The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1896-02-03
TIE SONG BIRDS FRIEND
She Walled Over the Slaughter, but the
Hat Was Still 815.

Che Walled Over the Slaughter but the
Hat Was Still S15.
''Why, sir,'' exclaimed the thin woman
with stony eye as she waylaid the head
foorwalker in tho big stores millinery do
partment, 'tevon cats couldn't be equal to
it! Not all TIE cats there are, wild and
tame, could be equal to it'll How can you
can you do it, sir? How can your
The floorwalker bowed and said:
eff you are referring to foorwalking,
madam, r.
"Floorwalking hddlesticksp' said the
stony eyed woman. ''Wiping feathered
warblers from the face of the earth is what
I am referring to, sirl The song birds of
the air, the song birds of the bush, the
song birds of the field, the song birds OF
the forest, that you are wiping from the
face of the earth! How can you, can you
do it, sir? How can you?'
81 give you my word, madam said
the noorwalker, 81 never in my life wiped
a single''-
"Look about you, SIR" persisted the
woman with the stony eye, land see 'em
in your hats and in your bonnetsl Hun
dredS and hundreds of 'em, and every ont
wiped from the face of the earth! See this
one, cold, cold in death, its sweet voice
forever hushed, perched in radiant beauty
on that new spring hat! How much did
you say that hat wasp
''The price of that hat,' said the floor
walker, is SIS, madam, and''-
''Hah!' exclaimed the stony eyed wom-
an. Fifteen dollarsi Poor bird Pool
birdl Once free as the roaming zephyr,
and filling your native copse with tuneful
ness, now tied to your roost so to speak,
on yellow straw hat, with price upon
your head. Sir! How can you, can you
do it? Would you not rather hear that
beauteous thing burst forth once more in
all the melody and the gladness of It's won
drous song than have tenfold the price you
set upon it?''
Pardon me, madam, - replied the floor
walker, "but not on your lifel That
beauteous thing is a jaybird You may
some time have wandered by the woodside
and paused to wonder who it was that
came that way to file his saw. Since there
is no saw fler present to hear me and feel
hurt, 1 don't mind telling you that it was
the melody and gladness of the jay bird's
wondrous song that you heard, this very
ono perhaps, and if I thought there was
danger now of it bursting forth I'd tell
you to grab the hat with it on and hurry
homep'
The stony eyed woman paused as if fol-
a reply from the beauteous thing, but it
did not burst forth, and she resumed.
''Alas, sweet -birdl'' said she. ''Wiped
from the face of the earth, twill never
wake to living song again! Ten dollars
would hardly take that hat, you think?"
Fifteen dollars, madam said the
foorwalker, shaking his head, sis tho
upset price,
And here,'' continued the woman,
casting her stony eye around on the stock,
''are song birds of the air, and of the bush,
and Of the field, and of the forest, with
nothing left but spreading tails and star
ing heads and flashing wings. All
wiped''-
''Shrikes, madam said the foorwalk-
or, "eat bees by the million. Voice worse
than song and dance woman. Catbirds.
Step on your dogs tail and hear one sing.
Flickers, snpsuckers, woodpeckers. War
bic like IL drum corps.''
''A1l wiped from the face of the earthI''
declared the woman with the stony eye.
'Beauteous things, with tuneful Threats,
that you have wiped from the face OF the
earth, sir at the beck of fashion and be-
cause my sex is vain Gone is their swell
ing gush of song because my sex is slave
to fashionl That s15 hat-how much off,
did you say, for cash?''
met, madam said the hoorwalker.
s'Eifteen dollars, net
Tho stony eyed woman paused long
enough to say:
Even cats couldn't be equal to it!
Not all the cats there are, wild and tame,
could be equal to itl''
Then she went out, and the foorwalker
mopped his face and said:
''Ain't she cuckoo? Wouldn't she be-
n bird to trim a hat with?''-Ed Mott in
New York Journal.
Well Up In His Business.