Middletown transcript., 1880-02-28
SATURDAY NIGHT IN A KANSAS CAT.
TIE TOWN.

The dullness which had so weighed
upon US through the long, uneventfu
afternoon was but a lulI, we soor
learned, and not a stagnation. With
the first approach of darkness, the
lethargic town rubbed its eyes, so tc
speak, and leaped to its feet-and in a
twinkling, it seemed (like an incaLta.
ton, Eastman said), Grand Avenue
was carnival of light, and motion,
and music The broad board side
walks we're crowded with promenaders;
smiling groups passed in and out of the
drinking-saloons and gambling-places;
in every quarter glasses clinked and
dice ratified Cis there another sound in
the world like that Of shaken dice p ;
violins, flutes and cornets sent out
eager, inviting strains of waltz and
polka from score or more establish
ments, and brass band was playing
patriotic airs in font of the theater,
where, oddly enough, the crude moral
ity of Ten Nights in a Bar-Room, 4"
was about to be presented, "with the
full strength of the company in the
cast Everywhere, the cowboys
made themselvest manifest, clad now
in the soiled and dingy jeans of the
trial, then in suit Of many-buttoned
corduroy, and again in afluence of
broadcloth, silk hat, gloves, cane, and
sometimes a clerical white neck tie.
And everywhere, also, stared and shone
the Lone Star Of Texas-for the cow
boy, wherever he may wander, and
however he may change, never forgets
to be Texan, and never spends his
money or lends his presence to a con-
cern that does not in some way recog-
nize the emblem of his native State
so you will see in towns like New Sha-
ron a 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 cowboy shilling handker-
chief. 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 sound
to reveal the spirit of coiled and utter
viJeness which the cheerful outside so
well belied. It was in the main much
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 t&int-
ed with subtle, rebuking something,
which gradually disclosed the passion,
the crime, the depravity, that really
vivifed and swayed it all, and made it
The saloons became clamor-
BUS with profanity and ribald songs
and laughter There were no longer
any promenaders OH the sidewalks,
ave once in while single b.eared
md staggering fellow, with difficulty
n his clumsy lips over some such thing
rs The Girl I Left Behind Me-" An
nfamed and quivering ferceness crept
nto the busy music. The lights paled,
and here and there went out.
Doors were stealthily closed, window
hutters slammed to with angry creaks.
And at length, as we looked and lis
ened, the sharp, significant report of
PISTOL, with a shrek behind it, was
,orne toward US from turbulent dan
ing-hall to certify its tale of combat
nd probable homicide, and to be sue
eeded by a close but brief halt in the
oisy quadrille-presumably for the
emoval of the victim.-( HENRY KING,
n Scri6ner for March.