Wichita eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1886-1890, 1889-09-12
ENNUTS FAIR CAPTIVES.
TWO MAlDENS WHO WANTED TO
SEE LIFE'S GlLDED SIDE.


| dissecting their fellow men and women, COM
pairing notes and exchanging experiences, and
| in due time made a mutual discovery that life
| in St Paul was decidedly fat and stale, if not
altogether improbable.
"Now, in New York" yawned Marion,
YEARLY, when society begins to pail, the
| girls go stunning and do nice things ike
| that" Marion is blonde, and looks as ii
her spirit walked only in the sunlight of
angels wings. But here the most exciting
thing we ever do is to give masquerade,
which makes Us lot of worry and work and
expense, and when it is over we find we have
only succeeded in making ourselves perfectly
hideous by misguided selection of costume,
and have had nothing but a dancing party
after all.n
Maude thought they ought TO be able to de-
wise something that would have at least a
! grain Of spice. "What do you say to going
to the dime museums" she said abruptly.
''There might be something in it,"
! "There is" exclaimed Maude triumphantly,
land it's Human Balloon read so in
the morning paper"
II suppose he would have a few clothes
on?" remarked Marion doubtfully
sob, Of course; tights anyway. Let's 90. II
And so it happened that the two daring
| young ladies concealed their aristocratic fea-
| lures behind thick wells, and trusting their
lives to the integrity Of the cable las the first
step in their reckless adventure, perhaps,
came down by the common route and sneaked
aye, verify, sneaked into the dime museum.
''Heavens What smells so!" gasped Ma
rion at the top OF the stairs.
Its the aroma Of novelty, machere. You
may change you may alter the house if you
| viii, but the scent of the freak viii cling
round it STILL
THAT sounds as if you had been here be-
| fore" and Marion cast an eye of suspicion
! upon her friend
''Well, [ haven't, but went into a side
! show once at a circus. Marion Hilltop" she
whispered, grasping that young woman's arm
with black-and-blue clutch, Il actually be-
| heve that man is in his sGinr'
! Nonsense! Let go my arm. It's pink
| silk, and not much Of a fit either; but it does
| look little like skin ct first"
The human balloon rose and spoke his little
| piece; then drawing prolonged inspiration
| he expanded his chest and stomach until his
| body was more than twice the original size,
| held it a moment, and with a slow expira-
| ton gradually decreased to his normal pro-
| portions.
| ''It makes me SICK" declared Marion.
| IL believe it's trick" rejoined Maude
| 'I'll bet anything it's some kind of a rubber
+ arrangement that he blows up some way
! with air Let's look at tho monkeys"
| Thanks; [ meet too many English apes
capering around in society to find anything
amusing in the African species. Maude, what
| do you suppose the men are looking at
| through those round holes over there Oh the
| side2'
''Well, I've been watching, and there hasn't
a single woman gone over yet. l expect it's
something pretty bad. Would you dare looks
| Merciful goodneSsI Is the place on fires"
| mo- nom, :" responded a bystander, eject
| ing stream of tobacco juice from a swollen
| jaw. Its the crowd a-rushin' down to see
| the seals"
| THEY TAKE IN THE SHOW.
The two girls, determined to see it all, fol-
| lowed the unsavory throng and to this day
| the possible impropriety that hid beyond that
| row of bulls eye holes remains a tantaliZing
| mystery to them. The performance of trained
seals they found really interesting. The
| juvenile seal was quite as kittenish as the
| stage juvenile always is; the topical song
| seal sang the usual number of verses with
| the traditional lack of voice, and received the
| same old enoores; the funny business bore the
authoritative stamp Of ripe old age, and on the
whole the entertainment was just IS well
| worth seeing as two-ihirds OF the combina-
| tons put upon the regular boards, and had a
decided advantage over the latter in that the
| performers were seals and not persons.
Il didn't see any fur on them that looked
like my sealSizin coat commented Marion as
the curtain fell.
Perhaps they've shed their coats. think
I've read that some animals doshed their out
side skin when they get in a warmer eli
mate"
mo, think you're wrong, Maude, about
that. But perhaps the fur grows On the in
side. l shouldn't wonder if 1t did, because if
| it was on tho outside it would got so stuck
| with ice crawling around on icebergs'-
How do you know they dog interrupted
Maude.
Because, don't you remember, the picture
in our Biographies always represented seals
as summing themselves on iceberssF'
At the foot Of the stairs they found a man
selling tickets for "a first class theatrical per-
Torrance by the English Novelty company
of celebrated artists; gentleman VIII please
remove their hats"
"A variety show" whispered Marion.
'I've always been dying to go to one. l
guess We won't buy reserved seats, but stand
back here. We may have toleave"
And a variety" show it was, but absolute
y free from any improperly. They found
il sufficiently interesting to remain to the
close, although considerably disappointed at
the absence Of anything sensational The
vOcaliStS had better voices than the averar~a
singer in first class burlesque, and were COS
TUNED rather more 1nodestly. The jokes, If
somewhat moss grown. were at least not IN
pleasantly suggestive, and the specialties
were I'll cleverly done The artist who PLAYED
popular airs on violin with anything under
the light OF the sun from a weshboard to an
old shoe, as Aaude aftrrward said. gave bet
ter music than Hcey does with ms peculiar
instrument in "a Parlor Match" 70 say
nothing Of the man who proved that real
melody can be extracted from a penny whis-
tie il the haads-or mouth, rather-ot
genius.
Nv ell. We haven't seen CT heard single
thing the last bit outrage have veT' re-
marked Marion, In Disguised 1ooe, as they
walked down Seventh street But its been
great lark Wonder II any one saw US.
Suppose VIC WIND cH with blue points and a
pint bottIe''
Maade besitated 81 would, hut I want TO
be az home by !. and I've got to change NY
gown, and curl ny bang, and
''MaU6e Anthony, you have an engagement
with -: oh. YOU sly thing. Well, IL 90
over 10 tue Ryan and make e call. Tra-la-
la-la II he tells you that he never knew q
woman 70 WON ba could coat1e lis deeper