The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1891-04-16
A PHILADELPHIA ROMANCE.

In Which the Day Was Named and
Then Came the End.
ri swear itl"
These words were spoken in that classic
| portion OF OLD Philadelphia where the
| placid waters Of the sleepy Schuylkill
seem too lazy to turn in their little bed.
Not sound was heard in the early spring
| night but the rush of innumerable cable
| cars, the clang of bells, the zephyr like
| movements of the trains every two min
utes on the nearby railroad bridge and the
song of the pumped in wind as it forced its
way through the narrow lamp pipes. Be
yond the shadow of the mountainous coke
piles lowered a series of strange brick
buildings. Ever and anon tired looking
figure might be seen lifting shovel or ag-
itating a wheelbarrow. Bright snatches
of flame sometimes broke into the gather
ing gloom and lit up the wierd surround.
ings. Travellers on the highway would
stop at these impressive moments and say
to each other in awe struck tones:
Behold where Wagner makes itp'
The youth who had just spoken took of
his hat and wiped his pallid brow, when
the fair girl standing by his side told him
to put it on again. In the far west there
shone a silveS crescent where the moon
was giving quarter show. Elfrida Short
waite, student as she was Of Vassar, and
knowing the stars well, from Venus down
to Adonis looking at the bright orb over
her left shoulder, could not repress shud-
der. Still, though she might shake her.
self, it was very evident she didn't want to
shake him.
"And you'll live with mammal"
There was something in the maiden's &C
cents that suggested to D. o. Spudkins,
experienced as he was, strong draft on
the back of close shaved neck. 1t was
not incredulity or doubt. The full import
of her question suddenly struck him, as it
were, with strong upper cut as he was
trying to dodge and left him helpless I'M
less saved by the call of time.
"And with mamma too. | swear it"
He spoke the words, but there was no
gush to them. The elocution was that of
a photograph or an Edison doll. She no.
ticed the strange air of abstraction which
had fallen upon him, and while he might
not have been her last chance he was for
the time being, and she was determined
not to lose it.
"Then 1 am yours, Daniel" she MUIR
INJURED "When shall it bet"
But to this his lips gave forth no an
swer. Even beneath the shadow of the
gas lamp it could be seen he was white.
She peered anxionsly into his eyes. He
may have been waiting for inspiration or
merely good opportunity for catching
passing car. Yet he said nothing. All the
proud feelings of an injured love welled
into her woman's bosom. What men in
convivial moments often noticed in him
she noticed now. He kept on saying Meth
ing. There was dreadful pause, broken
only by the crash of innumerable air cas-
ties and the miscellaneous noises first men
toned. Then shifting her gum to the
other side she threw the finest article of
whitening scor7 she possessed into the in
quiry:
And when will it be? When the new
Mint is built?"
Mop he Kissed through his clenched
teeth; when the public buildings are fin
ished"
And, jumping six weeks board bill, he
escaped to the wilds of Laniganville.-
Philadelphia Times.