Newspaper Page Text
The Day
Resurgent
The New Life Easter Gave
to Danny McCree.
By 0. HENRY.
Copyright, 1910, by Doubleday, Page
& Co.
I can see the artist bite the end of
his pencil and frown when it comes
to drawing his Easter picture* for his
legitimate pictorial conceptions of fig
ures pertinent to the festival are but
four in number.
First comes Easter, pagan goddess
of spring. Here his fancy may have
free play. A beautiful maiden with
decorative hair and the proper num
ber of toes will fill the bill. Miss
Clarice St. Vavasour, the well known
model, will pose for it in the "lether
gogallagher" or whatever it was that
Trilby called it.
Second, the melancholy lady with
upturned eyes in a framework of lilies
This is magazine covery, but reliable.
Third, Miss Manhattan in the Fifth
avenue Easter Sunday parade.
Fourth, Maggie Murphy with a new
red feather in her old straw hat, hap
py and self conscious, in the Grand
street turnout.
Of course the rabbits do not count.
Nor the Easter egg, since the higher
criticism has hard boiled them.
The limited field of its pictorial pos
sibilities proves that Easter, of all our
festival days, is the most vague and
shifting in our conception. It belongs
to all religions, although the pagans
invented it. Going back still farther
to the first spring, we can see Eve
choosing with pride a new green leaf
from the tree Ficus carica.
Now, the object of this critical and
learned preamble is to set forth the
theorem that Easter is neither a date,
a season, a festival, a holiday nor an
occasion. What it is you shall find
out if you follow in the footsteps of
Danny McCree.
Easter Sunday dawned as it should,
bright and early, in its place on the
calendar between Saturday and Mon
day. At 5:24 the sun rose, and at
10:30 Danny followed its example. He
went into the kitchen and washed his
face at the sink. His mother was
frying bacon. She looked at his hard,
smooth, knowing countenance as he
juggled with the round cake of soap
and thought of his father when she
first saw him stopping a hot grounder
between second and third twenty-two
years before on a vacant lot in Har
lem, where the La Paloma apartment
house now stands. In the front room
of the flat Danny's father sat by an
open window smoking his pipe, witb
his disheveled gray hair tossed about
by the breeze. He still clung to his
pipe, although his sight had been taken
from him two years before by a pre
cocious blast of giant powder that
went off without permission. Very few
blind men care for smoking, for the
reason that they cannot see the smoke.
Now, could you enjoy having the news
read to you from an evening newspa
per unless you could see the colors of
the headlines'
'Tis Easter day," said Mrs. McCree.
"Scramble mine," said Danny.
After breakfast he dressed himself
in the Sabbath morning costume of
the Canal street importing house dray
chauffeurfrock coat, striped trousers,
patent leathers, gilded trace chain
across front of vest and wing collar,
rolled brim derby and butterfly bow
"GEE, BUT VOX LOOK DUMPISH AND
DBESSED UP!" SAID KATX.
from Schonstein's (between Fourteenth
street and Tony's fruit stand) Saturday
night sale.
"You'll be goin' out this day, of
course, Danny," said old man McCree,
a little wistfully. 'Tis a kind of holi
day, they say. Well, it's fine spring
weather. I can feel it in the air."
"Why should I not be going out?" de
manded Danny in his grumpiest chest
tones. "Should I stay in? Am I as
good as a horse? One day of rest my
team has a week. Who earns the
money for the rent and the breakfast
you've just eat, I'd like to know? An
swer me that!''
"All right, lad," said the old man.
"I'm not complainin'. While me two
eyes was good there was nothin' better
to my mind than a Sunday out. There's
a smell of turf and burnin' brush com
in' in the windy. I have me tobaccy.
A good fine day and rist to ye, lad.
Times I wish your mother had lamed
to read so I might hear the rest about
the hippopotamusbut let that be."
"Now, what is this foolishness he
talks of hippopotamuses?" asked Dan
ny of his mother as he passed through
the kitchen. "Have you been taking
him to the zoo? And for what?"
"I have not," said Mrs. McCree. "He
sets by the windy all day. 'Tis little
recreation a blind man among the poor
gets at all. I'm thinkin' they wander
in their minds at times. One day he
talks, of grease without stoppin' for
the most of an hour. I looks to see
if there's lard burnin' in the fryin'
pan. There is not. He says I do not
understand. 'Tis weary days Sundays
and holidays and all for a blind man,
Danny. There was no better nor stron
ger than him when he had his two
eyes. 'Tis a fine day, son. Injoy
yerself ag'inst the mornin'. There will
be cold supper at 6."
"Have you heard any talk of a hip
popotamus?" asked Danny of Mike, the
janitor, as he went out the door down
stairs.
"I have not," said Mike, pulling his
shirt sleeves higher. "But 'tis the only
subject in the animal, natural and ille
gal lists of outrages that I've not been
complained to about these two days.
See the landlord. Or else move out if
ye like. Have ye hippopotamuses in
the lease? No, then?"
"It was the old man who spoke of
it," said Danny. "Likely there's noth
ing in it."
Danny walked up the street to the
avenue and then struck northward into
the heart of the district where Easter
modern Easter, in new, bright rai
mentleads the paschal march. Out of
towering brown churches came the
blithe music of anthems from the
choirs. The broad sidewalks were
moving parterres of living flowersso
it seemed when your eye looked upon
the Easter girl.
Gentlemen frock coated, silk hatted,
gardeniaed, sustained the background
of the tradition. Children carried
lilies in their hands. The windows of
the brownstone mansions were packed
with the most opulent creations of
Flora, the sister of the lady of the
lilies.
Around a corner, white gloved, pink
gilled and tightly buttoned, walked
Corrigan, the cop, shield to the curb.
Danny knew him.
"Why, Corrigan," he asked, "is Eas
ter? I know it comes the first time
you're full after the moon rises on the
17th of March, but why? Is it a prop
er and religious ceremony, or does the
governor appoint it out of politics?"
"'Tis an annual celebration," said
Corrigan, with the judicial air of the
third deputy police commissioner, "pe-
culiar to New York. It extends up to
Harlem. Sometimes they has the re
serves out at One Hundred and Twen
ty-fifth street. In my opinion 'tis not
political."
"Thanks," said Danny. "And, say,
did you ever hear a man complain of
hippopotamuses? When not specially
in drink, I mean."
"Nothing larger than sea turtles,"
said Corrigon, reflecting, "and there
was wood alcohol in that."
Danny wandered. The double, heavy
incumbency of enjoying simultaneous
ly a Sunday and a festival day was
his.
The sorrows of the hand toiler fit
him easily. They are worn so often
that they hang with the picturesque
lines of the best tailor made garments.
That is why well fed artists of pencil
and pen find in the griefs of the com
mon people their most striking models.
But when the Philistine would disport
himself the grimness of Melpomene
herself attends upon his capers. There
fore Danny set his jaw hard at Easter
and took his pleasure sadly.
The family entrance of Dugan's cafe
was feasible, so Danny yielded to the
vernal season as far as a glass of bock.
Seated in a dark, linoleumed, humid
back room, his heart and mind still
groped after the mysterious meaning
of the springtime jubilee.
"Say, Tim," he said to the waiter,
"why do they have Easter?"
"Skiddoo!" said Tim, closing a so
phisticated eye. "Is that a new one?
All right. Tony Pastor's for you last
night, I guess. I give it up. What's
the answertwo apples or a yard and
a half?"
From Dugan's Danny turned back
eastward. The April sun seemed to
stir in him a vague feeling that he
could not construe. He made a wrong
diagnosis and decided that it was Katy
Conlon.
A block from her house on Avenue
A he met her going to church. They
pumped hands on the corner.
"Gee, but you look dumpish and
dressed up!" said Katy. "What's
wrong? Come away with me to church
and be cheerful."
"What's doing at church?" asked
Danny.
"Why. it's Easter Sunday, silly! I
waited til] after 11 expecting you might
come around to go."
"What does this Easter stand for.
Katy?" asked Danny gloomily. "No-
body seems to know."
"Nobody as blind as you," said Katy,
with spirit. "You haven't even looked
at my new hat and skirt. Why, it's
when all the girls put on new spring
clothes, silly! Are you coming to
church with me?"
"I will," said Danny. "If this Easter
is pulled off there they ought to be
able to give some excuse for it. Not
that the hat ain't a beauty. The green
roses are great."
At church the preacher did some ex
pounding with no pounding. He spoke
rapidly, for he was in jx hurry to get
home to his early Sabbath dinner, but
he knew his business. There was one
word that controlled his themeresur
rection. Not a new creation, but a
new life arising out of the old. The
congregation had heard it often be-
THE P^iyeE^OK UNION: ^TH^BSB4X, APBtt 0, 1911.
fore. But there was a wonderful hat?
a combination of ,sweet peas and lay*
ender, in the sixth pew from the pul
pit. It attracted much attention.
After church Danny lingered on a
corner while Katy waited, with pique
tn her sky blue eyes.
"Are you coming along to the house?"
she asked. "But don't mind me. I'll
get there all right. You seem to be
studying a lot about something all
right. Wilfl see you at any time spe
cially, Mr. McCree?"
"I'll be around Wednesday night, as
usual," said Danny, turning and cross
ing the street.
Katy walked away with the green
roses dangling indignantly. Danny
stopped two blocks away. He stood
still, with his bands in his pockets, at
OLD MAN M'OREE LISTENED WITH HIS
HAND TO HIS EAB.
the curb on the corner. His face was
that of a graven image. Deep in his
soul something stirred so small, so
fine, so keen and leavening that his
hard fibers did not recognize it. It was
something more tender than the April
day, more subtle than the call of the
senses, purer and deeper rooted than
the love of womanfor had he not
turned away from green roses and
eyes that had kept him chained for a
year? And Danny did not know what
it was. The preacher, who was in a
hurry to go to his dinner, had told
him, but Danny had had no libretto
with which to follow the drowsy in
tonation. But the preacher spoke the
truth.
Suddenly Danny slapped his leg and
gave forth a hoarse yell of delight.
"Hippopotamus!" he shouted to an
elevated road pillar. "Well, how is
that for a bum guess? Why, blast my
skylight! I know what he was driv
ing at now.
"Hippopotamus! Wouldn't that send
you to the Bronx? It's been a year
since he heard it, and he didn't miss
it so very far. We quit at 469 B. C,
and this comes next. Well, a wooden
man wouldn't have guessed what he
was trying to get out of him."
Danny caught a crosstown car and
went up to the rear flat that his labor
supported.
Old man McCree was still sitting by
the window. His extinct pipe lay on
the sill.
"Will that be you, lad?" he asked.
Danny flared into the rage of a
strong man who is surprised at the
outset of committing a good deed.
"Who pays the rent and buys the
food that is eaten in this house?" he
snapped viciously. "Have I no right
to come in?'
"Ye're a faithful lad," said old man
McCree, with a sigh. "Is it evenin'
yet?"
Danny reached up on a shelf and
took down a thick book labeled in gilt
letters "The History of Greece." Dust
was on it half an inch thick. He
laid it on the table and found a place
in it marked by a strip of paper, and
then he gave a short roar at the top
of his voice and said:
"Was it the hippopotamus you want
ed to be read to about, then?"
"Did I hear you open the book?'
said old man McCree. "Many and
weary be the months since my lad has
read it to me. I dinno, but I took a
great likings to them Greeks. Ye left
off at a place. 'Tis a fine day outside,
lad. Be out and take rist from your
work. I have got used to me chair by
the windy and me pipe."
"Pel-Peloponnesus was the place
where we left off and not hippopota-
mus," said Danny. "The war began
there. It kept something doing for
thirty years. The headlines says that
a guy named Philip of Macedon, in 338
B. C, got to be boss of Greece by get
ting the decision at the battle of Cher
Cheronaea. I'll read it."
With his hand to his ear, rapt in
the Peloponnesian war, old man Mc
Cree sat for an hour, listening.
Then he got up and felt his way to
the door of the kitchen. Mrs. McCree
was slicing cold meat. She looked up.
Tears were running from old man Mc
Cree's eyes.
"Do ye hear our lad readin' to me?"
he said. "There is none finer in the
land. My two.eyes have come back
to me again."
After supper he said to Danny: 'Tis
a happy day, this Easter. And now
ye will be off to .see Katy in the even
In'. Well enongh."
"Who pays the rent and buys the
food that is eaten in this house?" said
Danny angrily. "Have I no right .to
stay in it? After supper there is yet
to come the reading of the battle of
Corinth. 146 B. C, when the kingdom,
as tbey say, became an in-integral por
tion of the Roman empire. Am I noth
ing In this house?'
ft tit tif ti
p^fcER^
The Man Who Makes Good
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great7
TWENTY-FIVE YEARS AGO
Quite a number of young people
went up to Mr. Sanford's sugar camp
yesterday afternoon.
Frank and Willie Morehouse, who
have been up to MilJe Lacs lake, are
well pleased with that country.
A few more days of balmy weather
and all the old ladies in town will be
out after the dandelion for greens.
If the present pleasant weather con
tinues the farmers will be busily en
gaged in seeding by the latter part of
the week.
That beautiful mansion of Prof.
Nokes' is quite an addition to the
aristocratic portion of the village
Highland addition.
The high school feeels thankful to
Mrs. C. H. Bines and others, who
have so' kindly loaned the school
several fine geological specimens.
Load after load of new goods are
arriving in town. Our merchants are
stocking up and prospers for a
flourishing trade are indeed flatter
ing.
The low stage of water in the river
is just the thing for spearing fish and
many of the boys are improving the
opportunity to capture the denizens of
the stream.
Commissioner John Cater informs
us that, in the course of a week or ten
days, he intends to leave for Washing
ton territory, to be gone a couple or
three months.
C. W.. VanWormer of the Isanti
County Press has been appointed to
the office of superintendent of schools,
made vacant by Mr. Booth's depar
ture for the Pacific coast,
Quite a number of contractors have
been in Princeton during the past few
days looking over the line of the rail
road as surveyed with the view of
taking contracts for grading.
Miss Electa Green of Herman, niece
of Mrs. Henry Newbert, is here and
will probably remain all summer.
Miss Green is proficient in music,
and, besides, is a competent school
teacher.
The total amount of delinquent per
sonal property taxes in Mille Lacs
county, as returned by County
Treasurer Neely to the clerk of the
district court on April 1, amounts to
only $94.25, and that includes the in
terest and penalties. That is not a
bad showing for a little backwoods
county.
School Report.
School report of district 4, school
No. 2, for the month ending March 31:
Those perfect in attendance were Al
bert and George Forster, Alfred and
Ella Heruth, Elsie and Eddie Kranz,
Edna, Anna and Hazel Leander,
Edith and Esther Lindstrom and
Lester Rehaume. Those in atten
dance 18 days Were Ivan Deglman,
Freda, Anna and Margaret Heruth,
Bruno Kranz, Anna, Alice and Alma
Beimann and Tilly Seifert.
Eva M. Hatch, Teacher.
Pare Big: Four Bead Oats,
Blue stem seed wheat, fine seed bar
ley, also flax, at the elevator. Call
early and secure your seed, as good
seed will be scarce. First come, first
served.
13-tfc P. J. Wikeen.
bcefi
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\i tor Mori *nA RirTtm n~~J O J._ r-A 1
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Mark's Great Bargain Store
Princeton, Minnesota
|H-H.||M|.
WE succeeded in buying $4,8bo worth-of staple fl
merchandise at 45 cents on the dollar from flj
the Minnesota Loan & Trust Co., receivers of the
well known firm of Tibbs, Hutchings & Co., of (fl
Minneapolis, the largest wholesale house in the
twin cities. The goods consists of Dress Ging
hams, Dress Goods, Prints, Ladies' and Gent's
Underwear, Ladies' Muslin Underwear, Laces,
Ribbons, Embroideries and Shirt Waists. For
this reason we will
Extend Our Sale Until Saturday, April 15
We shall include the rest of our entire stock,
which was reduced to the mere cost of its pro-
duction. This will be the greatest bargain event
ever held in myn 25 years of merchandising.
Never will you have such a golden opportunity
ton dress fotr Easter in such rich raiment at the
mere cost of its production.
a
to
lar
chance if you are in need of Men's and Boys' Suits, Hat,saal*
Suits, Coats, Jackets and Skirts. Our prices are too low to mention. Come
and be convinced of our Great Slaughter Sale.
MiHHHiH|-|.,l..Hll|.|ll||, ,M ,1 1
H Lakes' and Misses'
u customers of all bargains we get, so
I filendorado Farmers' Mutual Fire Insurance Co.
O. H. UGLEM, President
CHAS. D. KALIHER, Treasurer
Insurance in Force $1,300,000
Average cost to members but one-half of that charged by old line
companies. For further information write
J. A. Erstad, Secretary Freer, Minn.
it^ii.iii,iii,,iiiii,- ""-M1111111m 1111111111111u u11111
L. C. HUMMEL
D*alr in
Fresh and Salt Meats, Lard,
Poultry, Fish and Game in Season.
Both Telephones.
Main Street, (Opposite Starch Factory.) Princeton, Minn.
SJOBLO & OLSON
Local Agents
5*
W
at*
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