Show i Enthusiasm 99 I J I F AM LI one ODe grows crows older sometimes In- In ate things because of or an unusual r Inspire a feeling of love or orl Antipathy Antipathy as 08 acute as one may have Jo a human being A certain color a perfume a 8 phrase will brIn bring back ft n vivid memory and one relives s In an nn put pint sorrows or Vr jo JOYS s Now there Is that word enthusiasm asa It used to mean menn nothing g to me Except something I once possessed 1 and lost Jost Jo t with the years but hereafter it Jt will give me rue a n shiver whenever I see Jt it You see fIe It was OS the enthusiasm m of friend that led me into it New York women omen are divided fash tash- fashionably into two classes Tho Those e who put ut But on spring styles in midwinter and those who know nothing about clothes pave ve as ns a protection but who lead In Altruistic aJ schemes and reforms reform The are never interesting The lat- lat are ore interesting sometimes and aneS always human My friend of ot e 8 enthusiasm m belonged t to the latter L She bhe was wa th the first woman In n America to rs make a kit for tor a soldier in the E Ean Eu an war and as her ber acquaintance th mans man's needs is meager menger we hoped I Ike e man who got it had bad a sense of at hu- hu iBor She was the first woman in New York to adopt a Belgian baby and when she be gave it up because It Jt failed to lo thrive under tinder her devoted care she took look to psychic analysis to find out at ailed her ber soul HOUI Then she he adopt adopt- pp a convict J You Yon must adopt one too she said Bald over with enthusiasm I Will write to Washington and get n a for tor you ou one who needs pe- pe special cial dal cheering up Then you rou must write a weekly letter Jetter to him putting sunne sun sun- i bine ne into every word I But Bet suppose suppose- I I will find tind one TV wh who ho will take you rou nt of ot yourself one who needs the and aneS enC encouragement of ot kind words Think what it means to spend b ae's aes es e's days dars and nights in a dark lonely Cell eating out ones one's heart and coarse tread ead and no flowers and never a dolly dony r a picture or a ray of ot sunshine to the midnight hours hours' Oh It takes my heart ache I But suppose suppose- Suppose nothing I Think of ot hl his im mortal aortal soul Think of ot his hungry Heart Why growing more enthusiastic You Ton could send seneS him a box of ot yom om cooking It might help some Then en as if trying to get away sway from fromA A I dubious thought she added Think el of hi bl his lonesomeness To Te one who returns annually from tbt West Wet that ODe one may learn a few tew sore more games of solitaire the appeal to J ake life less lonely for tor a u fellow tellow is Irresistible I had bad resisted i toll leer her other altruistic schemes I fell teU for lor the convict and a desirable one one Eras B at once applied forI for I had bad insisted that he bo be located a along Jong long way off She found him in a n ce cell l lIn In Texas I had also In Insisted that hebe he hebe hebe be sent up for life Ufe If I had bad to adopt a n D man i I wanted him safely behind tiara She he found a a I ll serving a life lite term term farm for ter killing his his his' wife I But you J reter to that that said my friend After nil all that doesn't concern you I agre agreed d with witt b her her- if it it had been one of my kin he killed I might have bave the the right ca casually of course andin and andIn In 10 an offhand manner to mention it or I might hint at it Il delicately lr in a postscript but as she was no o kin to tome tome tome me and thOe the superabundance of ot women IB IS going to be the worlds world's next big problem I had bad no no right t. t to remind him of t Ids his ignorant attempt to solve it He was a Russian age thirty-one thirty and badil had bad il served ed ten year years He had bad km killed d his bin wife because she was was untrue to him This at least was more human than tf Ld he be had killed her because she ehe re re- Jed ed to be content with the backbone PI the chicken or had failed to II sew sewn W n buttons It showed that he hade had e heart beart For or many weeks weeks the the corret corre correspondence was bras conducted with great at difficulty on my my part and indifference on his There was t PO FO n much I 1 could not say eay I 1 couldn't t talk of ot the past he bad no nomore nomore nomore more future than a rabbit In end and the present is never interesting I tried the weather but after I had bad censored censored censored cen cen- one letter Jetter till there was nothing left but Dear Ivan It If is cold today I decided such a a letter wouldn't remind remind remind re re- re- re mind him ot or his bis soul and tried poetry Poetry b because no one reads it It is al always always always al- al ways safe I sent him a poem about The Spirit on Its Wings Say he wrote back do you take me for a schoolteacher T dont don't believe believe be be- lieve T like this being adopted d Then one day daYI In desperation ration over m my failure as ns a sunshine dispenser 1 I wrote him a funny little story His reply astonished me he said he bad had laughed the first time since ninth he was sent up After that I made a n s systematic ste InoUe matic collection of ot every funny story jOke joke and conundrum I could find and for tor fear I might forget I carried with me a special notebook bound in stripes of ot black and white My methods for bringing the sunshine sunshine sun- sun shine Into his life were not approved by my enthusiastic friend She said I failed to appeal to his bis soul UC I edly dt Idl I did for tor never once did did he U h write that In my letters made mado his bin spirit soar My Mr enthusiastic friends friend's convict wrote her Your letters are ore an inspiration They stir sUr my soul to its depths Dear friend will you send me me all nU of ot that poem by Shelley from which you quoted the line A star which moves not mid the tho moving heavens alone My convict wrote Say Sar miss that was S a ft good- good goodone one about the cured ham hum that had bad a relapse relapse re- re lapse and say eay do you know the tho address address ad ad- dl dress S of ot the girl who said suld if It she Is a chicken she sho must be bo a Rhode Island Red because she lives In Rhode Island and has red hair I have red hair too We had bread and sorghum for tor supper supper supper sup sup- per last night Know any Jokes about bread brend and and sorghum 7 Might make it go down better And SU say prices must be terrible If It that woman really did dieS telephone her butcher for tor a dollars dollar's I worth of ot meat and ask him to stick lUck it I through the tho keyhole If It ho hu found no noone noone noone one home I laughed out loud In chapel thinking about it and got called down something fierce Do you know any more moro riddles Im I'm sm smart rt at riddles rid rid- dIes My enthusiastic friend objected so 10 strongly to the lack luck of ot uplift In my letters that In the next one I dropped In n a lot of ot beautiful sentiments I found In a book of ot poems They were so 80 beautiful I co could ld eat ent no supper after after after af af- ter writing them I felt that hunger at nt such moments was a 3 vulgarity Say miss ho replied cut that I II II I no Harvard graduate I was away awny from New York for tor t two o months in the fall tall during which I neglected neglected neg neg- my duties of ot guardianship to such Buch an extent tha that I finally did not write at nt all nIl and and my convict slipped sUpped from my memory I had been back two days when the telephone operator Called colled me up to soy say there was n man downstairs who S said ld he must see me should she send him up I told her herI I would see him A few minutes later I was facing the wicked wickedest cst looking piece of humanity I had bad ever beheld I C cant can't nt describe him I know ow I never saw a mor more brutal I 1 want to see her ber ho said eald roughly pushing by me into my sitting room He lie took n a dirty envelope from his pocket and unfolded It showed me my signature over which were the words Your guardian and friend And I want wont to see her quick None of ot your fooling no now Where Is 18 she fIt fItI I looked from my signature to the address on the the- envelope It n WOI ns my convict i Then I took another another an no- other look nt fit the roan man and trembled She She she I stammered I la ta lagone gone Ill In watt till she comes conies back She's adopted me Inc and Ive I've come home Say Sar has she he any money She will never come back hack I managed managed man mon aged to say I suppose I looked inked l ked overcome with emotion I 1 k know ow I was never more frightened I You dont don't mean he ho burst out with an oath that she Is dead I shook my head to give assent I Ido Ido Ido do not know what he hc replied I know I n never vcr heard such an nn assortment of ot bad words st strung ung so rapidly together I rang for the the janitor to put him out and seeing what hat hatus was us coming he got up up to go Just like you Jou women he said between oaths d dying Ing just when you ou are arc needed I thought I had struck It soft sort for life Then h he left leU and I collapsed Someone on that prison reform board I In Washington had blundered and Instead instead instead in In- stead of ot cheering a man sent up for tor life Ufe t I I had bad been scattering sunshine over o a common thug with less than thana a year rear to serve sen-e 1 My y enthusiastic friend did not urge me to try It again She had bad given up her ber convict con some BOmo months before had almost forgotten the incident and wo was devoting her life to u search for tor her hel helBurn aura Burn or something like that I couldn't understand what she would do with it j jIt If It she found It She explained but It was wal too much for me toe I She doesn't see anything strange in that hint word enthusiasm Francis enthusiasm Francis L. L in the Kansas City Star Sture |