THE HESPERIAN
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day be lay upon the floor of the coll, suffering
as though ovory muscle were boingi idivid
ually -wrenched from his arms. Ho had not
been out of the bare cell for four days. All
the ventilation came through some little au
gur holes in the door and the heat and odor
were becoming unbearable. Ho had thought
on the first night that the pain would kill
him before morning, but ho had endured
over eighty-four hours of it and when the
guard came in with his bread and water he
found him lying with his eyes closed and his
teeth set on his lip. He roused him with a
kick and held the bread and water out to him,
but Serge took only the water.
''Rope too tight?" growled the guard.
Serge said nothing. He was almost dead
now and he wanted to finish for he could not
hoop barrels.
"Gittin so stuck up you can't speak, are
you? "Well, we'll just stretch you up a bit
tighter." And he gave the stick in the rope
another vicious twist that almost tore the
arms from their sockets and sent a thrill of
agony through tho man's whole frame. Then
Serge was left alone. The fever raged in
his veins and about midnight his thirst was
intolerable. He lay with his mouth open
and his- tongue hanging out. The pain in
his arms made his whole body tremble like a
man with a chill. Ho could no longer keep
his arms up and the ropes were beginning to
strangle him. He did not call for help. He
had heard poor devils shriek for help all
night loug and get no relief. He suffered,
as the people of his mother's nation, in hope
less silence. The blood of tho serf vas in
him, blood that has cowered beneath the
knout for centuries and uttered no complaint.
Then tho State would surely come soon, she
would net let them kill him. His mother,
the State!
He fell into a half stupor. He dreamed
about what the laba used to tell about the
bargemen in their bearskin coats coming
down the Yolga in the spring when tho ice
had broken up and gone out; about how the
wolves used to howl and follow the sledges
across tho snow in the starlight. That cold,
white snow, that lay in ridges and banks!
Ho thought he. felt it in his mouth and he
awoke and found himself licking the stone
floor. He thought how lovely the plains
would look in tho morning when the sun was
up; hqw tho sunflowers would shake them
selves in the wind, how the corn leaves would
shine and how the cob-webs would sparkle
all over tho grass and the air would be clear
and blue, the birds would begin to sing, the
colts would run and jump in the pasture and
tho black bull would begin to bellow for his
corn.
The rope grew tighter and tighter. The
State must come soon now. He thought he
felt the dog's cold nose against his throat.
He tried to call its name, but the sound only
came in an inarticulate gurgle. He drew his
knees up to his chin and died.
And so it was that his great mother, the
State, took this willful, restless child of her's
and put him to sleep in her' bosom.
"W. OATnEB.
THE OUTLOOK IN FOOT BALL
I foresee at the outset that my remarks
might tend to discourage, but I believe there
is considerable interest, though slumbering
at present, in foot-ball in Nebraska, aud I
feel sure that there is a great desire for vic
tory, and therefore, what I shall say I be
lieve will have a tendency to encourage and
stimulate a new and greater interest
I confoss I was greatly disappointed. at
the material that presents itself. I had ex
pected to find plenty of large, strong men,
and on the other hand, I find tho youngest
and lightest crowd I ever saw on a foot-ball
field. Nearly every high school in the East
has more strong and heavy men, and this is
more peculiar because as you walk about the
campus you see plenty of heavy men, but
somehow or other they eschew tho foot-ball
field, and resign its honors to their younger
and weaker brothers.
Of course nobody knows what tho future
has in store for us, but it is our right and
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