The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1893-07-12

I by sitting down on his hat In the first act
or rather had it killed by boy in the
gallery who promptly shouted out, Pop
| Goes the Weasel''-Harry Lee told me
when he trod OH that orange peel and
made a sudden descent from dignity TO
anthropoid absurdity, he was sure he
| heard a silver gurgle like a chime going
up from that wicket
The fact is that in less than a week
instead OF that telegraph stand being
run for the house, the house was Begin
ming 10 run itself for the stand accord
ing to some unwritten law.
There was some difference of opinion
I'm condential circles as to whether II was
the hair or the eyes or the curve OF the
neck or the mouth.
My own private opinion is that these
things were so co-ordinated that il was
the hight of absurdiy to specify them
They just melted evasively into general
concept of girl
It's funny thing. but everybody down
TO waiter who spills pottage has in his
soul an ideal of girl. that never was on
land or sea, and when he suddenly finds
her on deck he hardly believes the evil
dence of his sense. AS Mr.. Harry Lee
observes-and he has had an extensive
experience real girl is always too
good TO be true
Well. this telegraph operator. i'm a
plain black dress began TO melt the
foundations of the hotel as a sunbeam
melts an iceberg. She demoralized the
hotel basis of things. Jim Meade
wouldn't take any more drinks because
ne had an infatuated notion that her eye
was on him. Some of the young fellows
who promenaded the into the bar room
regularly built up an absurd theory that
she counted the trips. All the old fell
lows who used tO stand with their backs
TO the telegraph wicket and tell funny
stories fell away. for there was sure to
come somebody and motion to them that
there was n girl on the other side who
could hear them. Then they always got
red in the face and moved away and
never by any possibility got W courage
enough to do their telegraphing there
afterward-
The bookstand was the first to suffer
Men who wanted to purchase Mary
Jane Libby looked at the pure face be-
hind the wicket, changed their minds
and asked for Canon Farrar or Talmage.
The sale of flash papers fell off. Some
how the pictures were not as fascinating
as usual.
The joyous tone of the loungers was
subdued. Some of the jocund "damns'
mysteriously disappeared. An air of
respectful suppression fell upon the
place. aud even the porters began to sus-
pect that the trunks might have dyne-
mite in them.
II was not long before the proprietor
began to perceive that some kind OF a
holy blight was settling on his corridor,
but il was a good while before he got
at the cause of II.
Meanwhile all sorts Of attmpts b. rash
youth had been made to break down the
excIusiveness of the wicket. Cholly had
plunged at il in his self-confident way:
Now my dear, rush that off. don't you
know that's good girl" and he had
been struck by a ''sir,!' that sounded
like a buzz saw
Freddy had leaned on the stand for an
interview. and respectfully asked her
some questions about the hotel. and she
had referred him to the desk without
looking round. until he backed out; then
she smiled sWeetly. The fact Is nobody
could get over the discreet line and To
write kilograms under her eye was next
TO impossible | spelled bottle with one
because she was looking at me- and
Harry zee forgot where il was he want
ed to send his telegram, and she said
''she was sure she didn't know" i'm
which there was an awful implication
that he didn't want to send telegram
at all. mad was wasting her time.
The fact is this girl with her superb
neck that would require "A Rives to
write about and her arChed eyebrows
that were like the moral law. and her
searching look of innocence that was like
a disembOweled conscience $50 bedeV-
He'd. hypnOtiZed and tangled up the
state Of things at the hotel that II began
Ia have the sober air Of a Quaker meet
ing. Even Henry Abbey when he went
close 10 her, hummed "A strain Of Nearer
My God 70 Thee" and some of the poll
ticians, who had 10 do business at the
stand. slipped their big diamonds into
their pockets for the time being All
the fellows who worked the races and
the pool rooms went somewhere else
with their dispatches and the Washers
who sent Violets found out that the
cock-eyed news agent at the stand al
ways wore them in his buttonhole.
~,
hotel began to perceive the truth, and
one morning there appeared behind the
wicket a gaunt girl with rcd fingers and
skinny hair and Rhinestone jewelry.
She had little gray eyes and wore
glasses. and Harry Lee swore she wore
pantaletteS tied round her ankles. |
think this was irony. She winked her
gray eyes and worked her long red fin
gers and chatted with everybody and she
knew her business.
Then the corridor recovered its equili-
brium. The good fellows breathed easier
and the cheering smash Of the trunks
greeted the ears once more. The walters
spilled no more pottage. The jocund
damn broke again on the ambient air.
The rev girl took a cocktail herself at
lunch time and left the glass with the
lemon i'm il where everybody could see
it. As the proprietor proudly remarked.
There is no Venus of Milo. Salvation
army Sunday-schooI Venus-rising from
the-sea nonsense about that girl"
The hotel was saved Bushes was bus
mess.
And the other girl?
Heavens. Have I got to that? Well,
she married the cockeyed purveyor of
Mary Jane Observation-Disclosures News.