The junior partners

Front matter

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A

Chapter XIII — Josephine Heeds the Warning 200 Chapter XIV — The Debutante - - 212

Chapter XV — Celestine Makes Another Conquest 218 Chapter XVI — The Despair of Insanity - - 237

Chapter XVII — Exit Celestine - - - 256

Chapter XVIII — The Love that Endures - 281

Judge Heron’s Investigations - 301

Same, continued 323

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Index to Illustrations

“It’s the Best Advertisement the ‘Place’ Ever Had” Frontispiece Social Agencies ----- Page x i

Celkstine Folsom ------ 3

“Professor” Bentley Ware - 9

Licensed Vice - -- -- --27

“Do Ye Suppose I’ve been in this Business Twinty Years

and Don’t Know the Ameenities av It? ” 39

A Monument of Enterprise - 47

John Hal don • $2

He Lay Down by the Wayside - gj

The Party was Unusually Hilarious - - - 98

Celestine Anticipates a Victory - - - 117

The Professor Lay, with Mangled Throat - 121

“Is this I, John Haldon?” - 125

A Lunacy Commission - - - - - -139

The Alcoholist Sees Serpents - 145

“I Struck at Him with all my Force” - 153

“The Clock in the Landing Struck Four” - - 160

Josephine Haldon - 161

“ There is No Pang to Leave the World and Go with Her” 177 In the Olden Time - - - - - - 179

“You Have the Answer; She is an American” - - 195

Leslie Montford ------ 200

A Debutante, Eager in Enquiry - - - - 212

A Yacht was Rounding upon a Return Tack - - 218

“A Scene of Beauty, and a Song of Enchantment” - 220

“Thirty-two Years!” ------ 237

Tears Fall in the Asylum as in the Home - - 249

She Had an Ample Wardrobe - 256

Dr. Horace Morton ------ 281

“ If We were in Burlington We’d All be Arrested” - 294 r

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INTRODUCTORY.

OCIAL agencies of an ordinary character, whose influences are little suspected, are at this moment working towards the degradation of human nature.

“ Each generation has enormous power over the natural gifts of those that follow, and it is a duty w r e owe to humanity, to investigate that power, and to exercise it in a way that, without being unwise to ourselves, shall be most advantageous to future inhabitants of the earth.” (Galton.)

In the consideration of the most powerful agency that impels to this degradation, the first proposition is : Alcohol overcomes the restraining power of the mind, and subjects it entirely to the influence of environment.

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INTRODUCTORY.

The next : The action of Alcohol upon the brain and nerve centers, produces mania, in intensity as the volume of Alcohol is increased. The man who stands before you, his face flushed with the excitement of Alcohol, has in his brain the same disorder, as he who stands over you with glaring eyes and uplifted knife, and who would spill your blood to satisfy a delusion.

Finally: This mania is transmitted to posterity, and it develops in some a periodical desire for Alcohol, which impels them to excesses and crimes. In others, it allows freedom of mind through youth to manhood, then leads them into the realms of insanity.

If this be true, where rests the responsibility of checking the ever-swelling streams that are pouring into those overflowing reservoirs of Dementia, named “ Asylums for the Insane”?

Those who are untainted bear the greater responsibility.

The citizen should purify his suffrage, that it add no foulness to the source. The man should put aside the thing that blasts the mind ; the woman dry her tears that they may not hide her duty to herself, and stand aloof from him who would taint her child ; and youth consign love, with all its impulses, to the control of careful reason for direction.

A mighty sickness hovers over the land, and all its

INTRODUCTORY.

xiii patients are not in asylums ; but in the palaces and in the cottages, among the offices and in the schools, are to be found the doomed victims of this sickness of the mind

NOTE.

'J'HIS work deals only with the Social and Mental Perils encountered by the use of Alcohol, and the writer has endeavored to illustrate all the phases of those perils in clean language, and with fidelity to truth.

I

CHAPTER I. Where pansies were, grew nettles

Where lilies, deadly nightshade.

I S T E R Constance, we can only sorrow that this must be.”

Sister A g n e s’ hand dropped to her side and sought the cross that hung amid the folds of her dress, as it did when thoughts endangering her soul’s welfare entered her mind, or when calamity was threatened. Checking her hand as she remembered that sorrow for the loss of friends is sinful, and a rebellion against divine purposes, she placed it on her bosom to repress the sigh that love had sent to her relief, but it escaped with its burden of grief. Tears betrayed the sorrow of Sister Constance for the loss of the favorite pupil. She was much the younger, and to her the companionship had been as a heavenly indulgence, a pleasure without sin,

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consecrated by the guidance of a soul to knowledge and, as she thought, towards Heaven. Her impulse was to question any reason that might be given for this unexpected separation.

“ She has only been with us one-half of the time necessary for the completion of her education, and it is for the interest of her future life as well as for her souls welfare that she should remain at least two years longer. She has not yet completed her musical education, nor her literary course, nor her study of languages, and just as we have the foundation finished for a lady’s accomplishments, she should not be taken away. Sister Agnes, Celestine is only seventeen and her mind is immature,” and Sister Constance went through all the argument necessary to refute imaginary reasons why her loved pupil should be called away. Sister Agnes only answered, “ The world is thoughtless.”

The sisters remained silent, each busied with the thoughts occasioned by the unwelcome decision that had been given to them by Celestine, in the form of a letter from her mother. Polite and decisive, it said, “ F or family reasons we wish Celestine with us ; please arrange for her departure on the first of next month.”

The convent bell told the hour for afternoon recreation and the song and laughter of girls filled the air.

The sisters had bidden Celestine to come to their

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reception room at that hour, and as she slowly walked across the lawn fronting its entrance her beauty was intensified by the full sunlight that poured upon her and illumined her tawny hair with golden tints that changed as she came into the shadow of the building to a violet shimmer, and in the denser shade of the entrance to a deep brown gloss, a peculiarity which conveyed to the observer the sense of her sometimes being a blonde, again a brunette, and in a mild light a bewilderment.

In the arrangement of her hair there was a peculiarity consistent with that of its color. Cut to a medium length, a wave rolled from her low forehead, on either side, and fell over her head in ripples that broke to splashes about her ears and among the laces around her neck, as if at some time it had resolved to unfold from curls but had desisted when the intent was half accomplished; and the smile, that upon a side view, broke from a dimple upon her cheek and flashed across the full red lips in suggestive waves, became a confiding radiance in the full face, spreading around the soft brown eyes and filling their depths with a look of innocent trust.

The sisters had pointed other young ladies of the school to her modest deportment as an example for emulation. Her dress was high about the neck, admirably fitted, but its mission seemed to be a revealment of a perfect bust, a long and shapely waist,

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and finely molded arms. It was of that fit, the nature and details of which are an unsolvable mystery to man, but which conveys the form to his knowledge, as of a statue unveiled.

These worldly thoughts had no place in the reflections of the sisters, who stood by the window and kept her company with loving eyes until she had passed from their sight within the entrance. They looked upon her as a loved pupil whose actions were obedient, modest and deferential, and who had studiously given them every reason for approval. Her respect for rules and reverence for sacred things had won their esteem. As their pure eyes saw only purity and innocence they gave her their love. They had hoped for her entrance into the folds of their Church.

During the afternoon Celestine had studied the proper thing to say when meeting the sisters in the reception room, and this, from among several forms, was her choice: “Sister Agnes, no words can tell my sorrow.”

As she spoke a shadow of grief came over her face, she placed her hand upon the shoulder of Sister Constance and dropped her head upon it. Responsive tears were in the eyes of Sister Constance, but none were in Celestine’s eyes. Sister Agnes thought her sorrow too deep for tears, but from childhood to that hour tears had never brimmed the eyes of Celestine Folsom.

Advice for future good having been given by Sister Agnes, and wishes for happiness and friends without number by Sister Constance, full arrangements were made for her departure.

The day came, bringing with it genuine sorrow for the sisters and some of the pupils, but no striking manifestations by Celestine, except an appropriate solemnity of features and a low spoken goodbye. As the convent school was located in Indiana and her home was in Northern Illinois, she would spend a whole day upon the train and arrive at home in the evening. She would change cars at Chicago. The sisters had lovingly thought of her comfort and secured for her a place in a Pullman car as far as that city.

After arranging her dress and herself to advantage in the seat reserved for her, she looked around to see among what manner of people she was. To her, they were all commonplace except one. This was a gentleman of middle age occupying a section next below the one opposite hers, and who sat with his face toward her. She could look beyond him to the end of the car and still note every movement and glance. She soon noticed that she compelled his attention and she became interested. She knew that this attention was not of the vulgar sort. By his

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dress as well as by his respectful manner and speiech to those around him, she knew that he was a gentleman. By this speech, which from her position she could hear, she knew also that he was an educated and an intelligent man.

The social freedom of American travel soon led the way to an acquaintance, after which he gave her the courteous attention due to a woman journeying alone. I n subsequent conversation he asked her name, which he repeated twice ; asked her where she had been ; who her people were ; and he pleased her with delicate compliment. He escorted her to, and saw her seated in a favorable and comfortable position in the train that passed her home, and as he bade her goodbye he handed her a card. Her face lighted with a confiding smile. He saw that smile and the deep brown eyes in the memory of after years. The card read, “John Haldon, Chicago.” Celestine put it away in an inner pocket of her reticule.

Chapter II

A decent place, my masters, yet in it men die, and are not buried.

OWMAN, is there anything to be got from that party, in my line?”

The man addressed, after deliberately admitting this proposition into his mind as being somewhat feasible and perhaps profitable, took a reflective position that assured his companion of the interest which his idea had inspired, and being confident of a satisfactory solution of the problem, continued silent, lighted a fresh cigar and made deep draughts upon its Cuban fragrance.

Upon the streets a vigorous north-easter was tossing the dry snow which had been falling all day, and . piling it in huge drifts where cross currents checked the force of the storm. Street cars having fought their battle and suffered defeat early in the day, now

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stood empty and disconsolate up and down the tracks. Suburban trains had continued the warfare well into the afternoon, then capitulated, and massed their engines which forced their way to the round houses and went to sleep, leaving business Chicago to remain down town, or to get home as best it might.

The cold winds of Michigan threw upon the piers and along the front icy breakers that drove their chilling echoes through the storm, from . street to street. Herdics, hacks and omnibuses moved slowly and silently with clogged wheels and steaming and tired horses, conveying those who must or would reach home; but thousands, accepting the excuse which was sure to be recognized there, remained in the business centre for the night. Merchants and salesmen sought their customers in the hotels, or gathered in congenial coteries, and dinner mingled with wine laid the foundation for license of thought and action.

“ Well, Professor,” said Lowman, after a silence so long continued that this individual began to entertain doubts of his ability to reach conclusions, “ there is something to be got from any party that drinks whisky, but these men are mighty particular who gets in with ’em, and if they knew just all about you, would give you the cold shoulder for good ; might ask you to take a drink, if you was around when they was out for a time ; they’d ask anybody they

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thought wanted one ; but as to getting to be one of the company, you might as well try to make a hot punch out of ice cream. You know enough about them kind of people to know they don’t have to go searching round for somebody to chum with, but can take their pick as company comes along. They’re educated way up, too ; they’ve been brought up in business right here in Chicago, and you know what that means ; it means they are sharp as tacks, and there ain’t but one thing that will ‘ fetch ’em,’ and that’s whisky.”

“ Fetch ’em ?” said the Professor, “just what do you mean by that ? They do not drink such great quantities, are never drunk, and as they look pretty healthy and seem to stand it well, I do not exactly get the force of your term ‘ fetch ’em.’ ”

“Well, Professor, I forgot you’d never been in my line of business, and hadn’t made a study of how that thing acts on that kind of men ; and when I say whisky, I mean anything that will make a man drunk ; they’re all alike, only flavored different, and when I say fetch ’em, I don’t mean kill ’em, or even to get ’em drunk. I’ll just illustrate what I mean. You see that man Haldon out there. He come to this town when he was a youngster, and he was just as fine a looking youngster as he is a fine looking man now. He was just out of school, and a thurrer education he had, too. Well, he went clerking in

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Stetson and Burley’s, that big house over there on Wabash avenue. He’s a partner there now, and he got to be a salesman in a little while after he went in, and used to do what them people call ‘ entertain customers.’ You know old Stetson is a church-man; Burley is too, I guess ; anyway, they never .entertained; used to use liquor at home, though, ’cause when I kept the 1 Thistle’ over there on State street, Burley used to buy Scotch whisky of me in the winter, and Stetson bought lots of cognac brandy and Bass’ ale at all times of the year. They both trade with me now, but never come here.

“ Well, as I was saying about Haldon, when he was entertainin’ he’d bring his customers around to the ‘Thistle,’ ’cause I had it fitted up nice and knew how to treat folks and kept the very best there was to be had. He didn’t drink much then, but the way he’d fill up them countrymen, and show ’em things around town, and take ’em into the store next day and sell ’em all and more than they came to town for, was the remark of all the trade.

“He was sharp, too. He knew they was most all willing to mix pleasure with business, and if they went out with a man like himself, that they trusted, and knew never would tell things they said or did, they would be off their guard and sorter let themselves out, and then, you see, he had ’em for all they wanted. He spent lots of money on ’em, too, and

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the firm never questioned his expenses for entertaining, and they must have known what the money went for, but you see the orders next day was what they was looking after, and as they always got ’em, they kept still.

“Well, you know it’s natural if a man drinks every day, as he had to with his customers, and he had lots of friends too, that such thin drinks as ale and wine don’t seem to touch the spot, so he got to taking whisky sours and such, and drank regular day times, and once in a while them country men and him would get on a regular time, but nothing was ever said of it, for money would pay all damages, and he had plenty. Some other house offered him big money, but Stetson and Burley couldn’t spare him, so he was let into the firm, and then it was Stetson, Burley & Co. Haldon is the company.

“ I never knew of his playing cards until about two years after he went into the firm. One night, it was about such a night as this only not so bad, him and the head salesman in a big wholesale clothing house, and a partner in a big dry-goods house, and a big merchant from Denver, came into my place about eleven o’clock ; ’twasn’t the first place they’d been in, and I see they was in for a time ; the Denver man was a customer and they was entertaining him. I was on watch myself that night and was supposed to close up at twelve o’clock, but with a party like

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that in my place I’d keep open all summer. They had money enough with ’em to buy out half a dozen such places as mine was then, and after they’d taken a round or two at the bar, went into the private room. They called for cards and ordered a half dozen ‘extra dry ’ put on ice. When I took the first bottle in, it was a surprise party for me. They had the table half covered with bills and was playing poker. I had to stay and wait on ’em, of course, and at twelve I locked the door and went into the room to look on.

“ Professor, the way them people played poker was a sight to look at. They didn’t know nothing about playing for keeps, and if one of them lost a fifty on a hand it was all right, get it back next hand. If you’d been there you’d had every note on the table in an hour, and they play just that way now ; don’t lose much ; if they do, don’t mind it ; plenty more where that came from.

“ And the amount they drank, well, that don’t surprise me, for you see I know how it is, nobody ever sees ’em drunk, they never get drunk. You see, they’re well fed, and have strong brains ; drink every day, year after year, making the doses bigger gradual, and they can always handle themselves. Why, Professor, I know men that come here and drink enough in a day to make me drunk a month, and their friends and families don’t know they drink regular, but just think they take a glass once in a while when they

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don’t feel well. I could surprise some folks, I’m telling- you, but it’ll fetch ’em in the end.

“You see, whisky acts this way on a man, and I don’t care how good a man he is either ; he kinder seems to forget himself. Some folks think that it just brings out what’s in a man, but I know that’s all gammon, it only fixes him so he’ll agree with anything that’s going on around him, and just naturally does up his judgment, and the longer they drink, the easier it is to get away with ’em. Ain’t stinginess natural with some folks? Well, I’ve seen them kind of fellers just throw away money when they got full ; they most always do it. I tell you that whisky puts into a man what ain’t naturally there, every time. I don’t care if he only takes one drink, he’s that far gone. What does a fellow drink for, when he goes to a ball? ’Cause he knows he’ll feel just according to what’s going on around him, and if the women are good, he’ll be only lively and entertaining, but if they’re bad, it satisfies him all the same, and he does according to their ideas ; and a woman that drinks — well, she’s just awful ; and ain’t women naturally good ? Yes, a heap sight better than men, and where does it send them to ?

“ Now, it’s as easy as nothing to get what you want out of that party, if you get about it right. I ain’t got much eddication, but I know a heap about this business.

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“If you can get in with ’em, so they’ll think you are a man of some decent standing, you wouldn’t want any better thing, but you’ll have to be pretty slick. They’re round a good deal ; you’d meet ’em pretty often ; and if, after a while, they should find out things about you, they couldn’t shake you altogether, ’cause while they was learning you, you could be making points on them, and if you’re smart, get ’em into some things they wouldn’t like to ha^e known, and then you’d have ’em.

“ Now, I’ll tell you, Professor, one thing, I ain’t here just for fun. Them people all like me and wouldn’t believe that I’d do anything that wasn’t for their interest, and if I’d introduce you as a gentleman and business man, they’d consider you, and I am going to be plain with you. If ’twasn’t for me, you couldn’t get there at all, and whatever you make, I want a divvy. You can hold your own with ’em; you know about mining and western stock-raising ; you know more about cattle than they do ; you can be a stock man from — let’s see, where you’re from ?

1 1 must be pretty far west, ’cause them people are well acquainted most all over the United States, and would be asking if you knew this one, and that one, in most any town you was a mind to mention, this side of the Rockies. I’ll introduce you as a stock man from Idaho, and you hadn’t better be from any of the larger towns, like Boise City, either. I’ll just say

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from Idaho, and when they want to know your location, you can tell ’em your range is near some little place in the territory, and you make that your headquarters, when you are at home. You mustn’t pick out any place that’s got more than a one-horse country store ; if you do, they’re sure to be better acquainted there than you are, and will get right onto you. F alse pretenses will have to have a fine edge if you fool them kind of people.”

Much of this advice was not needed to strengthen the Professor’s expected relations with the Haldon party. The habit of acquiring knowledge by observation, and its appliance by imitation, enabled him to deport himself agreeably among all classes. He was the son of a woman who called herself a widow, and who, in unguarded moments of self-laudation, boasted of relationship and former association with people of intellectual and social strength, but who avoided definite details when referring to her past history. He began life in the upper back-room of a Clark street tenement. Of his own family history he knew nothing. He knew that when his mother went to her work she left him with the woman next door, and that she paid the woman for services never rendered, but who, as soon as his mother was well away, allowed him free range of the halls and adjoining alleys, and even at the early age of four years he was shrewd enough

to conceal from his mother the fact that her solicitude 2 i

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for his welfare was being imposed upon ; for the company in the alley suited him, and the inattention of the woman next door pleased him. He knew that at the age of six he was sent away to school, and that before he was sent, was well dressed and had a nice reserve of clothing ; he knew that some one paid his board at school, but never knew who ; and, as the school did not suit him, he left it at the age of eight, and beat and begged his way to New York, and never saw his mother again, and she never looked him up. ■

Somewhere along the line of his ancestry there was a progenitor of great ability, and some of his qualities were transmitted to the Professor. In the same line must have been a black sheep, not of the family but of the race, be it Saxon, Celtic, or Gaelic, he knew not, and from him to the Professor there was a clean transmission of heredity, a sealed package expressed through ancestry and delivered in perfect condition, without the loss of an attribute.

His employment in New York comprised the whole line of light service, from errand boy to telegraph messenger. Anything in which a chance presented itself to get something for nothing, was entirely in his line also. Various sums of money and articles of value, lying contiguous to his sphere of action, disappeared and no trace could be found of them afterwards. At the age of twelve, an adventur-

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ess who had corresponded with a wealthy cattle rancher, near Denver, and who for the furtherance of her schemes had need of a son about his age, took him there with her, and so successfully did he assume the character that the old gentleman fell in love with him, as well as his supposed mother, and by the aid of their combined shrewdness, they swindled the rancher out of a fine sum of money, gracefully and effectually. He then used his knowledge to his ov/n advantage, made the woman divide, left her and drifted, went on cattle ranges, into new mining towns, anywhere that promised a field for financial operations, yielding large returns for small or no investment. A gentleman in appearance, suave and attractive in manner, and an adept at cards and all social games, he was enabled with the first qualities to enter wealthy circles, and with the latter to profit thereby.

He was supposed to be a geologist, and from this belief arose his familiar appellation of “ Professor.” He had learned from observation and some superficial study to know the different kinds of minerals contained in rocks of different colors and peculiarities. This constituted his full knowledge of geology. He would occasionally “grub stake” an impecunious or dissipated miner and cheat him out of the results of his find. He never spent a dollar for a good purpose in his life, except once. He bought a revolver and

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killed a man of his own class who, he feared, if opportunity offered, would do the same to him, and he shot him in the back. In his drifting he drifted to Chicago, and had plenty of money to invest in anything that would pay a handsome dividend. This was “ Professor ” Bentley Ware. Lowman knew of his history and his character ; he also was full aware of his evil intentions.

What can be said of the influence and tendency of a business the members of which will present a man of Ware’s class to the company of gentlemen who are customers and friends, for the ultimate purpose of illegitimate gain ? With occasional exceptions, this, or other methods leading to the same result, is used among all grades of saloons, from the gilded palace of the city that pays a royal license to the skulking cabin in the mountains that evades the revenue. This is a feature of the business.

The foregoing conversation and scheming took place in the private office of what was popularly known as “ Lowman and Stone’s Place.” This designation was grateful to the partners of the firm, especially so to Lowman, whose aim when establishing the business was not to cloak its real nature from the general public, but to eliminate as far as possible from the popular mind the idea of a common saloon. At various times during his career Lowman had transacted business under such names as “ The