Pleasantville weekly press. (Pleasantville, N.J.) 1890-1911, 1896-10-14


The Press.-Give me Congressman
Gardner.
Central right. here he is.
The Press.-Ah, Congressman, glad
to hear your voice again. Tell us all
about your visit to Pleasantvillc Satur-
day evening.
Gardner.-Oh, you mean our Streets
of Cairo" combination that made a one
night stand in your town?
The Press.-Yes.
Gardner.-Well, we had rather un-
fortunate time of it taking everything
into consideration. You see we didn't
bill the town until Friday, and some of
the people along Shore didn't know we
were coming. Then we made mess of
it by running the whole thing ourselves,
and not consulting the local committee.
Soon after we got started on the march
from the railway station, two old maids
caught sight OF what they supposed was
twenty-five men clad only in their night
shirts and pair of stockings, and they
tainted dead away at the awful spectacle.
To think that one of our crack COM
panies, that brought up the rear, should
be sized up" in that way was perfectly
dreadful Worse still, the turbaned
Zouaves-who were really handsome
company ofmen and marched well-were
supposed to be scouting party from Old
Ramrusti's shebang, on the Boardwalk,
who had come over to PleasantviIle, to
teach the old maids how to dance and
wiggle the 'couchee-couchee" minuet.
We got up stairs and into the hall al.
right, and | fancy our grand aggrega-
ton of talent on the stage would be
hard to beat Wasn't their costumes
stunning, though? There was Emory
Irelan, and Walter 'Esplanade' Edge in
their modest dimity, and Harry Leeds
and "Bob." Stephany holding down
their skirts for fear somebody would see
their legs. But what grieved me most
was to learn that the most gorgeousiy
clad man of them all, our Captain, he
who wore the reddest kind of red
breeches, was believed by the audience
to be "Prof" Walters. | was all broke
up when heard of it.
Did you notice our little farce and how
neatly we played it? Considering that
we had no chance for rehersal think
YOU must admit we did remarkably well.
The Press-You certainly did. The
farce was well played.
Gardner.-I felt sure you would say so.
The Press always knows good thing
when it sees it. But as was just going
to say, felt like man sitting upon a
keg of gunpowder with everybody
around him lighting matches and smok-
ing. didn't know what moment there
would be an explosion. There was
"Lew" Barrett for Chairman, and not
a yard away sat 'Sam." Kirby the bene-
ffciary of the ''deal' by which 'Lew"
was treacherously sacrificed. Then it
was rumored that ''Tobe" Mcconnell
was coming up to act as Chairman OF
the meeting, and | knew there would be
to contend with it made the marrow in
my bones fairly foam and slzzle to think
of them. Did you observe how cold and
unsympathetic the audience was? 1t
was composed mostly of Barrett friends
and am afraid they hadn't forgot how
we called them ''off Shore Reubens" up
at the Egg Harbor City Convention only
ten days ago, thus adding insult to
injury after knitting" their favOrite call
didate. Nearly all the applause came
from our own company and then they
had to whoop'er up right lively, at times
to make any show at all. don't mind
telling you, for know you won't repeat
it, that / was little nervous, all
through my talk, for fear that some
democratic chump in the audience would
spring that speech upon me that l made
in Congress last Winter, wherein |
declared that | was for silver coinage.
Strange that that wicked man, John
Hall, should resurrect it and print it just
at this time! The neatest bit of satire
in our whole performance was when we
gave three cheers for Barrett. How our
boys laughed and grinned and winked at
each other when they did it. am afraid
though, after all, that we didn't deceive
anybody by it, TOR l saw in moment
that "Lew's" friends in the audience saw
through our little game and they re-
sponded with Kisses and by calling for
"three groans for jackson After
coming back to Atlantic and talking the
matter over with Levi, we have both
come to the conclusion that our mission
to your borough was failure. fear we
were little to previous. We ought to
have waited longer before making such
q holy show of our political treachery
Levi seys we must never run such risk
again, and | quite agree with him,
Good bye!
The Press.-Good bye, Will see you
later,