The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1894-06-21

ssMURDER!'
orally turns the billowy picture into a
rimless sweep Of ocean, with clusters of
rich green live oaks and pecan trees ap-
parently growing in this blue sea Of
clover, q picture unparalleled.
What could be more beautiful as we
wind along a gray ridge than the blue
pillows Of clover 20 miles away, melt
ing into the azured horizon, in whose
clear depths float here and there the
soft white plumes of the summer cloud?
was still wearing my Canadian
clothes when we reached San Antonio,
and every few moments I would have to
remove wet compress from my long
tapering neck to replace it with tall
piccadilly collar. Oh, how hot it seemed
to me, for I am not tropical bird by
any means!
At night I lay enveloped in moon
light, only while toward morning I
would add little of the delightful eli
mate.
EARLY in the night hound pup pour
ed forth his woes to the calm warm sky
or the bulbul paved the earth and
exercised his voice. Then the clock bell
in faraway mission, with cracked
notes which had become deprecated
during the hard times, sounded the
hour. Then greaser full of revenge
and pulque came along the street, noisy
and quarrelsome. Everything united
to make me wakeful and nervous
The hours dragged by till it was most
3 O'Clock. Then on the pulseless air
heard scream, such a shrek as one
only hears when life and death are in
the balance.
''Murderi'
''Murder!''
''Murder!'
''He is stabbing me- Oh, will not
some one come! Oh, my wife and child!
For their sake, for Gods sake, have
mercy!'
had never heard such a cry in my
life. jumped out of bed and ran to
the window. No one was in sight.
am glad of it now. Then I opened my
door and stepped into the hall Forty
other gentlemen wearing look Of hor-
Tor only were in the hall.
Soon the manager and a porter rushed
past me and broke open door where
the murder was going on.
They found a commercial man and
a vacant bottle side by side in the mid
die of the floor. Though the bottle was
empty, it had triumphant look. Kind
hands secured the man firmly by means
Of the fire escape rope to the four cor
ners Of the bed and put a folded wet
sheet on top his high, intellectual fore
head In the morning he was able to
be up and down stairs about five minutes
ahead of the bartender.
Whisky is great foe to sleep. Just
one bottle of it kept over 100 people
awake that night and very likely the
following night also One reason I like
farm life on my overhanging farm in
the mountains at Arden, N. c., is that
I am content to drink a gourd, full of
branch water and go about my business
or draw draft from the base of my
tall well at Buck Shoals and forget the
hot air Of the banquet room, where
bumper after bumper at the midnight
hour stimulates applause for dull after
dinner speakers to furnish the guest Of
the evening.
Dear reader, did you ever make a
great hit in an after dinner speech and
afterward try it on cool, methodical
audience who had paid 81 each for seats
and who had not dined unwisely, but
too we'll?
I have
Take this advice, ye who have made
. banquet hit at ! O'Clock a m. Do
not expect cool headed audience who
paid for seats to give you thunders Of
applause that you got after Is courses
Of good food washed down by a whole
South Carolina dispensary of cordials
II you do you will run up against the
kxRest avalanche Of sod that you ever
0oW.
/. : There isanother disagreeable surprise
In store for the lecturer, which comes
largely from the realms Of ignorance.
y may speak freely of these things be-
cause I am now closing q farewell sea-
con ON the road, trust
Thsre is one element Of your audi
enos that rides 80 or 80 miles expecting
- 80 strange yet comic monstrosity