The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1896-07-30
be constantly in danger from those
reckless people,"

one or two evening after this I was
crossing Howard avenue when I heard
a voice-Barkers voice, but with an I'M
familiar nasal twang about it-halloo-
ing at me: Look out therev'
| lnyOluntarly l started. There was
an uncanniness about it-a weird and
unnatural emphasis. 1t was a voice
pregnant with the ring of authority,
and as l stepped quickly to one side,
there shot by me vision Of gray golf
stockings, sweater and cycling cap with
which | was pretty we'll acquainted.
SO he actually rugged up his wheel
with a phonograph! Darling into a
nearby bicycle agency hired a wheel
in feverish haste, and sped up the ave-
nue. i'll pursuit of the fieeting figure in
gray. In the dim distance l could hear
the howl Of the tiendish thing as it sped
on through the night, and as spun over
the asphalt with the speed Of the wind,
the space between us leSsened and | be-
gan to catch the melody of shouts that
were pouring forth from the vicinity of
Rnrker's handle bars. He had evident
ly loaded it with variety of express
sions suitable for all sorts of emergen-
cics, and the thing was splitting them
out with an intelligence that bordered
| on the marvellous.
Would you be so kind, MISS" it said
with the accent of Chesterfield, as a
woman of the fat and forty persuasion
stepped in the way, ''as to turn to the
right a little? Aw, thanksr'
And the woman smiled at Barker,
and thought he was such a polite young
man. A few rods further on small
boy darted across the street beneath
the Pickering rays of the electric light.
Hi, therew yelled the phOnOgraph,
get move on you now-yi! vi! yi!
whereupon the boy was convinced he
was being pursued by a lunatic and
fled down side street.
Barker" said I solemnly, pushing
my wheel up alongside of him by tre-
mendous effort, you had better take
that thing off,
"Why. how do you do?' said he;
take it off! Why?'
Because l am morally certain" said
|, that it's a violation of Ordinance
No. 5,046. If one of those mounted
policemen comes along and that thing
howl at him you'll go to JAIL
But Barker evidently thought that
was all nonsense. He didn't care if it
violated the whole Council series from
A to lizard. He had got hold of an ele
CANT thing, and was going to stick to it,
and l was gay sort of man to rec
ommend it to him and then advise him
to give it up. All this time the phOnO
graph was talking in the tone of deep
disgust to a heavy individual who was
rcdalling along in a leisurely way just
in front of us, and who must have been
stone deaf or he would certainly have
clambered down and punched Barker's
head.
Then l was initiated into the mystic
ries of the thing, and saw how, by
pushing small attachment down so
that it rubbed on the front wheel, the
mechanism of the phonograph was
made to reyOlve, and it shouted out
whatever was in it until the clamp was
released. Barker said he had talked
into it half day, and was evidently
Well supplied with a vocabulary.
BY the time we got to the club-for
we belonged to club, both of us
Barker was in a state of hilarious de-
light, and half of the dogs, children and
old ladies in town were on the verge
nf n bn 1,ny f,,1
lows in the club had to learn all about
it, and Barker pushed his machine
around on the sidewalk and made the
EhonOgraph curse them, and all their
relatives to the tenth generation, which
seemed to afford them the most un-
bounded pleasure.
AS a fitting conclusion to the eve
ning's entertainment we all went up
stairs, and l regret to say that Barker,
after placing the phOnOgraph carefully
on table beside him, got as drunk as
lord, and talked and sang and shout
eG in a very scandalous and disgrace
full way.
After it was all over took him home
and put him to bed, and while doing
this he Informed me in a maudln and
disconnected way that he was going
out riding the next evening with the
two Cutter girls, daughters of old man
Coupon Cutter, one of the directors in
the bank, and he wished l would drop
around and ride with the big one SO he
could talk to the little one. He said
that l was his only friend, and that he
loved the little one. He did not love
her in any ordinary way, either; but in
a way in which no one ever had loved
before.
Now. like Barker. and he is friend
OF mine, and as matter of course it
was only common charity to help him
out in case like that SO gave him
lot of good advice about how to doctor
his head in the morning, which he re-
ceived with very bad grace, and prom
ised to be in the neighborhood of old
Cutters the next evening without fail.
was little late getting off, and had
hardly got within sight of the house on
I I,f i~h T ,ot hn