Forgot is the time when the clouds hid the sun.
And cold blasts the earth forced to shiver.
For such is the power of one warm spring day
From winter's whole spell to deliver.
Alfred was unconsciously broadening in his knowledge; life in its
various phases was unfolding to him, and he was profiting by his
experiences. His faults appeared very great to others, were only an
incentive to him. He had learned thus early that it was not the being
exempt from faults so much as to have the will power to overcome them.
In early life he had it very strongly impressed upon his mind that some
men were perfect, others hopelessly vile. Experience and observation
forced Alfred to the conclusion that none were so good but that some
thought them bad, and none so vile but that some thought them good.
We generally judge others as to their attitude towards us, agreeable or
otherwise. Our estimate of another depends greatly upon the manner in
which that person affects our interests. It is difficult to think well
or speak well of those by whom we are crossed or thwarted. But we are
ever ready to find excuses for the vices of those who are useful and
agreeable to us. Therefore, he is a mighty poor mortal who is not
something on his own account.
Alfred had graduated in that dear old school of experience, wherein
education costs more but lasts longer than that acquired in colleges,
that it is with the follies of the mind as with the weeds of a
field--those destroyed and consumed upon the place of their growth,
enrich and improve that place more than if none had ever grown there.
The boy had been so continually advised against evil associates that he
began taking a mental inventory of every stranger at first meeting.
Harrison was his estimate of the bad; Mr. Steele of the good.
Alfred had arrived at that stage where he not only stood aside and
watched himself go by, but he was also watching the other fellow go by.
He was out of newspaper business, out of the tannery, had abandoned the
practice of medicine. Charley's father, who was very strict with his
boys, advised the parent to "give Alfred more tether, not to stake him
down too close. Give him a little more rope, there's something in that
boy." All of which was communicated to Alfred by Cousin Charley, and
Uncle Bill was thus greatly elevated in Alfred's estimation.
Alfred's father was little short of a genius in a mechanical way; he had
a peculiar temperament, mild and easily influenced. He was a creditable
artist; many meritorious paintings from his brush in both oil and water
adorn the walls of the residences of his friends. He was greatly
interested in mechanical pursuits, particularly if of an artistic
character.
When Uncle Joe prepared to build a house, "Pap" made the plans; when
Sells Brothers built a tableau car or an animal van of an elaborate
character, "daddy" made the drawings; when Aunt Betsy desired patterns
to make a quilt to take the premium at the fair, "pap" made the drawings
or figures.
He became acquainted with an artist from Philadelphia and was completely
taken with the man's talents. The artist informed him in confidence that
he had expended the greater portion of his man life on a work of art
that would astonish the world, the father became even more interested in
him.
The father was the only person who had ever been permitted to look upon
the wonderful creation of his genius; yard after yard of art was unwound
for the admiration of the father. When he returned from his second visit
to the art gallery of the Philadelphia artist, he interested the family
greatly by his description of the wonderful scenes the painter had
wrought on the canvas.
The sufferings and privations endured by the man while creating his work
seemed to make as profound an impression upon the father as the painting
itself.
The father predicted that the talented painter would come into his own;
the painting would be exhibited all over the world, admiring throngs
would rush to see it to praise its incomparable beauties.
The father made weekly visits to the home of the great painter, he
desired frequent conferences with the father as he required his advice,
at least, he so stated.
After one of his frequent visits to the art studio the parent
inadvertently let fall the remark that the great painting was about
ready for exhibition but that the artist did not have money to complete
it. He also hinted that if Alfred were a boy of proper ambitions he
might become attached to the exhibition of the picture, but no,
"Alfred's ambition did not rise above saw-dust and burnt-cork."
These few words aroused Alfred's curiosity. By adroit questioning he
ascertained that the great work of art was a panorama illustrative of
"The Pilgrim's Progress," to be exhibited in churches, schools and such
places, at twenty-five cents for adults; children, half price.
The mother wondered that the artist did not exhibit his wonderful
painting in the art centers, Philadelphia, Boston, New York City,
instead of Butler, Pittsburg, Perryopolis and Muttontown. The father
explained that after the professor got the rollers to working smoothly
and the lecture down pat, he intended visiting Philadelphia, Boston and
New York.
Alfred began to realize that the picture was some sort of a show and he
marvelled that his father favored it. Lin said:
"So fur es I kin kalkerlate it es some sort of meetin' house show,
nuthin' but picturs. Hit may be good, but durned ef I ever got much
satisfaction out uf a cirkus lookin' at the picturs. But I s'pose peepul
will want to look at the feller thet made hit. They say thet he nurly
starved to death to git hit done. Ye know, they'll run to see him. Mor
en they will his pictur--I reckon he has long curley hair an black eyes,
they all has, them sufferin' fellers that due wunderful things."
Lin glancing mischievously at the mother in a tone she pretended to be
only for the mother's hearing but really delivered for Alfred's
annoyance. "Well, I hope he kums to Red Stun' Skule-house. It's whur all
the big shows gits thur start; they allus git a crowd, the skule
direkturs sees to thet an' ef they don't make muny, Sammy Steele'll hulp
'em out."
How did she know about Sammy Steele and his loan? It was long afterwards
that Alfred learned that Joe Thornton had confidentially imparted to
Bill Wyatt, the tavern keeper, the part that he and Steele had played in
Alfred's show life Wyatt, in turn, confidentially imparted the story,
with a few additions, to Uncle Bill. The uncle confided the story to the
family and Cousin Charley gave it to the town--but what's the use.
Professor Palmer, the artist, was to visit the family the following
Sunday. When there appeared a smallish, Yankee looking individual,
wrinkled face, a tuft of beard on his chin, similar to that bestowed
upon the comic cartoons of the face of Uncle Sam, a beaked nose, very
dirty hands and iron grey hair, sparsely sprinkled over his acorn-shaped
head, Alfred thought a farmer or stock breeder had called on his father.
When introduced by the father as "My son, Alfred, Professor Palmer,"
Alfred was taken off his feet and his idea of art dropped away down. The
only attraction of the professor was his eloquence, his ability to talk
entertainingly. This he did continuously with a pronunciation so correct
and studied that it sounded pedantic. The professor kept up his talk, as
affected at times as the hand-cuff king's stage announcements or those
of the middleman in a minstrel show.
After dinner the professor expressed a desire to take a walk with
Alfred. They walked far, the professor talked long, and became
annoyingly confidential. He said: "Your father has told me a great deal
about you and I must admit that you are a mighty smart young man. You
don't belong in this one-horse town, you should get out in the world
where there are opportunities waiting for all such as you. You could
live in this town a thousand years and you'd be just what you are now.
You have had some experience in the show line but in a line that is
beneath you; your place in the show business is higher up. I want your
advice," he continued insinuatingly. "Now, I offered John (he referred
to Alfred's father), the best thing of his life. He has worked hard all
of his days; he is deserving of something better. I have offered him a
half interest in my show. ("Holy Mother of Moses!" thought Alfred). I
have borrowed a little money from him but I need nine hundred dollars
more to put me out right. Now Jack is considering the matter. I wish
you, who know more about the show business than both of us put together,
(Alfred knew he was being flattered), would talk to him, use your
influence with him."
Notwithstanding Alfred's life's ambition to become a showman, the idea
as presented by the professor filled him with disgust. His father going
into the show business! He had pictured show life in his illusions as
one long, summer day's dream, but now it seemed the meanest of careers.
The idea of his father associating himself with such a calling was
repugnant in the extreme. Alfred could scarcely restrain his thoughts
from taking expression in wrathful words.
The man continued, not noticing Alfred's changed expression: "You could
sing and dance in this entertainment, do just what you pleased, it would
make it all the better. I'll deliver the lecture and your daddy, (he was
becoming insultingly familiar), could sit at the door and rake in the
money. Hasn't the old man talked to you about it? I've been talking to
him for six months."
"Talking to my father about going into the show business and he did not
knock you down. If he didn't he is a hypocrite." This is only what
Alfred thought; his reply was: "No, sir." He did not realize whether
"No, sir" was the answer to the professor's question or the announcement
of the decision he had come to in his mind as to the show business in so
far as his father was concerned.
The professor rattled on: "Now, you get your old man away from the women
folks and talk it over with him. It's the best thing ever offered him;
he'll get his nine hundred dollars back before a month is out. I'm going
to do business with churches and preachers wherever I can. I preached
four years in Missouri and had to give it up on account of my health; I
got stomach trouble from eating rich food. I know just how to work this
thing, and if you and your daddy go in with me we will not only make
money but have a hell of a good time."
They had arrived at the door of Alfred's home. The professor, as they
passed in, admonished Alfred to "Think it over and let me hear from
you."
The professor was soon in the midst of a description of a scene he
intended introducing in his church entertainment wherein he used living
figures. Alfred did not follow his conversation; he was trying to think,
but could not think connectedly. He could not talk to the professor, he
answered him by nods or shakes of his head. The more reticent Alfred
became the more voluble the professor grew.
At leave-taking time, the professor admonished Alfred: "Do not forget
what I told you." Alfred promised that he would not and he was sincere;
he could not have forgotten had he tried.
The professor gone, Alfred hurried to his room. Was it possible that his
father had even partially entertained an idea of joining the man Palmer
in a show scheme, the father, who had berated, abused and condemned all
and everything pertaining to shows, now favorably considering engaging
in the show business himself.
Alfred endeavored to find excuses for his father--"He was generous,
sympathetic, he was listening to the professor only to encourage him."
Alfred had never been subjected to the influence of a promoter; this was
a leaf of life yet unturned by him.
Alfred felt certain that his father had entered into some sort of an
arrangement with the professor. He felt certain the panorama man was
endeavoring to induce his father to invest money in the panorama and he
finally resolved that it should not be.
The more he thought the matter over, the more distasteful show life
appeared to him.
Then the illusion came back to him. He had dreamed by night and prayed
by day; he had lived for years with the wish, the hope that he might,
after a few years of show life, earn enough to gratify his life's
desires, to possess a farm, to own fine horses, to plant fields, to reap
harvests, to live near nature.
He figured over several sheets of white paper. He would be compelled to
labor forty years in the tannery to acquire sufficient money to buy a
farm and nearly one hundred years in the newspaper office.
Jimmy Reynolds, the clown with Thayer & Noyse Circus, received one
hundred dollars a week, board and lodging, so Alfred had been informed.
Alfred felt in the innermost depths of his soul that he was a much
better clown than Jimmy. He would secure the position now held by
Reynolds--one hundred dollars each week for thirty weeks, three thousand
dollars a year; ten years, thirty thousand dollars. Ten years a clown,
then a farm. Show business was improper for the father but the means to
attain the end for the son, as he reasoned.
When Lin found the figures and writing on the many sheets of scribbling
paper in his room, she pondered long and confusedly over them.
"What in the world hes thet consarned boy got intu his punkin' agin?
Thirty years a clown, ninety-nine years in a nusepaper, furty years in
the tan-yard, and a farmer all the rest uf my life." Then she laughed.
"He must think he'll be as ole as Methusulus got." She carried the paper
to the mother.
They confronted Alfred with the sheets on which were scribbled the
hieroglyphics. Alfred laughingly said it was a new way to tell fortunes.
Alfred decided to talk to the father the first opportunity that offered.
Father and son were seated in the front room. "Father"--Alfred rarely
addressed the parent as "father;" "Pap" was the every-day appellation
but the present matter was of greater importance--"Father, I would like
to talk to you privately and want you to answer me truthfully."
The father had his feet on a stool reclining in the big, easy chair. At
the words "answer me truthfully," the father's feet fell to the floor,
his cigar dropped until it lay on his chinbeard; the man looked at the
boy to convince himself he had heard aright.
"Why, what the h--ll tarnation do you mean?"
Alfred was frightened, his voice trembled and sounded unlike his own,
but he was determined.
"Father, I want to talk to you, come upstairs to my room."
If Alfred had not been so earnest, the scene would have been a laughable
one, as it was like burlesquing many similar scenes when the parent
addressed the boy in the same words. Alfred walked up the steps very
slowly, hoping thereby to cause the parent to follow. It was a long time
(to Alfred) ere the father entered the room.
"What's the trouble now?" began the man, as he gazed inquiringly at the
boy.
"Who is this man Palmer whom you are so greatly taken up with?" inquired
Alfred.
"Why, what's that to you? He's a friend of mine."
"Has he a show?" was the boy's next query.
"A show? Not a show like you know anything of. He has a painting, a work
of art, that will be exhibited soon."
"Father, you have always berated, abused and condemned shows and show
people. Did this man Palmer borrow money from you?"
The father was confused. He reddened as he stammered: "No--no--not much.
You see he is a poor devil of an artist, he would rather paint than eat;
he has spent years of his life on a painting. He has a fortune almost in
his hands and I loaned him a little money to buy glue and colors to
finish his painting. I tell you, he is a genius; why, the roller the
pictures work on is one of the most ingenious contrivances you ever saw
and it's simple, it can be applied to other uses. No man but a genius
like Palmer would have thought of it."
This and much more information he gave Alfred. By his manner Alfred
could readily see that the parent was greatly interested in Palmer and
his scheme--for Alfred felt such it was.
"Well, then, father, you have changed your mind as to shows?"
"Who said I had? No, I have not changed my mind as to shows! Who told
you I had? But your Uncle Will, who thinks more of you than you think he
does, has persuaded me to give you your own way a little more and if you
want to go with Palmer I will consent to it after I see Palmer and put
you under his charge. He must control you just as I want you controlled.
He is a man who knows how to manage boys; he is a man you can depend
upon and I don't mind you going with him if it can be arranged to suit
me and your mother. I am glad you asked my consent and did not run off,
like you threatened to do with the nigger minstrels." And he emphasized
"nigger minstrels" to strongly convince Alfred of his disgust with that
branch of show business.
The father was so completely wrapped up in Palmer, so totally captivated
by the eloquence of the man that he had altogether mistaken the
questions of the boy.
"Father, has Palmer tried to get nine hundred dollars out of you? Did he
want you to buy a half interest in the show?"
"Well," hesitatingly he answered, "Palmer has got to raise some money
and he asked me to help him out. I haven't said whether I would or not.
If you go with him you could look after money matters for----."
Here Alfred interrupted the parent: "Have you said anything to mother
about this? You know when you went into the patent wash-board concern
with Niblo and grandpap, you never told mother and when you got took in
with Uncle Thomas on the patent shoe blacking, you said you would never
enter into anything outside your business without asking mother's
advice. And now you're dickering with this man Palmer about a show,
something you know nothing about. Now Pap--."
The wash-board and blacking were two of the father's investments that
were losses, so he became very much irritated at mention of them and
checked the son.
"Now you hold on, young man! If you tell your mother anything of this,
you and I will have trouble. You're meddling with matters that don't
concern you. I thought you called me in to ask my permission to go with
Palmer. Now you set yourself up to pry into my business. I'm your
father, I've always taken care of you and I am able to take care of
myself. I don't want a green boy to look after me."
"Well, Pap; I'm not trying to nose into your business. You told Palmer
that I knowed a heap about the show business, and you recommended me
highly as a showman."