The Sedalia weekly bazoo. [volume] (Sedalia, Mo.) 187?-1904, 1881-08-09
The Impressions Of q "Bazoo''
Reporter in q Night
Ramble.
What He Saw and What Can
Be Seen in and Around the
City After Midnight.
The Weird Appearance of all the
Buildings, the Passers-by, and
the Appearance of Things
by 0aslight.

IL 0etOS Oeltucr Il W All w n1tn1an nor a
joaquin Miller To appreciate i'm some de-
gre the strange Influences that are abroad
in great city at night. Let any man ri
fair powers Of observation and reflection
prowl about Seslalia from midnight until
I o'clock in the morning and he will br
aware, il not of ghosts, at least ri won-
drouS sort Oi unhealthy attaching to all
corporal entities, and he NAV readily lose
himself in the dream that he is one ri
myriad III phantoms in a phantom city.
Sleep, "ihe brother Of DEATH" has fallen
over the world nj large. and the nigh,
walker is 81 lar conscious Oi tcing out al
gear with humanity that he NAV easy
enough fancy all things moral and his
own perception oi them Il sort oi c"hccn,
illusion.
'COIors seen by candlelight do not look
the same by day." and the very forms ri
the houses seen by starlight or the street
lamps have something grotesguc ar imp">-
ing about them. There Is house on
Main street, which OH clear, night, looks
like the realized page Of the Arabian
Nights. Its strange oriental architecture
has q strange appearance even during the
day, but ut night when surrounded by the
buildings OF a modern pattern, gives ii "a
wierd and lonely look, full Of serene sever
ity.
IL is not only architrcturc--not even
principally the appearance I'll houses that
gives the wierdncss tonight in the city.
/, is the changed character oi the I,opu-
lsiiUn. OIm might easily imagine that the
city had been plague-Strickcn and ior>aken
at sunset and that the darkness, had Tro-
IL Il. I'll -L.l...l L.
mcnts ri her own peculiariti,>. IL is
noteworthy. too, that thisstransrm>>d deep
ems rs the night grows Older. In the early
evening even As late rs midnight THE
average citizen NAV he abroad. Al ten
o'clock at nigh, the city is not very unlike
what it is at ten o'clock in the morning
Men are, as a rule, seeking their pleasure
instead Of their profit. That Is the main
difference 1t is not until after midnight
that the change comes fairly. Then the
prowlcr after impressions NAV see the foui
shals.s ri incarnate sin fitting past the
occasional lights from one ia>tncss oi
darkness To another. Then the unhappy
women who may IN seen throw of the
restraints III earlier hours. Then the
breach vi the peace that earlier would give
policemen work is passed by idly. Then
the most ri the streets and avenues grow
silent while the few grow noisy. There is
sin committed then Whatever I'll crime Is
to be committed this Is the hour that wit
neSscS il. The woman who would hide
the evidence ri her lost virtue, glides 10
the open mOuth,d sewer or a privy vault
and hides away the body III her >lranglcd
infant.
About this hour the hill-tops surround
ing the city arr dotted with men and NO.
men whose passion is stronger than their
reason. Burglars and thugs lscomc bold
and with ardacity 60 about their lawful
calling.
Thugs. thieves and robbers are not the
onlv ones seen ON the street after mid
and tired. from the editorial rooms, the
composing rooms and the press rooms Of
the morning newspapers; from the saloons.
There are roysterers that have wandered
from saloon to saloon until all are closed,
and who go home because they can gO no
where else.
Fast vOung men who have some money
to spend find no place So convenient for
their sprees rs Flat creek. Almost any
night they may be seen starting out
with q companion intent on spending a
night in what they are pleased To term
''fun." Those young men who seek women
Of easy virtue to accompany them to this
resort generally stay later than others and
then spend the following day in yawning
and nursing headache. But at last he
and all other midnight providers are driven
home by the rising sun and the city once
more starts on its busy. bustling march.