The Democratic press. [volume] (Ravenna, O. [Ohio]) 1868-1901, 1890-08-13
Fun IN A SHOWER.
Any Port in a Storm and Every Man For
Himself.


Himself.
The sudden and tremendous down.
pour of rain, which seemed to come al |
most out of a clear sky last. Sunday
afternoon, says the n. Y. Tribune, J
caught an unusually large number of
gayly dressed people in Prospect park,
Brooklyn, who had been beguiled into
setting forth without umbrellas or
''waterproofs" by the summer-like
mildness of the day. The kiosks,
pagodas, summer-houses, and boat
houses were soon jammed full of
sweltering crowds of moist and sorrow
full humanity, whose only satisfac-
ton seemed to be in watching the
efforts of those for whom there was no
room to keep dry under the trees and
bushes.
One poor mother, shabbily dressed
herself, had two little daughters, aged
about 10, dressed extravagantly in
plush and ostrich feathers. Her de-
spair was pitiful. She could find no
shelter for her chicks. But a bright
idea struck her. Dragging them be-
hind a big bush she stripped off their
finery like lightning and put the clothes
under her own gown. The little girls
stood revealed in white petticoats and
cotton waists, bare-armed and low
necked, but they did not finch from the
storm. Their clothes were safe under
mothers shabby gown. When the
floods ceased they put on their un-
damaged tinery and strutted home,
drenched and miserable underneath,
but dry and clipper on the surface.
Just across the road, outside the park
gate, in full view of where this was
happening, was q bar-room with a
wide veranda. This was quickly
sheltering all it could hold, so that
many felt it necessary to step inside
the store and thus afford more room
for others. A dapper young fellow,
who was standing with well-dressed
girl on the veranda, spying this flank
movement, and feeling exceedingly
Just step inside a moment, Miss b,
and see If can not borrow an UNI
brella from the store-keeper here. If
sure to find you again. Excuse me-
and he was gone. The girl looked
pleased by this little attention.
A stout old German, close beside her,
winked his eye and remarked to his
wife, loud enough for the girl to hear:
You stand right by this pillar,
dree glass beer. Oxcuse me"-and he
pushed into the crowd. A look of
doubt passed over the girls face as two
or three people Uttered. She bit her
lip however, and was evidently think
ing a great deal.
s'This reminds me of big shower
that overlook me one day in Scotland, F."
said man whose new silk hat was
ruined. THE weather was bitter cold
and the rain partly froze as it fell, SO
that the icy sleet cut like glass. ]
knocked at the door of lonely cabin
bv the wayside, and woman's voice
within asked what | wanted. Shelter,
/ shouted. Go round behind she an
swered, there's no room here
pushed at the door and it yielded g
little, Just enough for me to see that 8
big COW prevented the door opening
any wider. / went around behind, anC
there in little pigpen, without a door
thatched with straw, ON the mud floor
far below the surface of the earth,
found an old man huddled in some
straw, wet and cold.
Il squeezed in beside him, paying NJ
attention to his grumblings- and, aftel
l had lighted my pipe, to the infinite
danger of setting our straw-bed on fire
and had filled his for him from m,
pouch, l began to get warm and the OLD
fellow tbawed out little. How cam
YOU in here?' l asked. My wife turuet
me out he replied. What for?'
said. One wouldn't turn dog out ol
; night like this TO make room TO
{ the pigs he said. After the storm wa
over, the COW came out of the cabin
| followed by the pigs, a dog, some hen
and big woman. How they all 60
into it was mystery to me. 'Yo
, seem to think more of your animal
.. than of your husband l said to hel
so would you, she answered, if you
old man had been too sick to ea1E
penny in two years, and your animal
|. was all you had to live on"
A milkman drove slowly by in hi
wagon, through the storm, just as thi
speaker finished his anecdote. Th
covers of the cans in the wagon wer
all off and the rain splashing in will
out hindrance. A good many joke
were cracked at the drivers expense
s.He reminds me-" said another mar
! who was waiting for the sky to cleal
+! ''of religious but slightly daft ol
milkman, who only put money into tn
collection plate at a church after
rainy day. A close friend of his aske
him one day the reason of this.
never water my milk myself he al
: swered but if the Lord sends the raj
down into my cans why should | sto
it by clapping the covers on? l kno'
exactly how many pints of milk hay
= when l start, and if find two or thre
over at the end of the route on a rain
day sell them and put the money int
the collection. It's the Lords woI
and the Lords water, not mine and tt
DrofitS are his also ~