Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1884-03-06
bend were smaller and meaner thanthose

street enjoyed several advantages over
| the lowerone, including q row of horsel
chestnuts on eithersi therosd, which,
ct Che time I speak of, we're, though
stunted in size, and Occasionally mis-
shapcn, just beginning to burst into an
| exquisite network of dazzling, yellow
green young buds and leaves. Il 1t was
, the beginning of May: these buds and
| leaves were as yet too young to have
| been smirched7 by the dust which
| whirled up from the passing carts and
| omnibuseS. Pollut on would arrive soon
enough; at present the green was as
fresh and vernal as if, instead of being
| planted down a busy street. they had
been deep in woody dells, miles away
from q house. Big ~ .~a .fss--atisg >.
Behind the trees on either side the
street was, of course, a row of houses.
They were moderately sized, modest
looking houses. with stuc .oed fronts
| which had long been of dirty gray in
color. They looked and We're thinly
built. The blinds appeared nearly all
afflicted with some infirmity. generally
CONSTITUTIONAL, and, as a rule, taking
the form of rooted tendency to ''draw
up crooked" and hang with a rakish,
slanting appearance at the top of the
window.
The houses had bay-windows, at least
the house with which we are concerned
had bay-windows. In front of it was a
remarkably small strip of garden, with
little red-tiled walk leading up to the
front door. The doors of the houses
were placed in twos, side by side--an
advantage, no doubt, to the postman
and the tradesman, who rang both bells
o& a.
with two esta blishments simultaneously,
but. as some of the heads of those estab-
lishments thought. degrading to the
persons who had to live in them. l
merely wish to insist on the fact that
living in Lawrence streetwa like living
in one great house; everything which
was done in one house being distinctly
audible to the persons who lived in the
next. There was no hiding ones light
here either literally or Internationally,
dence, and the houses in it were rarely
were vacated, almost before there was
time for the new whitewash to dry.
The evening was warm and pleasant.
1t was FRIDAY in the week that follows
Whitweek. Irkford had just had her
great annual holiday. and was settling
down to work again with what spirit
she might: The wind, oddly enough,
for it was May, was blowing from the
southwest instead of from the north
east. One of the bay windows ON the
ground floor of one of the stucco-front-
ed houses was open, and in the en-
brasure sat two young men, with a lit
tie table between them on which stood
coffee cups and a cigar box. They sat
in easy chairs, one in either corner of
the window. and there had been long
silence between them. In fact, there
was a hull altogether; as it happened,
no children were screaming in the inn
mediate vicinity of the gate; it was
nearly quarter of an hour since the
last omnibus had passed, and during
that time no vehicle had gone by.
But suddenly the silence was broken.
There arose a clamor which grew into
q roar All at once Pandemonium
seemed to have been let loose. Two
omnibuses came laundering past; one
up and one down the street; as soon as
che din they occasioned had somewhat
subsidized, the strains became distinctly
audible of q street-piano, frantieaHy
performing an air with variations from
that select rerertory of popular melo-
dies, ola File de Madame Angot.'
Several carts and large van hurried
up and down the street The musical
instrument which had so suddenly an
peared upon the scene was being adj
vanced slowly and steadily toward the
W ndow at which the two young men
were sitting. AS yet, the swarthy-look-
ing sol distant Italian who turned the
handle of the instrument had not per-
ceived the two highly promising vic
Tins. Suddenly his eye fell upon them.
With joyful bound, which caused an
abrupt pause in the wild and terribly
br liant crescendo passage, which was
then issuing from his machine, he
swooped down upon the open window
as an eagle swoops upon his prey, GER
tain that if the young men liked his
music. they would give him money to
reward him for its beauty, and that if
they did not like it, they would equally |
give him money to depart and cease to
lacerate their ears.
sJove! That fellow has found us
out, and is making straight for U.S.
observed the elderof the two young |
men, who had dark, handsome, reso- |
lutte face, and long, stalwart limbs,
at full length before lin.
s"What borer' murmured his COM
panion, not raising his head to look.
sometimes. Massey, wonder that you
stay here; there is as great a row now
and then as in the middle of the town
on market-day.''
81 stay because it's convenient for the
town and the omnibuses; and then my
window makes me SO comfortable, and
I am lazy, and don't want the bother
OF moving. or of getting up any earlier,
or else wouldn't stay; in other words,
if it didn't suit me in every respect, I'd
CO." replied he, fixing his, eyes on the
grinning owner of the piano, who, be-
ginning to turn the handle again, let
off the remainder of the triIl and the
end of the variation in one wild burst
upon the enraptured ears of the listen
erS. .-
"Cab coming. Organ man doesn't
see it-going to be run over continued
Philip Massey, who lodged at tn s par
ticular house in Lawrence street, and
whose friend had been dining with him.