Show tom s fourteenth christmas by rannie hurst OWN around the bowery i christmas comes in murkily len L en more so than in the old days when there was an an air of lurid festivity to tt Is down at the I 1 eel section of the greatest metropolis of the world all that has gone now there are no more knee high blab swinging doors to invite the sor dil did reveler r or the threadbare celebrant all that remains of a pic pie tur esque yesterday are the rows of lean and lusterless buildings which house pretty shops and lunch counter eating places and men mens s hotels where the wayfarer may obtain a cot for fifteen cents and a cruller for five i corn forn mason who had a three days t growth of beard a turned up coat col cot lar and a pulled down cap visor and who walked close to the sord d build ings as if for their sordid protection was one of hundreds who presented almost precisely his personal appear ance once as christmas week descended upon the bowery iry as you would however it was impossible to keep out that permeating 7 APH DO V T tom paused before the window of a telegraph off offee ce sense of holiday there was tinsel fringe already dan bangi 1 I ng in the sooty window of a secondhand second hand shoe store on a level with the elea elated ted railroad rows of ed windows showed the dim outline of holly wreaths up in the sleeping ward of the men s hotel where tom mason was in the babit of hiring a cot for fifteen cents a night some wag had pasted a red paper santa claus a against ainest the window pane in spite of one ones s self even when one had enery reason to desire to forget or ign re christmas week elbowed its way into these murl y recesses of the city once tom lurking along as he was wont to do pausing for a wa alile ile in doorways chatting with ith ta tie e d dm in out line of figures who joined h in m tl ere and tl en an I 1 I 1 ng along ag agian tin picking up a window washing or a flo r sweep ing job here and tl ti ere paused before the plate glass window of a pl office TI tie e christmas blurbs displayed there sent a laugh along tom toni s ironic alantin slanting c mouth wire to blotier moti er let M ther hear bear from you this ct CI r st mas wire happiness to tl at acl act ing waiting heart b els ck tl ere 11 its CIris cl kristt tims MS ren rei ember rember tie tle folks bad bael home borne cl eap melodramatic appeal like this A mison alison re is ned tied I 1 id ita its pi pl ice after all at re tl an or ore e bowery bum read 04 ing tl ti ese sol ie ret tin lers mfg al t quite 4 coi cot eiva bly slink bick home to gild lien den s ire waiting heart thus 1 loni I om alabon u ambling away his furtive me nin fingless gless das dabs was apt up on n to reason or it nei e I 1 t tite ire but in st s of tl e time it was juba a cie ci e of ai al ill tit y with him one I 1 a i I 1 to t las ass tie t e das t eh w and one had to eat olt to live the s for ti tie e iest st I 1 life R with ith him loi listed of working the bev fe v hours a d necessary to put f od in hia his b dy dv and tl ti en ell to lay tl at b dy 0 a cot A failure of a in mm in if ever there was as t ne tie nr or d i fill ire fl t t to 1 a I 1 coi cot e ah at ut without any tiny reas n it deed it was nos a f that was in conel vaIe valle to tl tf u e 1 alo I 0 hid vr vi him in his ith wl en ell life I 1 id i 1 rom tit ased and even been ful fulfilled tilled to tie tte ex tent of mirrl lige ige with will a won ron in an of his s FT own exi excellent ellent s lal st SL ess in business and the of a it ne tie and fi 11 ly the dei deifie ne wien I 1 en it bean I 1 lad ad I 1 leen een and 1 c its ste t deline an 1 f 11 II of tom mison w wag IF the old s fled rel re titi us one if f ay birj elites the alien tied alte affe tl ti Is i s of 1 4 fa d liv and hr fir hen ken f rinnes 1 N 4 f it I 1 ad been f arteen years year since T n t d en ell i tere I 1 any it 11 embers it t thit td fa ily fly air aili fr ni in tl e t tane tin e he red re d in tie tl e ne vs I 1 ers ai at c ints an 1 n ales tl PS tl it t kept hin hi n in tou h with s e of its d i 1 gs 8 he ile tl knew tl it at his tl it ree 11 iren I 1 d n ir ried out of the oest f the h b e ae I 1 e ba hal I 1 crent d for the n C I 1 s q I 1 1 si sf it n hal dal ry rr ps he blew hiew it t I 1 the tile house in Briar brearcliff cliff manor that had been boegl t and paid for in the hey day of his well being was still mccu pled by the woman who was still ie gaily gally bound to him as wife he ue thought of her sometimes as he thought of everything in his apathy dimly and without affect affection lon she had been a high spirited girl who rode a horse ma magnificently and who had won him with the quality of her vl vi bality good nature and good humor whatever had bad come subsequently they had enjoyed the brief headey of bleir tl air well being together their children had come healthily and in close sue cession their found ng of the family had at the time seemed well worth the doing the changes began to come when the changes in tom torn begin to set in lurid terrible fright ening changes children who shrank from I 1 im tin A cold hating alienated wife debts decline catastrophe then tom s disappearance it was ras bitter to the man who had spent fourteen teen years striking sl aking close to the s nister buildings of the bowery to look hick upon the horror of the de cl ne tie and fall of h s empire and there was no doubt about it sneer as he would inwardly at the second rate appeal of the telegraph advertisements some of his apati y seemed to fall away from him at christmastide and an ache in his heart begin to gnaw its way ray through t more alore probably than not there were white haired mothers who would burn candle lights in windows on chrison as eve tor for recalcitrant sons who instead of returning to them would be lurk lurl ing in bowery dives on christmas eve fourteen christmases on that bowery had brought a chronic chill to the heart of tom mason after all it was impossible it if you were human not to recall happier christmases there had been happy glowing christmases in tom toms s life as a child in the home of his parents as a fa ther and husband in the home he had created for his wife and children at the home in briarcliff brearcliff Briar cliff manor there had been one christmas when his three babies just for the fun and ex cit ement of it had been brought in to the laden christmas table in an enor mons wash basket that was all deco rated in holly sprigs there had been a christmas eve in that same big house when he be and his wife had worked until past midnight decorah ing three individual christmas trees for the three babies tes yes tom even as the others who slunk through these bowery christ mases had his memories thia this christ mas for some reason or another ably because his vitality was at low est ebb the memories lay damper and heavier on his spirit than they hid bid a all the fourteen years it seemed to tom that his life was like a gray procession marching I 1 ke le gray figures one by one to his grave time and again this chr atmas as the holly wreaths began to shine dimly through tie tle dirty windows of his d s brict tom found himself asking this sinister question was this vied gray procession of his days worth the 01 4 she had been high sp and rode magn f bently living more and more frequently az a z these tl ti bugl ts squatted upon I 1 in roin found his badly shod feet wan ran dering don toward brooklyn bridge countless men and women had jumped off it for surcease from the misery of failure it seemed as good a way as any to avoid tie tl e one in rt rk nean agless Christ christmas mab and yet some I 1 low ow tl ere ft R as not in tom the cour ige or the e cardice call it wl at you vill to take this way out although all the wt wl lie ile tl ere was boiling bollin n bin hin the consciousness tl ti at another of the I 1 r sti ases sim lar or to the to fo arteen I 1 it would n t be endur ible and so in sl s te of his sol so blo irence trence of the second rue rite sent ment merit I 1 ty of tl e na write rite to mother blurbs on tl e plate abass win lo 10 v front of the telegram tele grai gral it office tom f und and h natif on I 1 r atmas eve stand ng on the p ach of the I 1 use I 1 e had bu it for h s wife in ml I 1 fim pint ly in brearcliff BrIar clifT cliff manor L tl er he I 1 ad rui rut g the bell or some one ins de had opened the do r to tl ti e ru I 1 1 I 1 ing of his to along c the ravel walk the fig ire of his wife smaller than ie le renumbered it was at in 1 ng in the do may rw ay with a igat 1 gl t ed can lie ile in her lani tan I 1 it s note q tom orn as lau faugl 1 I able that lagl ted led andle pandle all 11 II at w as needed n v was tl ti e bl anding si biow ow storm to give ghe tl tte e p deture the final me mel dram nil touch at i e in lorn torn said his wife almost in tl e of one who had been waltina an arrival and I 1 ad opened the door to greet I 1 am ini on her words the wind rind blew out tl it e candle all that tom torn fool shiy could fin I 1 to say was nos your candles gone out I 1 aul ne tie it s all right she said evenly one ne in it was only burning for you 0 by mcclure newspaper kyndt at ate sery ce |