The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1892-06-03
LOOSHA'S LOVERS.


Loosha's disposition is not of the soft
and melting kind. Her demeanor toward
the sterner sex is uniformly sharp, incisive
and superior. She has no patience with
the men, she is won't to say-their WAYS
are such. Yet she possesses swarms of fol
lowers. Foolish house flies grayitate IRE
sistibly toward the delusive square OF
| brown paper, well smeared with a mixture
of rosin and treacle, and known to house
wives under the euphonious name OF
| Catch-em-alive Or In the same way eli.
gibie young men of her own rank in life are
drawn to Loosha. She takes possession Of
1 them, body and soul, seemingly without
/ effort. Her tenderest epithets are soft
! and LOBBY" and if she has been followed
in fear, she is courted in trembling The
hvers of the most audacious wooers turn
! to water at her frown. 1t is certain that
no male creature ever asserted and exer-
| clsed mastery over Loosha's proud spirit
until the railway guard appeared upon
! the scene Still l used to think. in the
| days before her Cousin Dave was sent to
! Bermuda, that if Loosha entertained a
tenderness, it was for that burly, good ma
| tured, somewhat dull witted giant.
Dave was full private in the Foot
Guards and steady going soldier enough,
though there were times when, as his aunt
Mrs. Hemmans said, 'fhis spirits got the
better Of him" Whether the article in
question was native, Irish or Scotch she
did not explain-perhaps because through
out the duration of that thirsty madness,
to recurrent attacks of which the Young
defender OF his country was subject he
would cheerfully avail himself of any
beverage that came in his way, provided it
possessed the simple qualifications of burn
ing IN the gullet as it wsnt down and get
ting into the head afterward. II was while
under the influence of some such potable
that Private Hemmans conceived and exc
cuted that project of desertion from his
regiment which heaped upon his family
irretrievable disgrace and bowed Loosha's
gray airs with sorrow to the grave, as that
jeUty locked young person declared i'm
pressively
The recreant was sought, officially and
formally, without success. 1t was sur
missed that he had left the country-that
he had been waylaid and murdered ever:
but this theory Loosha Indignantly re
fused to accept. A young fellow who
could bend a kitchen poker on the muscle
OF his forearm and bite a neat semicircle
out of pewter pot was not, Loosha
averred, to be kidnapped and 'galoted"
10y which we will presume she meant gar
roted). Let others abandon hope who
would. Something told Loosha that Dave
was only lying low, and that she should
set her eye on him yet. 1t may be men
toned that Loosha's eye is not to be joked
about. 1t possesses gimletlike attributes
OF boring through mysteries, together
with an elastic property which enables it
to take the exact measure of any person
who may approach LooSha with ulterior
designs upon her family, herself or the !
property of her employers.
1t will move on a tramp quicker than a !
constable, and has been known to cause a |
"ramping mad" cab horse, in the very act |
of running over Loosha, to pull up short |
She is conscious of its power and boasts of |
it. She did not underrate its abilities in |
the case of Dave. 1t bounced on him fal. |
cOnwise and singled him out from among |
a knot of loafers at the bar of a shady pub
tic house in one of the purlieus abutting
on Hammersmith Broadway How Loo
sha came to be wandering alone in such a
vicinity has never yet been explained. 1t !
was her afternoon out, and she may have
been following up a clew. At any rate,
there she was, and there was Dave, basely
oblivious of his queen, his country and his
cousin, arrayed in kaleidoscope attire and
gloomily standing drinks all around
ITO pretty lot" rs Loosha said after
ward; most of 'em lookin as if they'd
dossed in their clothes for months past,
and done with a dry polish by way of
washin. AS for Dave, should "a consid-
cred my kitchen tongs defiled with his con-
tack. His uniform clothes was gone, an
he'd old pair o velveteen kickshers OF as
must IA belonged to railway wheel tap
per out o luck as had smothered hisself in
his own grease pot. And he'd a shoddy
tweed jacket out at ELDERS, buttoned up
tight to Idle is army rasper technical YER
nacular for the blue linen ticking garment
provided by grateful nation for its de-
fender), an an old Scotch cap f was
ookin 'angdog enough when just /
,lapped my eye on i'm; but when / calmly
bounced in and stood before him like
lvengin angel, cheap was not the word for
what that Teller felt. b'lieve if he could
a shrunk up small enough to 'ide in spit
Don he'd "A done it."
Good afternoon, Private Hemmans," I
'ays. throwing i'm sheer. You're 'avin
IN enjyable furlough, amt yous"
"FurloUgh be busted" sezee, seem that
here was nothin for it but to bounce
I've cut the old gals service, and I'm o
rec man. Not a bloomin white niger
,ipeclayin belts on a shillin a day, and
'lowin myself out on chaff bread and cheap
alters, COW cabbage an billed beef to the
une that the old 'orse died Of If every
Orse as as been consumed by the reg
nent since it was a reg 'ment," e says.
was TO drag me, amt a-goin back. Blow !
n me If you like" sezee; but know you !
aven't the art 10 do it,
Il amt goin TO blow on you" SAYS, $
kin him with my eye. You re -goin to ,
low on yourself I
"Wot words ara these, Loosha Hem ,
lanss' seZee. 1
"Simpularly," says |, that your a-goin
D come along with me, now directly min '
It. to barracks, and give yourself up" 1
"Ho,' sezee, ais that your little Came>"
MY little game" answers, and yours
kewise."