The Cincinnati daily star. [volume] ([Cincinnati, Ohio]) 1875-1880, 1880-02-27
THE END.
Saturday Night i'm a Kansas Cattle
Town.

Henry King in scrbner for March,
The dullness which had so weighed
upon us through the long, uneyentful
afternoon was but a lull, we soon learned,
and not stagnation. With the first ap-
proach of darkness, the lethargic town
rubbed it's eyes, so to speak, and leaped
to its feet-and in twinkling, it seemed
like an incantation, Eastman id),
Grand avenue was a carnival of light,
and motion. and music. The broad
board sidewalks were crowded with prom
enaders; smiling 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 diceO;
violins, flutes and cornets sent out eager,
inviting strains of waltz and polka from
score or more establishments, and a
brass band was playing patriotic airs in
front of the theater, where, oddly
enough, the crude morality of "Ten
Nights in a Bar-room" was about to be
presented, with the full strength of the
company in the cast"
Everywhere the cowboys made them
selves manifest, clad now in the soiled
and dingy jeans of the trail, then in a
suit of many-buttoned corduroy, and
again in affluence 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 wandet, and however he may
change, never forgets to be Texan, and
never spends his money or lends his pres
ence to concern that does not, in some
way, recognize the emblem of his native
State; 80 you will see in towns like New
Sharon general pandering to this senti-
ment, and lone stars abound OF all sizes
and hues, from the big disiguring white
one painted on the hotel front down to
the little pink one stitched in silk on the
cowboys shilling handkerchief.
Barring these numerous stars, the rich
lights and the music, we missed sight of
any special efforts to beguile Or entrap
passers-by-perhaps because 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 cheer
full outside SO well belied. 1t was in the
maia. much the kind of scene one would
be to conjecture for an Oriental holi-
day. But as the night sped on, the fes-
tivities deepened, ,.and the jovial aspect
Of the picture began to be touched and
tainted with a subtle, rehuking some
thing, which gradually disclosed the pas
sion, the crime, the depravity, that rally
vivifed and swayed it all, and made it
Internal. The saloons became clamorous
with profanity and ribald songs and
laughter.
There were no longer any promenaders
on the sidewalk, save once in while a
single bleared and staggering fellow,
with difficulty in his clumsy lips over
some such thing as "The Girl I Left Be
hind Me-" An infamed and quivering
ferceness crept into the busy music.
The lights paled, fickered, and here and
there went out. Doors were steaithify
closed, window-shutters slammed to with
angry creaks. And at length, as we
looked and listened, the sharp, signi6-
cant report of pistol, with the shrek
behind it, was borne toward us from
turbulent dancing-hall to certify its
tale Of combat and probable homicide,
and to be succeeded BY close but brief
halt in the noisy quadrille-presumably
for the removal of the victim.