wild beyond all devilry, and he had to keep shifting his weight from one to the other in order even to hope that their frenzy might escape gen-i gen-i eral attention. . He realized that Dora was speaking rapidly and confidently, and that somewhere some-where In his Ill-assembled parts lurked a familiar bit of him that objected to her even nSore than usual ; but she had used half of her time, at least, before he was able to gather any coherent meaning from what she was -saying. Even then he caught only a fragment, here and there, and for the rest so far as Ramsey was concerned she might as well have been reciting the Swedish alphabet. In spite of the rather startling feebleness fee-bleness of her opponent' statement, Dora went at her task as earnestly as if It were to confute some monster of casuistry. "Thus, having demonstrated, demonstrat-ed, that all war Is wrong," she said, approaching ap-proaching her conclusion, "it Is scarcely scarce-ly necessary to point out that whatever what-ever the actual circumstances -of the Invasion, and whatever the status of the case In international law, or by reason of treaty, or the German oath to respect the neutrality of Belgium, which of course was grossly and dishonorably dis-honorably violated all this, I say, ladles la-dles and gentlemen of the Lumen society, so-ciety, ail this ia beside the point of morals. Since, as I have shown, all war is wrong, the case may be simplified simpli-fied as follows : All war Is morally wrong. Quod erat demonstrandum. Germany Invaded Belgium. Invasion Is war. Germany; therefore, did .moral wrong. Upon the legal side, as I began by pointing out, Germany confessed in the reichstag the violation of law. Therefore, Germany was Justified In the Invasion neither morally nor legally legal-ly ; but was both morally and legally wrong and evil. Ladles and gentlemen of the Lumen society, I await the refutation of my opponent I" Her opponent appeared to be having enough trouble with his leg3, without taking any added cares upon himself In the way of refutations. But the marvelous Dora had calculated the length of her statement with such nicety that the chairman announced "Four minutes;" almost upon the Instant In-stant of her final syllable; and all faces turned once more to the upholder uphold-er of the affirmative. "Refutation and conclusion by the affirmative," said the chairman. "Mr. R. Mllholland. Two minutes." Therewith, Ramsey coughed as long as he could cough, and when he felt that no more should be done In this way, he wiped his face again an act of necessity and qimverlugly began: "Gentlemen and ladles, or ladles and gentlemen, In making the refutation of my opponent, I feel that I feel that hardly anything more ought to be said." He paused, looked helplessly at his uncontrollable legs, and resumed : "I am supposed to make he reputa the refutation of my opponent, and I feel that I ought to say quite a deal more. In the first place, I feel that the Invasion Inva-sion has taken place. I am supposed anyhow I got a postal card that I am supposed to be here tonight. Well, in talking over this matter with a couple cou-ple of seniors, they told me I was supposed sup-posed to claim this invasion was mor'ly and legally all right. Weil" Here, by some chance, the recollection of word of Dora's flickered Into hta chaotic cha-otic mLnd. and he had a brighter moment. mo-ment. "My opponent said she proved all war Is wrong or something like that, anyhow. She said she proved It was wrong to fight, no matter what. Well, if she wasn't a girl, anybdy that wanted to get her to fight could prob'ly do It." He did not idd that he would be the person to -nuke the experiment ex-periment (If Dora werep f a girl), nor did the thought enter his mind until an hour or sn later. "Well," he added. "I suppese there Is little more to he said." ! I It be-omei understood that i Ramsey it a woman-hater. (TO BE CONTINUED.) I 3 f THE DEBATE. Srnopsls. With his grandfather, small Ramsey Mllholland Is watching watch-ing the "Decoration Day Parade" In the home town. The old gentleman, gentle-man, a veteran of the Civil war. endeavors to Impress the younff-ter younff-ter with the significance of the great conflict, and many years afterward aft-erward the boy was to remember his words with startling vividness. In the schoolroom, a few years afterward, Ramsey Is not distinguished distin-guished for remarkable ability, though hla pronounced dislikes are arithmetic. "Recitations" and German. Ger-man. In sharp contrast to Ramsey's Ram-sey's backwardness Ls the precocity 1 of little Dora Yocum, a young lady whom In his bitterness he denominate denomi-nate "Teacher's Pet." In high school, where ha and Dora are classmates, Ramsey continues to fel that the gU-1 delights to manifest mani-fest her superiority, and the vln-dlctlvenesa vln-dlctlvenesa he generates becomea -alarroihg; culminating In th. resolution, reso-lution, that some day . ha "will "show" her. At a clasa pfcnlc Ramsey Ram-sey jis captured bae and baggage by Mllla Rust, the class beauty, and endures the agonies of bis flrat love. Ramsey's parents object to Mllla and wish We'd taken up with Dora Yocum. Ramsey kisses Mllla. Then Mllla suddenly leaves town. She marries. Ramsey enters the state university and there is Dora Yocum again. n , itj CHAPTER VH. Continued. Concluding his reading, which was eral, the volatile Mitchell made use of his voice In a manner of heathenish bolstemusness, and presently reclined upon a lounge to laugh the better. . His . . stricken comrade, meanwhile, recovered recov-ered so far as to pace the floor. ' "I'm goln' to pack up and light out for home!" he declared over and over. And even oftener he read and reread the card to make sure of the actuality actual-ity of that fatal coincidence, "D. Yocum. Yo-cum. IS." "If 1 could do It," he vociferated, "If I could stand up there and debate one o' their darn ole debates in the first place If I had the gall to even try It, why, my gosh I you don't suppose sup-pose Tm , goli' to get up there and argue with that girl,, do you? That's a hot way to. get an education:, stand up there and argue with a girl before J a couple ' hundred people! My , gosh I" - "You got tot" his prostrate companion compan-ion cackled, weakly. "You can't get i out of It. You're a goner, ole Buddy !" "I'll be sick, I'll be sick as a dog! HI be sick as the sickest dog that ever " "No use, ole man. The frat genlors'll be on the job. They'll know whether you're sick or not, and they'll have you there, right on the spot to the minute!" The prediction was accurate. The too fatherly "frat seniors" did all that ; Fred said they would, and more. For the 'lionor of the "frat," they coached the desperate Ramsey in the technic ; of Lumen debate, told him many more ; things to say than could he said in : six minutes, and produced him, despairing, de-spairing, ghastly and betiewed, In the large hall of the Lumen society at eight o'clock on Friday evening. Four other "twelve-minute debates" preceded his and the sound of these. In Ramsey's ears, was the sound of Gabriel practising on his horn In the early morning of Judgment day. The members of the society sat, three rows deep, along the vails of the room, leaving a clear oblong of green carpet car-pet In the center, where were two small desks, twenty feet apart, the rostrums of the debaters. Upon a platform at the head of the room-sat dreadful seniors, the officers of the society, and, upon benches near the platform, the debaters of the evening were aligned. One of the fraternal Heritors sat with sweltering Ramsey; nnd the latter, as his time relentlessly nine nearer, made a lust miserable wiutnn. "Iok here. Brother Colburn, I got t get out o' here." "No, you don't, young fellow." "Yes, I do!" Ramsey whispered, passionately. pas-sionately. "Honest, I do. Honest. Brnthur Colburn. I got to get 'a' drink of water. I got to I" "No. You can't." "Honest. Colburn, I got ' " "Hush I" Ramsey cast his dilating eyes nlong the rows of faces. Most of them were but as blurs, swimming, yet he was ware (he thought) of a formidable nd horrible impassive scrutiny of Almself, a glare seeming to pierce through him to the back of the belt round his waist, so that he began to have fearful doubts about that belt, bout every fastening and adjustment of his garments, about the expression of his countenance, and many other things Jumbling together In his consciousness. con-sciousness. Over and over he whispered whis-pered gaspingly to himself the opening open-ing words of the sentence with which 0 senior had advised him t begin his jcryinm-iii Ai-d as the moment of su- He Came to the Longest of All His Pauses Here, and the Awful Gravity of the Audience Almost Suffocated Him. biy. After a long pause, he managed to repeat his opening, stopped again, swallowed many times, produced a handkerchief and wiped his face, an act of necessity then had an Inspiration. Inspira-tion. "The subject assigned to me," ho said, "ls resolved that Germany IJ mor'ly and legally Justified In Bel glnns Belgium ! This subject wns assigned to me to be the subject of this debate." He interrupted himself to gasp plteously. found breatlil.ig difficult, dif-ficult, but faltered on again : "This snhject ls the subject. It ls the subject sub-ject that was assigned to me on a postal card." Then, for a moment or so. he had a miraculous spurt of confidence, confi-dence, and continued, rather rapidly: "I feel constrained to say that the country of Belgian Belgium, I n,enn- this country has been constrained by the Invaded I mean Invaded by the Imperial German Implre and my subject sub-ject In tills debate Is whether it ought to or not, my beln? the Infernatlve, affirmative I mean that I get to prove that Germany Is mor'ly and legally justified. I wlrh to state that" , He paused again, lengthily, then struggled on. "I have been requested to state that the German Imp Empire that It certainly Isn't right for those Dutch Germans. I mean they haven't got any more business In Belgium than 1 have myself, hut I I feel constrained to say that I had to accept whatever side of this debate I get on the postal card, nnd so I am constrained to tske the sh!e of the Dutch. I menu the Germans. The Dut"h are sometimes ealleJ I mean the Germans are sometimes some-times called the Dutch In this country, |
