San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1894-07-10
ON THE LOITER.

1t looked, indeed, like an evil
day when BEDFORD Jones first an
nounced his determination to take
the lecture platform. Friends who
ence were wont to clasp his hand
with the vigor and warmth of sim
cere friendship, stood back at first
with distrust of his veracity and
then, when fully convinced of his
seriousness, incontemplatIve horror
of the rift that must have some
where sprung in the gray matter
underneath his skull. Even his
mother with shocking frankness,
biurted out that BEDFORD must be
ott of his mind to talk of such
thing. 1t was truly painful to OBJ.
serve this mother, who had seen
every relative she ever had, grow
mp and pass away in the quieter
walks of life, in ominous whisper
cd consultation with her daughter,
about Redford's state of sanity. But
the evil that was born of the mere
announcement of his intentions,
was mild in comparison with the
hideous and awful things that be-
fell him when he first set out to
prepare himself for his newly
chosen profession.
He had taken his first lesson in
elocution and during his entire
way home on the street car he was
mentally going through the differ
emit stages of handling his voice
and mentally assuming the va
rious poises of the eyes and
head and gestures of the
hand, all of which had been
crowded into the. brief
time of his first lesson. Upon
reaching home, Redford put up his
manual and betook himself into
the chapparal, about half a mile
from his home, to carry out the
teachers injunction to betake him.
self into the woods and at the top
of his voice practice some pre-
scribed exercises. For about half
an hour, at least until he was
hoarse, BEDFORD stood under
cousumptive mesquite shrub, bawl-
ing at the top of his voice the sem
fences, "Come one, come all !"
<'Did they ah-y-all fail?" "Oh, L
have lost all ~ Then for change
he went through the poses
OF the head and the eyes and
through dozen different ges-
lures with his hands, after he
bawIed out the various sentences
requiring him to pronounce the
word ''all" first with rising inflec-
tion, then without any infection
at all, then in a kind of a roller
coaster triller and then in a regu-
lar toboggan slide swing of the
voice.
1t seems that BEDFORD had VEN
tured into Farmer Frye's pasture,
8 little too near the farmers house
for his exercises. When the stu
dents baritone antics reached old
man Frye's ears, that gentleman
mistook the sounds for cries of
help. Imagining the situation a
decidedly critical one he grabbed an
axe handle and rushed towards
the place where the noise seemed
to eminate Cautiously approaching
the place, he saw BEDFORD in the
act of wringing his hands,of bring
ing them through the air with a
graceful sweep, of pointing them
alOTt. That was enough for
Farmer Frye. "The Teller is an
idiot, and wilent one, I'll swan +"
ne thought to himself. There was
no time to lose, and so swinging
his axe handle, he swooped down
upon the unfortunate Redtord
Jones. The struggle was of short
duration. Farmer Frye's face was
ripped, bruised and scratched, but
Redford's collar was missing, his
hat as trampled under foot, his
coat was ripped half way
down the back, his body
was blue from contact with
the axhandle and he was sullenly
walking towards the farmers
house with the excited old mans
firm grip upon the nape of his
neck.
Two grown sons of Farmer Frye
soon had a wagon hitched up.
BEDFORD was laid on the wagon bed,
with his excited captor and large
son sitting respectively on his
knees and chest. Then first the
unfortunate student began to real
i5e that instead of his assailant be-