The Lebanon express. (Lebanon, Linn County, Or.) 1887-1898, 1893-11-24
THE ROBBER.

neVe me"
"Never mind tell us, all the same"
Willingly, but feel the necessity Of
first declaring that my story Is true in
every particular, improbable as 1t seems.
Artists alone will not be surprised, par
tcularly those who lived in that period
when the spirit Of fun and frolic per-
yaded artist life, even In the most seri-
Gus circumstances"
This conversation took place In the
salle-a-manger Of the Hotel dc Barbison
aznOng u lot Of students
The old artist who had Just spoken
placed himself astride his chair and con-
tnued
Well. we had dined that evening with
9arieul Poor fellow, he Is now deadI
There were only three OF us-Sorieul,
Le Poittevin and myself. Sorieul was
the widest Of US all, and to say we had
dined at his house signifes-we were all
drunk. Le Poittevin alone retained his
sanses-a little cloudy, 1t Is true--still he
knew what he was doing. Ah we were
young in those days.
Lying on the carpet In little room ad-
joining the atelier, we discussed in the
most extrayagant manner all kinds Of
improbable things.
Sorieul, flat on his back. his fast
perched on the back OF u chair, talked
about battles and the uniforms worn dur
ing the empire Suddenly getting up,
he went to large wardrobe and took
downa complete suit of huasar uniform,
dressed himself in it, then tried to per-
suade Le Poittevin to costume himself
az grenadier. When he resisted we
seized him, undressed him, and forced
him into an immense uniform which
completely swallowed him up,
disguised myself as q cuirassier, and
sorieul made us execute some very com
plicated meneuvers.
Then he exclaimed, "As we are now
soldiers, we must drink like soldiersI'
A punch was lighted, swallowed;
sgain and again the flames rose up from
the bowl Of rum. Wesang the old songs
which the troopers Of the Grand Army
..np in ancient times
s1ddsnIv Ia poittevin who IN onit.
~ all tbis was stiII master ~ himaelp
,n.do rs s;gr 20 ~. s;iont. aftor l;ston
ing o moment, no said, in low voice.
VI am sure l hear some one walking in
tbe atelierr
gor;enl got mn no wall os be cor,a and
sied ont "A robberl what lpokw and
began to troll the .,Marseillaise y "To
srwsl To arms va braver'
We dashed to n nanonly Of arms and
.ru;nnod ourselvas according n onr rr;.
Sor,na Ind n hind ~ mnaLet With a
mber: La Poitteyip a Gigantic qpn with
a bavonot, soriaul not finding what he
wortad soioed . horso r;stnl which ha
Snck In his hejt and n boarding. ny
which be wildly brand;abed Tben
cautiously opepiny the door of tbs ate.
nor the ,,rmy entered the spsnected tor.
ritmv
when ws ,vero in tha ,1dat ~ tb;s
vaat room oncumbered with easels mic.
tures and strange unexpected obiects
Of furniture sorieul called halt and
said. 81 constitute m vself general Lat
M hold a council of war You cu;ras.
dera 10 and cut off the retreot ~ tba
spemv that 10 Il och tba door, w,
prenadiers will be INV escort
executed the commanded movement
then ioiped the troon tbat formed tha
recopnoitering marty
was searcbinp behind II ereat screer
a lighted candle in nv hand when a
fur;ous noise hurst forth dared out
10 find La Poitteyin had stuek bis bovo.
net into the breast of Inv figure and
Sorieul was trying to cnt off the bead
with bis ny
Tho m;stal,a hcino racogr;7sa tho ,an.