Argosy All-Story Weekly, April 14, 1928 — page 13: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

RED HOT, night that hasn’t got a care in the world, except other tramps like myself. By the way, I could use a-half a dollar if you re flush.” Lester got up- almost reluctantly from the bench. ‘“‘ Here’s your fifty cents,” he said. ‘ I don’t know but it’s worth more, this philosophy of yours. What are you going to do with it, buy a drink ?”’ “No,” sniffed Mr. Downing. “ You can't get any good beer, and I never liked the hard stuff. IU just keep it for emergencies. Some poor slob will give me a quarter or a half to-morrow, and all I need is fifty or sixty cents a day in the summer time. ‘““When the weather is very warm, J sleep in the park, and all [ eat is fruit and a glass of milk now and then. A’ fellow my age has got to be careful of his stomach.” “Of course. get sick.” “Don’t fool yourself,’ replied the tramp. “ When I get sick I get taken to a nice hospital and the best doctors in New York take care of me, fellows you couldn't afford to pay. Let me tell you something, young man; I[’d rather be a charity. patient than a paying one. ‘* About twenty years ago a big Ger- man doctor invented a cure for an in- curable blood disease. All the Ameri- can doctors were afraid of it; so they only used it on charity patients, and kept on treating those that could afford to pay in the old way. They kept it up for five or ten years. W ell, all the charity patients got well and the well- to-do patients died.” “Yes? Just the same these experi- ments kill a lot of you.’ “ Maybe. There was a French poet named Lamartine that said, ‘ What’s life but a prelude to death.’ I should worry if I croak.” ‘“T hope you live long and prosper,” laughed Lester Lucus. as he moved away. Lester had never heard of Lamartine, and he was not aware that You can’t afford to 151 the line just quoted by the college-grad- uate tramp had been the inspiration of the sublime tone poem “ Les Preludes ” by Franz Liszt. Lester was not musi- cal, unless an appreciation of jazz is an indication of a musical soul. As he walked up Riverside Drive to- ward his lodgings, he chuckled now and then at the shrewdness of the old wretch. It was perfectly true that a man who can reduce his desires to their lowest terms might exist in the modern world without labor, supported by those who despise him yet will not permit him to perish, However, Lester wanted large quan- tities of things from life. He was un- der thirty, and the pleasures of the city appealed to him strongly. He liked the society of women, and nowadays one cannot have female companion- ship without paying high for the privilege. He required decent living conditions, not luxury but solid comfort, and he regarded food, not as a means to sup- port life, but as one of the joys of life. The theaters tempted him, the night clubs were not without attraction, he wanted to own a large shiny automobile and speed about the country; he would like to see Europe and China and Egypt—oh, the world was full of things he wanted to see and do, and he had to have money, much money. Lester Lucus was a cheerful soul most of the time; he was bubbling over with fun, he had a strong sense of hu- mor, and a knack of throwing himself at whatever had to be done with en- thusiasm. For a time he had managed to con- vince himself that Laguna-by-the-Sea was a first-class investment and he was doing a favor to anybody he could in- duce to purchase a lot in that develop- ment. Six or seven years of experi- ence in various lines of business had given him a surface cynicism which enabled him to salve his conscience when he was forced to indulge in some- thing approaching sharp practice. Gomichbooks com