New Ulm weekly review. [volume] (New Ulm, Minn.) 1878-1892, 1883-06-13
That Bad Boy.

The grocery man asked the Bad Boy
about the circumstances of q band ser.
ending his father, which was explained
as follows:
'sDon't let that get out, or pa will kill
me dead. 1t was a joke. One of these
Bohemian bands that goes about town
playing tunes for pennies, was over on
the next street, and told pa I guessed
some of his friends who had heard we
had a baby at the house, had hired a
band and was coming in a few minutes
e serenade him and he better prepare
to make speech. Pa is proud of be-
ing father at his age, and he thought
it was no more than right for the neigh
bors to serenade him, and he went to
loading himself for speech, in the Ii
brary, and me and my chum went out
and told the leader of the band there
was a family up there that wanted to
have some music, and they didn't care
for expense, so they quit blowing where
they was and came right along. None
of them could understand English ex-
cept the leader, and he only understood
enough to go and take a drink when he
is invited. My chum steered the band
up to our house and got them to play
Babies on our Block and Baby
Nine and l stopped all the men who
were going home and told them to wait
a minute and they would see some fun,
sowhen the band got through the second
tune, and the Prussians were enaptying
the beer out of the horns, and pa stepped
out on the porch. there was more nor a
hundred people in front of the house
You'd a dide to see pa when he put his
hand in the breast of his coat, and
struck an attitude. He looked like a
congressman or a tramp. The band
was scared, cause they thought he was
mad, and some of them were going to
run, thinking he was going to throw
pieces of brick house at them, but my
chum and the leader kept them. Then
pa sailed in. He commenced, Fellow
Citizens, and then went way back to
Adam and Eve, and worked up to the
present day, giving a history of tho
notable people who had acquired chill
dren, and kept the crowd interested
| felt sorry for pa, cause knew how he
would feel when he came to find out he
had been sold. The Bohemians in the
band that couldn't understand English,
they looked at each other, and won
dered what it was all about, and finally
pa wound up by stating that it was
every citizens duty to own children of
his own, and then he invited the band
and the crowd in to take some refresh
ments. We'll, you ought to have seen
that band come in the house. They fell
over each other getting in, and the
crowd went home, leaving pa and my
chum and me and the band. Eat? Well,
l should smile. They just reached for
things and talked Bohemian. Drink?
o, no. guess they didn't pour it
down. Pa ope ned u dozen bottles of
champagne, and they fairly bathed in it,
as though they had a fire inside. Pa
tried to talk with them about the baby,
but they couldn' understand, and finally
they got full and started out, and the
leader asked pa for three dollars, and
that broke him up. Pa told the leader
he supposed the gentlemen who had got
up the serenade had paid for the music,
and the leader pointed to me and said |
was the gentleman that got it up. Pa
paid him, but he had wicked look in
his eye, and me and my chum lit out,
and the Bohemians came down the
street bilin' full, with their horns on
their arms, and they were talking b.
hemian for all that was out. They
stopped in front of {; vacant house and
began to play, but you couldn't tell
what tune it was, they were so full, and
a policeman came along and drove
them home. guess 1 will sleep at the
livery stable tonight, cause pa is offul
unreasonable when anything costs him
three dollars, besides the champagne"
-Pcck's sam.