Thomas County cat. [volume] (Colby, Kan.) 1885-1891, 1886-02-25


bibulous wreck of Mr.. Browne, rushed
madly into the hall yelling at the top OF
his voice:
Fire? I'll see if patron OF your
seven-by-nine country tavern can t nave
fire when he orders tire!'
Unhappy people in rooms contiguous
to No. 4S, already made nervous by the
succession OF noises emanating from 1t,
now thoroughly aroused by what in the
otherwise still hours of the night they
naturally thought to be an alarm OF
fire, this impression being painfully
intensified by the rushing to the scene
of numerous employees, determined to
stand by the valorous bald-headed
| clerk at all hazards, now came pouring
out into the hall with that large degree
of trepidation and small quantity OF
clothes characteristic of hotel patrons
in contiagration at night.
The occupant of No. AZ had not been
asleep-a fact he now regarded as
providential-and it was a brief toilet
| that he made previous to his prompt
appearance in the hall in response to
i the instinct of self-preservation-al-
though he had that self-same night told
| himself over and over again that death
was far preferable 20 living with kathy
Eggleston eliminated from life. He
was confronted by a score of white,
scared faces, half of them women's, and
his first impulse was:
''How many can l save-whO shall l
| save first?"
In No. 81 the occupant had no toilet
to make. She was still standing in the
| ghostly moonlight and was the last to
be reused from her numb pain that
made sleep impossible by the commo-
ton outside her door. As she joined the
crowd of excited men and hysterical
women, the highly nrated and now un-
comfortable Browne was still shrieking
''Fire!" at the top of his lungs, while
the whole office force were engaged in
trying to drag him downstairs.
Miss Eggleston recognized the strug-
Cling cause of the commOtion and shud-
dered. She had reason to fear the man
Browne worse than she feared fire.
Contemporaneously with her appear
ance Plympton's mental inquiry ''Who
shall | save tirst?" was answered. They
saw each other at the same instant.
This was no time to be bothered with
the 'parted forever" part of it. A
moment more and they were both saved
to each other and for all time.
Utterly bewildered and hopelessly
shattered by the extraordinary rush Of
events the bald-headed clerk rushed up
from the lower regions, whence the in
satiable fire-tiend of No. 4S had finally
made a scenic disappearance, and man.
aged to say:
..There is no fire, ladies and gentle
men: there is not the least danger
happy thought had suddenly restored
his mental equipoise, ''if you want any
thing, just ring for it-you'll find the
list of calls in every room"
'.How about that frey, untamed luna
tic in No. As who has been working
those calls till the whole house is 4
bedlam?" sarcastically inquired gen.
tleman who for some reason persisted
in shiyering despite the reassuring
overcoat that left only his bare feet ex-
posed
"Oh. he's too full of fire-water and
we've put him out" said the clerk,
with faint twitchi g to the corners of
his mouth, which showed an inward
thought worthy of professional para
grapher. He had the jim-jams and
we've sent him around to the station
house to sober up he added as con-
cession to any order of intelligence not
equal to an appreciation of his delicate
brand of humor.
Don't lay it to the liquor, young
although I've no doubt that S
villainous enough here in Maine, "
growled the gentleman in bare feet.
..Put the blame where it belongs, on
your COMPOUNDED system of double
entry electric calls.''
But said Mr.. George Plymptom,
soto voce, in glow Ot gratitude,
while rejecting that had it not been
for this same complex combination
which his enemy had worked to his
own discontinue Montreal and New
York would in twenty-four hours more
have divided himself and Miss Eggles-
ton Il find that these electric calls
have been rung to such purpose that
they have brought me the dearest and
sweetest and best valentine the blessed
old saint ever sent to heart-hungry
mortal
Then. in voice not confined to a
single auditor. more especially address
ing the bald-headed clerk, while a
dozen of the female guests subor-
dinating a natural impulse to scurrv
back to their rooms to still more
natural and wholly commendable curl
osity that scents out and heartily en-
JOYS genuine romance-he said:
Some hypercritical persons think
Your nine calls an eccentric innova-
ton in electricity as applied to hotels.
Instead of agreeing with this super
fetal and erroneous view of the adj
mirable utility of your system, you
may say to the proprietor in the morn
ing. with my compliments. if You
please. that | would suggest the imme-
diate addition of tenth call"
For what'' asked the bald-headed
clerk, susl5iciously, never before hav-