The Toledo chronicle. [volume] (Toledo, Tama County, Iowa) 1873-1924, 1876-03-16
Sitting Down In the Street.

i
ing, astonishing Mr. Moody's people as
they issued from the Hippodrome by a
neat demonstration of the possibility OF
seating large audience expeditiously
and utterly, continued its hold upon the
sidewalks yesterday, spite of general and
varied attempts to overcome it. Salt and
ashes wer. thrown upon it, but in vain.
Salt had no more effect upon it than it has
upon the tail of bird, and it rose phoenix
like from ashes and renewed itself in all
its former terrors above them. Its intiu-
ence on humanity was marked; it seemed
to invest everybody with WEAKNESS.
Handmaidens crossing the area to receive
from the hands of the ogling dairyman
the morning supply of milk and water,
would sit down for a moment on the way
fat market women would repose briefly on
the inhospitable crossing, preparatory to
entering car rosy maidens on the way
abruptly up ami pounce down with girl
ish enthusiasm upon the glittering cover
of a coal-hole; ladies in unyielding pin
backs, incapable of sitting, would still,
at intervals, recline upon their shoulder
blades and patiently visit for the first po-
liceman to come along and twist them up
again into a position of locomotive posi-
bility; sharp, punctual, business men
would sit with out-spread legs on the
street tramway, and idly regard the de.
parture of the elevated railway train
which they wished to take; all the out
side town was strewn about on the pave
ments and roadways as if they had been
Turks and these had been luxurious
diyans.
Incidents were numerous, of course.
Halo" said gentleman, as he rose
from brief rest on the curb-stone at the
corner of Twenty-third street, to a wag of
a friend who just then came along, this is
mighty rough" 81 think it is mighty
smooth" responded the other, as he took
a slide off toward the Fifth Avenue Hotel.
\ lady heard the remark and was con-
strained to laugh, but nobody could laugh
yesterday and stand up, and so her
bronzed bottines flew out, and she did
what people usually do when they are
tired and a chair is offered to them. She
was gathered up by policeman in rub
bers, and slid away blushing.
Near the newsstand at Broadway and
| Twenty ninth street, at about nine o'clock
the door of one of the brown-stone houses
opened, and an elderly gentleman in slip
pers appeared. He surveyed the condi-
| tons of things at first with surprise and
then seemingly with distrust. He glanced
at the news stand and then at his slippers,
and passed his hand over his smooth
shaven chin in evident perplexity. Just
| then bright young miss of sixteen or
thereabout came a tripping through the
hall. " Pa" she said, giving him kiss,
"Pll get the paper for you" He smiled
and put the requisite pennies into her
hand, and she started. She put little
foot cautiously on the upper step, and
then another little foot a little less eau
| tiouslY on the step below, and then the
first little foot again with still further de-
creased caution on the third step down.
Alas! that the ice should betray one so
young, and with such little feet, and on
the steps, too! But one little boot slipped.
and the other little boot slipped, and the
little maiden, having nothing left on
which TO stand, did not stand, but sat
down, yet still did not stop, and crying,
"Oh, pal" reached the sidewalk with a
painful and undignified celebrity. The
father had watched the progress of his
child with a smile, but as she lost her
footing and descended the last six steps
with a rude hurry that would have con-
cerned him in trunk or any other articles
of senseless baggage, the smile vanished
instanter, and the alarmed parent started
incontinently to the sucCor of his off
spring. He lost no time in reaching her.
The moment he placed his foot on the top
step the ice fed from the soles of his
slippers and assaulted him elsewhere, and
he descended to his daughter much as he
might if he had taken passage in a cata-
putt. Fortunate it was that neither was
much hurt. The daughter was the first
to regain her feet and the house, and the
father followed slowly. Then John APP
peared at the area door with a load of
ashes, and he made path of safety for
himself to the news stand and returned
with the morning paper and the conscious
air Of man who had performed wise
action.
At the Hippodrome line had formed
for admission. The people in the line
one another up. All would have been
we'll if the first man, as the door was sud-
denly opened, had not started back and
slipped. He fell backward, striking the
man behind him, who in turn lost his feet
and extended the decentralization to his
next neighbor back. 1t was hardly the
place or the time for such a proceeding,
but the entire line, affected in the same
manner as row of closely placed bricks,
OF which the first one has fallen upon the
second, sat down on the pavement of
Madison avenue at the feet of the winged
gritfins which guard the Hippodrome.
Many ladies and gentlemen who were
sitting on the pavements round about saw
and pitied the performance. There were
many other incidents of a similar nature
in the city yesterday, but these will serve
to illustrate how universal and irresistible
the ice was.-N. Y. World, Feb. 30.