The Atlanta constitution. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1885-19??, 1888-07-31
BILL NYE AND MR.. ROOT
Their ExhiIarating Ride in Central
Park.
Some Startling History-Cleopatra Reviewed
Likewise the Prince of Wales
Wards Statue, Etc, Etc.
BIn Nve in the snndag world.


! of Council Bluffs, paid me visit, and as de-
sired to show him the park took him to Fifty
eighth street and hired a carriage, engaging
the services Of dark-eyed historical stud ent
who is said to know more about Central park
| than any other man iii New York, having
driven thr ough it, as he has, for years.
Colonel Root and called him governor and
| thereby secured knowledge which could not be
| obtained from books. Colonel Root is himself
| no kindergarten savant being the author and
discoverer of a method of breaking up sitting
hen by first calling her attention away from
her deep seated passion, tying red flannel rag
around her leg and then still further turning
her attention away from her wild yearning to
hatch out a litter of suburban villas by sitting
! on white front door knob.
Colonel Root wanted to see the Mall. He
said that Wyoming, with her sun kissed hills,
! her bilOwy and moss agate bedecked plains,
! her blue skies and luscious beef critters, had
no Mall There the hungry eye sought vainly
| for one, because, with all her blessings, Wyom-
| ing is still malless. The driver showed it to
us; also Wards Shakespeare. Colonel Root
| said that was just the way things went when
man died. II suppose" said he, "that Wards
other statuary and wax figures went that same
way. No two of 'em left together. One of
'em here in the brush and another in Jericho,
very likely. Everybody tried to chisel old
Shakespeare as soon as he died, especially the
sculptors, and now that A. Ward is dead,
they've got his statqary out here for the spar
rows to roost on, while his poor mother is up
there in Maine without a statue in the house."
eyes," said the driver, stroking the under
side Of his nose thoughtfully with his sleeve,
II tell you it's tough"
The driver also called our attention to the
very tired English oak planted at the forks of
the road twenty-five years ago by the prince
of Wales.
"Can you tell me, governor" inquired Colo
mel Root, chow in Sam Hill the people in
England ever came to pick out Wales for o
prince? Blamed If can figure it out. Glad
stone would have made q nuffste better
prince, according to my notion, and SO would
old John Brown, or the duke of Marlbro. Still,
suppose that Wales had a way of working
the press and getting into society that made
him solid with the people,
eyes, that was it" said the governor, as he
ate Glove and put out the eye of a seventy
five dollar greyhound with the cracker of his
whip. "Wales has catched on better some
how than airy prince ever have saw. If the
queen was to die today they tell me that
Wales would be nominated by reclamation, no
matter how his health is. There never was
prince before that was able to hold the place
so long as Wales has"
Then we visited Cleopatra's Needle.
And who in creation was Cleopatra"
asked Colonel Root.
Cleopatra was a good looking queen of
Egypt She was eighteen years old when her
father left the throne, as it was screwed
down to the dais, and died He left tine king
dom to Cleopatra, in partnership with
Ptolemy, her brother. Ptolemy in 81 B. c.,
deprived her of the throne, leaving Cleopatra
nothing but the tidy. She appealed to Julius
Caesar, who hired a man to embalm Ptolemy,
and restored Egypt to his sister, who was as
likely girl as Julius had ever met up with.
She accompanied him to Rome in 46 3. q.
and remained there couple of years in the
capacity of a sister When Caesar was assas-
sinated by a delegation of Roman tax
payers who desired change, Cleo
over Egypt again. She also attracted the at
tention of Antony He thought so much of
her that he would frequently stay at home
from battle and deny himself the joys Of
being split open with dull knife stab in order
to stay around home and hold Cleopatra's
hand, and said that it had to be an ALFRED
good battle that could make him put
on his iron ulster and fight all day
on the salary he was getting. She piZened her.
self thirty years b. c., at the age of thirty-nine
years rather than ride around Rome in a ging-
ham dress as the captive of Augustus She
died right in haying time, and Augustus said
he'd ruther of lost the best horse in Rome.
This is her needle. 1t was brought to New
York mostly by water, and looks well here in
the park She was said to be as likely queen
as ever jerlIed a scepter over Egypt or any
other place. Everybody that saw her reign
said that the country never had magneticker
queen.
AS we rode swiftly along, the slight, girlish
figure OF q middle aged woman might have
been seen striving hurriedly to cross the drive
way. She screamed and beckOned to q park
policeman, who rushed eisurely in and caught
her by the arm, rescuing her from the cruel
feet of our mad chargers, and then led her to
seat. AS we paused to ask the policeman if
the lady had been injured, he came up to the
side of the carriage and whispered to me
behind his hand: "rhat woman l have
rescued between thirty and forty times this
year, and it is only early in July. Every
pleasant day she comes here to be rescued.
One day, when business was little dull and
we didn't have any teams on the drive and
time seemed to hang heavy on her hands, she
told me her sad history. When she was
eighteen years of age, she had been disap-
pointed in love and prevented from marrying
her hearts choice, owing to the fact that the
idea of their union did not occur to him. He
was not. in fact, union man.
Time passed on. One day she came to town
to do some trading. She priced $3.50 worth of
goods and was just crossing Broadway to
price some more when the gay equipage of a
wealthy ilumorist, with silver claims on the
neck yoke and foam fecks across the bosom
of the nigh boss, came prancing down the
street.
"The red nostrils of the spirited brutes were
above her, Their hot breath scorched the
back of her neck and and swayed the red
flannel pompon on her bonnet, Every one
on Broadway held his breath, with the ex-
cepton of man on the front stoop of the
Aston house, whose breath had got beyond his
control.
',Just then a strong, brave policeman rushed
in and knocked down both horses and the
driver, together with his salary. He caught
the woman up as though she had been no more
than a feather weight. lie bore her away to
the postotfice pavement, where it is still the
custom to carry people who are run over and
mangled. He then sought to put her down,
but she chung about his neck like the old party
who got acquainted with Sinbad the sailor,
though, of course, in a different manner. 1t
took quite awhile to shake her off. The next
| day she came back and was almost killed at the
same crossing. IL went on that
way until the policeman had his beat
changed to another part of the town.
Finally she came up here to get her summer
rescuing done. do 1t when it falls TO my lot,
but my heart is not in the work. Sometimes
the horrible thought comes over me that may
be too late. but haven't the heart to do It,"
He then walked up to sparrow that refused
to keep off the grass and Drained it with his
club.