The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1896-05-24

and the poor EnglIshman was almost
drowned In soup. While Bryant and Sey-
beneath the debris. Seymour. by wetting the
fingers OF one hand secured a quantity OF
backing from one Of his shoes and WITH THIS
When some appearance Of order had been
obtained a truce was patched up between
ened eye had been bandaged. they were in
duced 10 shake hands. whereupon the other
members of the company, who were In the
tieman, always gentiemanr and declared
that "A true American gentleman can always
be told by his willingness to settle a little
difference amicably.'
NO ONE KILLED.
lee whispered to me in tremulous In
dignation. This is most shamefulv to
which ! replied, I don't see how you say
that. There was no one killed Thereupon
he amended his remark by saying. AT least
1t was most unfortunate. / am dreadfully
sorry 1t occurred
The table was got In shape again. and
things moved along smoothly and pleas
antly for some time, until Polk and Soth-
ern became engaged in apparently very
angry and excited dispute about the mer-
Its or the North and South, in the midst
or which Mr.. Sothern suddenly arose TO
MS feet, and, drawing a revolver, fired 1t
directly over Folks head. Immediately
scene OF the widest excitement ensued. In
less than twenty seconds twenty shots
from reyolvers had been fired across the
table. Polk. Gaylor. Mccullough, Monta-
que, Seymour, Bryant and Sothern were
not only firing blank cartridges from re-
yolvers, but were brandishing huge knives
over one another's heads. Dickinson. Coop
er and Brown had by this time discovered
toe anair was joke and simply added to
the tumult. The terror of the Eng.ishman
was almost pltiable. He begged to be al
lowed to go, but his friends were so thor
oughly In love with him that they would
mt az h rr.
ture large dish of asparagus covered
with drawn butter, and most of the COM
table to carve one another's hearts out,
managed to get their hands into this mess,
and, while thus besmeared. they could take
turns in jumping around to where / was
holding Lee in place, and, bringing their
palms down upon his shoulders, would beg
of him 70 be seated and assured him that
the difficulty was simply tri1ing one, and
that they would regret it to their dying day
should he leave them. So frequent were
was smeared from head TO foot with drawn
butter. 1 shall never forget the spectacle
that the lamented John Mccullough pre-
revolver. he drew a long Roman sword from
his boot, and, with swirl cut off the neck
or champagne bottle as If he were de-
f4 ad e ~ waving i threat
he exclaimed: Why does not the gallant
Florence. stand by his friends? Where is
him through the West, and then he never
went without his arsenal and scarcely day
passed without his killing a man.
I'm the midst of the fracas Seymour. who
had temporarily disappeared. appeared In
the doorway attired in a white hat and
apron. which he hat procured from the
hotel chef, and announced that the landlord
declared that the entire party must vacate
the room. He had not finished his speech
when everything the table including
even the large, heavy dishes, were hurled at
him, and IL is really a wonder that he es-
capped the shower unhurt. BY this time
everyone in the room, and especially the
Englishman, was a lamentable sight to be-
hold. Each one was smeared, and crushed,
and tunbled, and torn from head to foot
Lee could stand it no longer He got on his
feet finally and managed to say that. while
he had heard such scenes he had wit
messed were enacted in the purlieus of the
great cities Of America, he was astounded
and disappointed to find that they were the
custom among gentlemen, and further said
that he would have to leave to keep a din
ner engagement 1t was o'clock. escort
ed him TO the street and put him in a car
riage TO conceal his dilapidated condition.
When we came to settle for this little joke
we found that our bill was $500. The Item
for breakage alone amounted to 500.
Men will sometimes become boys again,
and very silly boys.