The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1879-04-04
THE BOLD BUTCHER BOY.
\ Partisan Romance that set Every body
Laughing.
or. of Chicago Times

Cor. of Chicago Times.
A case without fatal consequences has.
however, attracted the laughing attention
of the gay Parisans, who love to laugh
and don't care much who or what they
laugh at. AS it rather makes Gambetta
a trifle ridiculous, the enjoyment is in
tensified. The actors live in Lille, the
Pittsburg of France, the largest of the
northern cities outside of Paris Here a
country youth engaged as butcher boy,
whom the journals describe as "un grand
beatt garcon," in the intervals of his cut
ting and cleaving, put in an hour or two
at the variety theater and fell madly in
love with Mile. Armand, one ofthe black
eyed, lithe-limbed beauties of the Paris
an stage. The intervals of this "fine,
bold, goOd-lOoking boys" steak carving
and bone-cuttlng were filled with episto-
larry devotions to the pretty mademoi-
selie, to whom he protested his love and
despair. He wasted all the by no means
munificent salary bestowed upon the Of
fee of butcher boy; he adored his divin-
ity nightly from the lofty altitude of the
fourth gallery at the expense of fifteen
cents. He Impoverished his purse in
the purchase of violets and bonbons to
throw at the feet of Mile. Armand
have forgotten the name, but it don't
and pretty, and sang enchantingly
through her nose, and kicked behind
her with an abandon of which to
tell is impossible If one has not
seen. 1t is enough that she fasci-
mated the airy Imagination of this senti-
mental butcher. He began to pay court
vigorously, as only a Frenchman can,
writing the seductive actress all sorts of
expressions of Gallo devotion, and each
note winding up with the declaration
that he was going to blow-what the
poor lad fondly imagined-his brains
out. He represented himself as a noble
man. He had probably been reading
the novels of Dumas, and modelled his
epistles, so far as phraseology went, upon
these exciting and ''flamboyante" mod
els. MadamOiselle was evidently more
struck with the title than the description
of the "beau garcon's'' appearance, and
she sent him what the priests servant,
Pat, would call emotional but evasive
answers. The time came, however, when
the gay butcher found more money nee
essary for the pursuit of his enamorata
than the slender proceeds that the pat
ron" (boss) was able to pay. Inspired
by that fund of all French Imagination,
the novels of Dumas, Eugene Sue and
Balsac, he fixed upon the eXhileratIng
eXpedient of threat against the life of
Gambetta, and wrote that astonished
statesman an anonymous note to the eff
feet that if before certain day 10000
francs were not lodged to his credit in Il
certain modest drinking shop in the good
city of Lille, he, the anonymous, who
was at the head of a force of 100 desper-
ADDE'S, and bound to avenge the misfor-
tunes of the empire, and hungering par
| Z loy-lxr fr.r fln of 40
dictator, would, in the dead of MI ht,
when the world was asleep and the gen.
dearmes dancing at the Butler" sieze
him-Gambetta-a deprive him of his
life. "YOu need not think" wrote the
bloodthirsty youth, that you can escape.
My means are unfailing, my process
ses mysterious, my men unerring.
Your life is not worth the naming if
before twelve O'Clock of the coming
twenty-fourth of the month, the pack
ct addressed to the name which / here
inclOse, is not deposited with the widow
it don't matter whom-the corner OF
such and such street, Lille. Gambetta
who has received in his time a good many
threatening letters, from one sort or an
other of persons-political, anonymous,
as well as personal-paid no attention to
this sinister document, merely throwing
it over to the secretary with laugh.
The latter, however, much more impress
sed with the gravity of his situation, in
the case of so bloodthirsty correspond.
ent, able to command so many ferocious
men, thought fit to put the message in
the hands of the police. These worthless
delighted with a mission so important
as that of saving the life of the chief OF
the Republican forces, put all the COM
plicated machinery of the most compli.
Gated department of human affairs into
motion, and the enamored butcher soon
found himself enmeshed in their talons
At IL O'Clock on the night designated in
his letter of warning, he visited the des-
ignated wine-shop of madame, the wild,
ow, and, sure enough, at the address
named, was great square package, in.
dicating that the trembling Gambetta
had purchased his life for the fifty thou
sand francs which were to crown the
butcher boys love. Taking the pack.
age hastily under his arm. he tore home.
ward in delIrium of participation and. in
the very agonies of realization, he was
surprised by the police who had follow
ed him He was forthwith carried off to
prison, the package being an invention
of the chief of police to make sure of the
right man. Taken before the court, the
| frightened lad made clean breast of his
| amour" to the no small disgust of the
actress. who found her occupation entire
| " gone-the ''wits Lillois'' overwhelm
| ing the gay demoiselle with ridicuIe
over her conquest. Even the proverbial
| gravity of a French court-and there i
nothing so grave-could not resist the
comic spectacle of the large, red-faced
youth blubberIng out Of his frightened
explanation of what he called his fan
taisie." He told the judge that he had
only written it in fun, because, really
and truly" he affirmed, 81 Have nc