The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1880-04-02
Saturday Night In a Kansas Cattle
Town.

The dullness which had SO weighed
upon us through the long, uneventful
afternoon was but lnll. we soon
learned, and not q stagnation. With
the first approach of darkness the
lethargic town rubbed its eyes, SO to
speak, and leaped to its feet; and in q
twinkling, it seemed Qike an incanta-
ton, Eastman said). Grand avenue was
. carnival of light and motion and
music. The broad board sidewalks
were crowded with promenaders; smil-
ing groups passed in and out of the
drinking saloons and gambling places;
in every quarter glasses clinked and
dice ratified lis there another sound in
the world like that of shaken dice?);
viOlins, flutes and comets sent out ca
ger, inviting strains of waltz and polka
from score or more establishments,
and brass band was playing patriotic
airs in front of the theater, where, odd
~ enough, the crude morality of s'Ten
Nights in Bar-Room'' was about to be
presented, "with the full strength of
the company in the cast" Everywhere
the cowboys made themselves mani
fest, clad now in the soiled and dingy
jeans of the trail, then in suit of many
buttoned corduroy, and again in affiu-
ence of broadcloth, silk hat, gloves,
cane and sometimes clerical white
neck-tie. And everywhere. also, stared
and shone the Lone Star of Texas-for
the cowboy, wherever he may wander,
and however he may change, never for
gets to be Texan, and never spends
his money or lends his presence to
concern that does not in some way rec
Ognize the emblem of his native State;
so you will see in towns like New Sha-
ron general pandering to this senti-
ment, and lone stars abound of all
sizes and hues. from the big disfguring
white one painted on the hotel-front
down to the little pink one stitched in
silk on the cowboys shilling handker-
chief. Barring these numerous stars,
the rich lights, and the music, we
missed sight of any special efforts to be-
guile or entrap passers-by-perhaps be-
cause we were not looking for them;
nor was there for some hours a sound
to reveal the spirit of coiled and utter
vileness which the cheerful outside so
WSA OOAACu' ~ was III IuC
the kind of scene one would be apt to
conjecture for an Oriental holiday. But
as the night sped on, the festivities
deepened, and the jovial aspect of the
picture began TO be touched and tainted
with subtle, rebuking something,
which gradually disclosed the passion,
the crime, the depravity. that really
vivified and swayed it all, and made it
Internal. The saloons became clamor-
GUS with profanity and ribald songs
and laughter. There were no longer
any promenaders on the sidewalks,
save once in while a single bleared
and staggering fellow, with difficulty
in his clumsy lips over some such
thing as 1.-The Girl Left Behind Me-"
An inflamed and quivering tierceness
crept into the busy music. The lights
paled, flickered, and here and there
went out, Doors were stealthily closed,
window-shutters slammed to with angry
creaks. And at length, as we looked
and listened, the sharp, significant re-
port of a pistol, with shrek behind it,
was borne toward us from turbulent
dancing hall to certify its tale of combat
and probable homicide, and to be sue
ceeded by close but brief halt in the
noisy quadrille for the re-
moval of the victim.-Henry King, IN
Scridaer's Monthly.