Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1880-11-19
An Idyl of the Night.


Mr.. Carmichel sat at his open window
with cloud on his thoughtful brow
and q shotgun in his hand. He looked
out upon the landscape flooded with
nocturnal beauty, but no peace came
into his soul or shone out of his face
The silver orb of night was sinking in
. bank of feecy clouds down to the
west'ard. with the deliberation and res.
Gluten OF tired tramp wrapping the
drapery of the straw-stack about him
The pale light Just kissed, with its un
certain beams, the roof of Carmichel'l
vood-shed, lingering on the warped
shingles with a regretful tenderness,
like boy getting out of bed On a win.
Ter morning. The South Hill naples
Allied with the intense shadows, outlined
the more sharply by the waning moon,
rustled in ghostly whispers as the winds
Of the night sighed through their leafy
canopios. The street.car bells were
still. and the clay bank mule, the Joy
and pride Of Eighth street, was dreaming
the happy hours away in the embedded
strawness of his lonely stall. Long
hours ago the lights had faded out Of
D0nshue's grocery, and the members
Of the South Hill club had gone home
The silent stars looked down upon the
Aumbering city. rs if their lmpassive,
eternal patience might rebuke the
gloom that clouded Mr.. Carmichel'a
brow.
The eyes Of the citizen were sternly
bent upon the roof of his wood.shed.
Following their direction the curious
observer might have perceived in the
iailing light, shadowy figure, stealth
lily measuring the shingles. At length
il paused. and looking pensively at the
full-orbed moon it split the silent night
with q moaning vail that slid along
like the chromatic scale on SO violin,
only worse.
"Mari-ah.h-h!"
And the echoing nocturne went Sob
bling down the deserted street, across
the solitudes of Stony Lonesome, start
ling the napled hills into thousand
echoes which went ripping up the
avenue, past the parsonage, across the
classic campus OF the Baptist college,
and finally awakening Artie McArthur's
burro, which shrieked back its alarm
and discomfort in terrific "hee hawl'
that blighted all the blossoms on the
wisteria and set half the telephone
bells on West Hill to ringing.
"It's been that way all night"
moaned Mr.. Carmichael, turning his
head and speaking to some unseen per-
SON within the room.
"Then why don't you shoot it and
come to bed?" said sleepy voice in
reply, and not stand there all night
making spectacle Of yourself ut the
window and catching your death Ct
cold"
The intelligent reader has already
perceived. from the fact that the folly
Of" making spectacle Of himself. was
placed before the imminent danger OF q
fatal cold, that the second speaker was
no other than Mrs. Carmichel.
Her remark only served to deepen
the gloom on Mr.. Carmichel's brow
II he did not shoot the prowler of the
night that had established its signal
station on his wood-shed, he could moi
sleep. II he fred the gun, there was
great danger that he might awaken 9
policeman, and feel the wrath of thai
conservator of public order, should hi
happen to awaken in an ill.humor. A
night policeman, Mr.. Carmichael wal
we'll aware, should be awakened ten
Derby. and with great caution. A police
man .rudely startled from slumber al
one O'Clock in the morning, by the de
tonaiion of an untimely gun, has beer
known to fall from the salt barrel which
he had made his humble but vigilan
couch, and scrape his shins along tn,
harsh and much abrading hoops. An,
he NEEDLES with firebrand who trie
to talk politics to man who has JUS
scraped his shins.
The incredulous reader may smile q
the idea of q man sleeping on q sal
barrel. Alas, the unbeliever then ha
never seen q night policeman on duty
with three burglars getting in thei
work on the same. block. A salt barrel
well bestrid, is comfortable couch, a,
ice-cold doorstep is . bed OF down, an,
seven-foot skid is the lap of luxury
But We digress.
And while.we have digreseed, the clam
orous echoes have died away and one
more 81. r. II. Silence reigns. MI
Carmichael was on the point of turnin,
away from the window, when there wa
another revolution and long before th,
smoke of the battle had cleared avay
Is it were, silence was dispossessed an,
clamor reigned as first consul in he
gentle, noiseless stead. Once NOR
the prowling figure on the shed LITE,
up its voice and sent this down tn
echoing corridors Of time, and 30 far q
Mr.. Carmichael could observe, abou
fifty years into the dark and silen
boulevards of eternity:
"Comin' out? Comm -ow.wow-wow
out?"
The distracted citizen shuddered an,
. frown Of resolution settled on his fac
as he muttered:
"Now will / do it."