The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1883-06-09
LEAVING THE STAGE.
A Lecturer INDUCES in Pleasant Reminis-
cences, in Which the Small Boy Figures

A Lecturer INDUCES in Pleasant Reminis-
cences, in Which the Small Boy Figures
Largely.
L. J. Burdette.
l remember so well the first time l ever
solemnly and forever left the platform 1t
was on the 18th or 18th of May at Antwerp,
0. The weather was warm. The hard
backed bugs and the big, laundering beetles
that fly by night were abundant and offens-
i've. The open windows of the hall gave the
boys on the street. as they patrolled their
noisy beats, abundant opportunity to chatf
tine lecturer, whose gigantic form they could
plainly see, but whose eloquent remarks they
could but dimly hear and lily comprehend.
A. general thing, have observed that
when the lecturer on the platform and the
boys in the street are addressing one audi
ence at the same time, the audience appears
to be most profoundly interested in the re-
marks of the boys. 1 thought, and still
think it is very foolish Tor an audience to
pay fifty cents a head to hear me and then
sit and listen to the boys whom they might
have heard for nothing But that is the way
an audience has, anyhow, So, that night,
l did not care for the boys. 1 would
not permit the tithing man to go
out and entreat the boys roughly,
and compel them to shut up their
heads" as he wished to do, not even when
they Knocked me- and in shrill falsetto en-
treated me to give them a rest" assuring
me they heard enough of that" and
brought me, with lily dissembled concern,
not to bite off more than l could chaw."
1 only smiled pleasantly and said, Nay.
hinder them not. Let them shout / was
once boy myself" And l smiled again
and the tears stood in my eyes
But inwardly was ravening wolf, with a
brass collar and two rows of spikes
On my way to the hotel l overlook a boy
who was still yelling and bowling at me, for
he wot not that the lecture was over.
And my anger got fierce and gat hold up
on him. and smote him sore, and encom-
passed him round with a piece of barrel
| hoop, and necked him, insomuch that he
wept bitterly, and was sore astonished, and
swore that he would make full report of
these things unto the mother that bore him.
yea even unto his big brother and to the
father of his IONS.
| But needed him not neither was moved
with compassion, nor yet stricken with fear,
for 1 wist that his mother lived away or the
other side OF the river and his big brother
was not and never had been, and his father
was a night Waterman, and therefore at that
time of night sound asleep in some secluded
doorway. Moreover, | was going away on
the 4 A. NJ. train. Wherefore, l smote him
once again. and said
If it be that another lecturer cometh this
way, will it seem fitting unto thee to sit on
the curbstone and make merry with thy
friends, even while he speaketh words unto
the multtude?'
And he lifted up his voice, and wept bit
terly, and swore unto me, saying, las my
sole liveth, nope may die eff | do"
And let up on him. And it was so that
when he was gone away as it might be a
bow shot, that he called aloud, and wagged
his tongue against me, and Knocked me and
cllled "Smarty" and cast stones after me
and followed me even unto the inn, and
dared me half way, and revied me because
would not, saying, "Ho! Fraid cat! Fraid
cat!p
And I sought to STAY him but could not,
for he was marvellous swift of foot, and he
was like unto the children OF Benjamin, and
could sling stones at hair breadth, and
not miss"