they have in their natures a meed of proper sentiment. When the parting came they both wept and the tears were not maudlin.
They have lived for the most part as good citizens should; they reared a family that numbers even more than the Rooseveltian figure; they saved their little earnings until they had their modest home in addition to having given their children better than they had themselves.
But the husband and father, it was alleged, was cruel. It is not denied even by himself that Sylvester was wont to give way to outbreaks of temper. He always was sorry afterward, but sometimes regret did not make up for the harm done. It is charged that once he almost killed his son and only last Saturday choked his daughter nearly to insensibility. This last act was the cause of the son's making the information against the old man. A preliminary hearing was held last Tuesday and the old man was committed to jail until yesterday.
The son, Sylvanus, wanted his father committed to jail for a term, but the mother would not agree to this. She admitted that she feared her husband when he became violent and that his abuse of her and her children had become unbearable. But she said she still loved him and she did not want him behind the bars. When a bill of separation was suggested she agreed.
Hawkins wept then, as did his wife. He begged to be given another chance, but between her sobs the woman said he had promised to reform so often, all to no effect, that she could trust him no longer. She thought it best for all that they should part.
"I love you still, honey," the old man murmured, and to show his statement true, he bravely agreed to sign over their little property to her. She bade him a tender good-bye.
The old man walked out alone, over the steps of the municipal building, where he sat down. He saw the family that had renounced him come up, watched them as they took a car, and looked longingly as it rolled away. Then he wiped his eyes again, put his head between his hands and stared vacantly at the ground.
Special Articles. The second type of feature story,
that prepared for the magazine sections of Saturday
