Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1879-06-19

so bright, and hllt up my head, ready
to look any man in the face, and not
afeared of nothin'. 1t was circus
and brass band. and big ball, all goin'
ON at the same time. He lit into them
KEYS like thousand of brick; he give
'en no rest day or night; he set every
livin Joint in me agOin. and not bein'
able to stand it no longer, l jumpt,sprang
onto my seat, and just hOllered, Go it,
my RuDef
Every blamed man, woman and child
in the house stared at me, and shouted,
Put him OUT put him Outp Put your
great-grandmother's griZzy, gray, green
ish cat into the middle of next month!
| says, 'Teteh me if you darei / paid
my money, and you just come a nigh
me-
with that several p'licemen run up,
and / had to simmer down. But l
would fit any fool that laid hands ON
me, for l was bound to hear Ruby out
or die. He had changed his tune again.
He hOpt, like ladies, and tip-tOed fine
from eend to eend of the keyboard. He
PLAYED soft and low and solemn. |
heard the church bells over the hills.
The candles in heaven was lit one by
one; | saw the stars rise; the great or
gan of eternity began to play from the
worlds end to the worlds end, and all
the angels went to prayers. Then the
music changed to water, full of feelin'
that couldn't be thought, and began to
drop, drip, drop, drip, drop, clear and
sweet tears of joy fallin' into lake of
glory. 1t was sweeter than that, was as
sweet as a sweetheart sweetenin' sweet
ness with white sugar, mixed with pow
dered silver and seed diamonds. 1t was
too sweet. l tell you the audience
cheered. Ruben he kinder bowed, like
he wanted to say, Much Obleeged, but
I'd rather you wouldn't interrupt me-.
He stopped minute or two to fetch
breath. Then he got mad; he run his
fingers through his hair, he showed uI
his sleeves, he opened his coat-tails a
leetle further, he dug up his stool, he
leaned over, and, sir, he just went fol
that old pianner. He slapped her face
he boxed her jaws, he pulled her nose
he pinched her ears and he scratched
her cheeks till she fairly yelled. He
knocked her down and he stamped on
her shameful. She beloved like bull
she bleated like calf, she howled like q
hound, she squealed like pig,she shrek
ed like rat, and then he wouldn't let hel
up. He run a quarter stretch down the
low grounds of the bass, till he got clean
into the bowels of the earth, and you
heard thunder gallopin' after thunder
through the hOllows and caves of per
ditiOn; and then he fox-chased his right
hand with his left, till he got away out
of the treble into the clouds, whar the
notes were finer than the points of cam.
brio needles, and you couldn't hear
nothin' but the shadders of 'em. And
then he wouldn't let the old pianner go
He fOr'ard-twod, he cros't over first gen
tleman. crost over first lady; he balan-
ced to pards; he chassade right-left
back to places; he all-hands'd arOun'; la
dies to the right; promenade all, in and
out, here and there, back and forth, up
and down, perpetual motion double and
twisted and tied down, and turned and
tackled and tangled into forty-leven
thousand mixtery. And then he wouldn't
let the old pianner go. He fetched up
his right wing; he fetcht up his left
wing; he fetcht up the center; he fetcht
up his reserves. He fired by files, he
fired by platoons, by company, by regi-
ments and by brigades. He opened his
cannon, siege guns down -NapOle-
ans here, twelve-pOunders yoDder, big
guns, little guns, middle-size guns,round
shot, shells, grappelS, grape, canister,
mortars, mines, hnagazines. every livin
battery and bomb a-goin' at the same
time. The house trembled, the light
danced, the walls shuk, the floor come
up, the ceilin' come down, the sky split,
the ground rockt, heavens and earth,
creation, sweet potatoes, Moses, nine
pences, glory, tenpenny nails, my Mary
Ann, hallelujah, Samson in 'simmon
tree, Jerusal'm, Tramp Thompson in a
tumbler cart, roodle-oodle-Oodle-ru
uddle-addle-addl addle-addle-addle- addle-rid-
le-iddle-iddle-reetle- etle-eetle-eetle-eetle
-eetle-p-r-r-r-r-lang! p-r-r-r-r-lang! per
lang! per lang! p-r-r-r-r-r-r-lang! BANS
with the bang! he lifted hisself bod
lily into the air, and he come down with
his knees, his ten fingers, his ten toes,
his elbows and his nose, striking every
single, solitary peg ON that pianner at
the same time. The thing busted and
went off into seventeen hundred and for
ty-twO -demisemi-quavers, and l
knOw'd no mo-. When / come to were
underground about twenty foot, in a
place they call Oyster Bay, treating a
Yankee that 1 never laid eyes on before,
and never expect to agin. Day was a.
breakin' by the time 1 got to the st.
Nich1as Hotel, and pledge you my
word l didn't know my name. The
man asked the number of my room. /
told him, sHot8aissic on the halt shell for
taroy. / pointedly did"