San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1896-11-06
noM A AAr oEIs AwAY.
One OF, the Aggravating Experiences o
Ien Generally in "a City.

Glen Generally in "a City.
a perfect gale was blowing. H.
roared through the square and plunged
into the avenue beyond, like the mar
rowed current of stream pouring from
a whirlpool into a mountain gorge.
Men were cautiously hanging TO their
hats, and women frantically struggling
with their skirts. Storms of grit beat
against the windows, and pedestrians
bent forward and held their breath
as they met the singing, dust-laden
gusts.
Suddenly something white whirled up
against the soldiers monument. High
er and higher it rose-ten, twenty, thir-
ty feet. Then it lowered for q moment
like a bird, and made swift, slanting
flight into the avenue. 1t was a brand
new straw hat-one of those that ripen
suddenly at the close of the season and
fall on the bargain counter.
People on both sides of the street
stopped to watch it's glimmering flight.
1t struck in the center of the electric
car track, made q low, skimming bound
of so feet or more, and then settled into
a scorching gait down the avenue. A
man nearly block away saw it coming
and ran into the street to intercept it.
With feet Outspread, knees Rugged to-
gether and extended arms, he stood
waiting. The flying hat struck him
midway between ankles and knees,
bounded breast high and flashed over
his shoulder before he had time to
formulate single eXpletive.
By this time he had turned sheep
ishly around to see what had become
of the fugitive. 1t was already bob
bling specll in the distance. Then a
transverse current of air caught it, and
it swerved to the sidewalk. Three or
four ladies lodged it, with little fem
mime shrieks. Then another man es-
sayed to stop it, but just as he was
bending forward and about to lay tri-
umphant hands upon it the evasive hat
lodged with lightning rapidity and
went bowling down the gutter.
In the dim distance a bareheaded cit
izen labored in pursuit. His breath and
strength were well-nigh spent, but still
he kept desperately on, shouting and
gesticulating. The mania of the hat
chaser possessed him. He could not
stop, though nature and reason urged
him to. So long as he could keep his
flying property in view, so long that
galvanic action of legs, arms and lungs
must continue.
At last two men planted themselves
abreast in the path of the whirling hat.
Surely thus far, and no farther, it
might come! The hat chaser paused
with all his anxious soul shining in his
beaded face. Like an arrow the hat
darted upon the two Obstructionists
There was a moments wavering on
their part, slight change of position
and between them it flashed. But the
wirier of the two men was not to be
thus baked. With the speed of =
sprinter he pursued, and, finally, max,
ing tremendous squirt, got abreast OF
the hat, and stepped on it.
Five minutes later the perspiring
owner arrived. He took his hat, now
crushed and shapeless mass, from the
hand of its captor and gazed darkly
upon it. For a minute exhausted ma
ture forbade speech.
Then the man Kissed, with sibilant
rage and disgust:
"Confound you! If you were a goat
I'd make you eat it!"-Detroit Free
Press.