The banner-enterprise., 1883-05-17
THEBAD BOY AND THE BAND
HE GETS UP A sEREHADE IN HONOR
OF HIS PA.
Tho Old Gentleman Entertains the SereR-
aders With Speech and Re fire shments--
Serious Trouble ut the Church.

: ing them in to lunch?' said the gro
Gerry man to the bad boy.
: " Don't let that get out, or pa will
t kill me dead. 1t was a joke. One Of
T these Bohemian bands that goes about
town playing tunes, for pennies, wa,
7 over on the next street, and told pa
. | guessed some of his friends who hat
heard we had a baby at the house had
: hired band and was coming in a few
minutes to serenade him, and he better
, prepare to make speech. Pa is proud
: of being father at his age, and he
| thought it was no more than right for
the neighbors to serenaie him, and he
went to loading himself for speech
in the library, and me and my chum
. went out and told the leader of the
band there was family up there that
wanted some music, and they didn I
care for expense, so they quit blowing
where they was and came right along
None of them could understand Eng.
lish except the leader, land he only under
stood 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 1 stopped all the men
who were going home and told them
to wait minute and they would see
some fun, so when the band got
through the second tune, and the
Prussians were emptying 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 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 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 COM
menced, Fellow citizens and then
went away back to Adam and Eve,
and worked up to the present day,
giving a history of the notable people
who had acquired children, AMI kept
the crowd interested. 1 felt sorry for
pa, cause l 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 wondered
what it was all about, and finally pa
wound up by saying that it w9s every
citizens duty to own children of his
own, and then he invited the band and
the crowd in to take some refresh
ments. Well, you ought to have seen
that band come in the house. They
fell over each other getting in, and
the crowd went homo, leaving
pa and my chum and me
and the band. Eat? Well,
l should smile. They just reached for
things, and talked Bohemian. Drink?
Oh, no. | guess they didn't pour it
down. Pa opened a dozen bottles of
CHAMP agne, and they fairly bathed in
it, as though they had fire inside.
Pa tried to talk with them about the
baby, but they couldn't 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 gentle
men who had got up the serenade had
paid for the music, and the leader
pointed to me aud said l was the
gentleman that got it up. Pa paid
him, but he had a 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
Bohemian 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 policeman came along and drove
them home. guess | will sleep ct
the livery stable tonight, cause pa is
offul unreasonable when anything
costs him three dollars, beside the
champagne
"Well, you have made apretty mess
of it," said the grocery man. Its a
wonder your pa does not kill you. But
what is it | hear about the trouble at
the church? They lay that foolishness
to you"
"It's a lie. They lay everything to
me. 1t was some of them ducks that
sing in the choir. ! was just as much
as anybody it occurred.
You see, our minister Is laid up from
the effect of the ride to the funeral,
when he tried to run over street car,
and an old deacon, who had symptoms
of being a minister in his youth, was
invited to take the minister's place
and talk little. He is an absent
minded old party, who don't keep up
with the events of yhe day, and who
ever played it on him knew that he
was too pious to even read the daily
papers. There was notice of choir
meeting to b. read and l think the
tenor smuggled in the other notice,
between that and the one about the
weekly prayer meeting. After the
deacon read the choir notice he took
up the other one and read, l am re-
luested to announce that the Y. NJ. C.
Association will give friendly enter
tainment with soft gloves, on Tuesday
evening, TO which all are invited
Brother John Sullivan, the eminent
Boston reviyalist, will lead the '
exercises, assisted by Brother
Slade, the Maori missionary from S
Australia There will be no slug |
ring, but collection will be taken up G
It the door to defray expenses Well,
thought the people in church would S
link through the floor. There was not a
. person in the church, except the poor i
I'D deaeon hut what I'M lerstool that r