Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1892-12-23


papers are kind tc us, giving our agent
desk room always while he writes the
criticism of our performance, and so
suburban and outlying towns at times
get the impression from our air, and not
from anything we state at all, that we
carry thirty people and a stud of fine
horses which we introduce at each per-
Torrance.
So these young people residing at the
cheese town had somehow got to think
ing that we had an "opry." They came
arm in arm from the train with bright,
expectant faces to the opera house. Their
eyes just danced with expectation. Our
manager is to blame for this, for his bills
are alive with pictorial action. He for
gets that people who are not profound
expect that the ATTRACTION" is going to
place himself in all these attitudes.
The young people put up at the hotel
for tea and sat in the parlor and con-
versed till the meal was ready.
"Play something, Madeline" said
Grace, who was large, powerful girl,
with tight shoes and slight stoop in the
back, but one could see by her muscular
frame that she stoops to conc for l
thought when saw her that she was tine
village blacksmith, who meath the
spreading chestnut stands, with strong
and brawny arms, God wot, and whisk-
ers on his hands.
"Play something, Madeline" again
came the pleading, yet deep, rich, manly
voice of Grace.
ooh, shet upv' exclaimed Madeline.
"T'd druther talk OF play some game till
supper's ready. Give us a restv' she
added petulantly, for one could see that
she was the spoiled darling of the cheese
town and wore mauve suspenders over a
draddy tay CAMP.
"Oh, play something for me, Maddier
said tall, 1.-the young man with knob
ON his throat, which rose and fell like
the price of wheat when he swallowed.
"Play something for me-" he said, swal-
lowing something with sound that re.
minded one strangely of the hanging
of Mrs. Surratt. "Play 'Bonaparte's
March, Maddie."
and he leaned forward toward her till
she could almost feel his hot Bermuda
onion breath on her cheek.
He was of a deep, passionate nature,
inclined to the sanguine bilious. His
father owned the livery stable under
whose auspices they had come.
"Play something for me, Maddie.
Play 'Bonaparte's March," exclaimed
the tall, young man, leaning still farther
toward her and regarding her with a
look of heart hunger in his eye that re.
minded one in spite of himself of one
who had been searching for the open
polar sea and boarding himself
"Yes, do" said Grace, "play some.
thing for Leonard, even if you sour on
u.s." She then rose and escorted Maldie
to the piano as Sandrow would have
escorted the child wonder 70 the door for
good spank. Reluctantly Maddie
went to the piano, and aside from the fut-
ter of tiny mother of pearl suspender
button on the real brussels carpet and
its low buzz as it spun across the zinc
under the baseburner, there was no
sound. With Grace there was no monkey
business.
Madeline looked up dreamily to the
i
wall, trying to think of the piece. She
then touched the keys with a technique
that was like the heavy football of a
wounded buffalo.
"My patience" she exclaimed, looking
at her fingers suddenly, "this piano amt
been swept since Adam was a ye'rlin"
Merry laughter from the delegates OF
the rennet village greeted this sally.
The piano was poor. 1t was not what
it had once been, and it never was much
1t had been taken out of four burning
hotels within fifteen years by misguided
people who thought that a piano ought
to be preserved. 1t may be as well per
haps right here for me to admit that
believe the time is coming when pianos
will be sold as one sells good horse, fol-
whatever it will bring. There are gen.
orally two or three people in a century
who can get music out of a piano, as
there is a man who can walk across
Niagara falls en- a tight rope every
hundred years, but there is growing
feeling among grownup men who own
pianos, and who keep them in repair, and
who get nothing in return but poor play,
ing, perpetual practice and apologies
that they will some day unite and de-
Il