The Columbus journal., 1894-05-23
Saturday Night in q Kansas Cattle

Town.
The dullness which mad 80 weighed
upsn us through the long, uneventful
afternoon was but o lull, We soon
learned, and not . stagnation. With
the first approach of darkness, the
lethargic town rubbed its eyes, 50 to
speak, and leaped to its feet-and in q
tvinkling, it seemed (ike an incanta-
ton, Eastman said), Grand avenue was
. carnival of light, and motion, and mu-
sic. The broad board sidewalks were
crowded with promenaders; smiling
groups passed in and out of the drink
ing saloons and gambling places; in
every quarter glasses clinked and dice
ratified land is there another sound in
the world like that of shaken diceO;
~violins, flutes and comets sent out
eager, inviting strains of walts and
polka from q score or more establish
ments, and q brass band was playing
patriotic airs in front of the theater,
where, oddly enough, the crude moral
ity of "Teu Nights in q Bar-Room" was
about to be presented, with the full
strength of the company in the cast"
Everywhere, the cowboys made them
selves manifest, clad now in the soiled
and dingy jeans of the trail, then in a
suit of many-buttoned corduroy, and
again in afluence of broadcloth, silk
hat, gloves, cane, and sometimes q cler-
ical white neck-tie. And everywhere,
also, stared and shone the Lone Star of
Texas-for the cowboy, wherever he
may wander. and however he may
change, never spends his money OF
lends his presence to q concern that
does not in some way recognize the
emblem of his native State; so you
will see in towns like New Sharon e
general panderine to this sentiment, and
lone stars abound of all sizes and
hues, from the big disfiguring white one
painted on the hotelfront down to the
little pink one stitched in silk on the
cowboys shilling handkerchief. Bar
ring these numerous stars, the rich
lights, and the music, We missed sight
of any special efforts to beguile or en-
trap passers-by perhaps because We
we're not looking for them; nor was
there for some hours a sound to reveal
the spirit of coiled and utter vileness
which the cheerful outside SO we'll be-
lied. It was in the main much the kind
of scene M would be apt to conjecture
for an Oriental holiday. But, as the
night sped on, the festivities deepened,
and the jovial aspect of the picture be-
gan to be touched and tainted with .
subtle, rebuking something, which grad
ually disclosed the passion, the crime,
the depravity. that really !ivified and
swayed it all, and made it internal.
The saloons became clamorous with
profanity and ribald songs and laughter.
There were no longer any promenaders
on the sidewalks, save once in a while a
single bleared and staggering fellow,
with q difficulty in his clumsy lips over
some such thing as "The Girl I Left
Behind Me-" An inAamed and CULVER
ing ~ierceness crept into the busy music.
Tie lights paled, fickered, and here
and there went out. Doors were stealth
lily closed, window shutters slammed to
with angry creaks. And at length, as
we looked and listened, the sharp, sig
nificant report of q pistol, with a shrek
behind it, was borne toward us from a
dancing hall to certify its tale
of combat and probable homicide, and
to be succeeded by a close but brief
halt in the noisy quadrille-presumably
for the removal of the victim.-Henry
King, in ScriJner.
F.. A. ROOD. Toledo, Ohio, says: Stalls
.atarrh Cure cmed my wife of catarrh fifteen
years ago and she has had no return of it. It's
q sure cure" Sold by Druggists, 75c.