Kansas agitator. [volume] (Garnett, Kan.) 1890-1905, 1897-11-12

|
| he certainly persevered with a persis-
| tency that showed his Staying quail
tiles" admirably. By and by he took
off his vest. Presently cuffs and col
lar were discarded, and had any other
! portion Of his raiment been removable
without violating the rules Of propriety
l am confident that he would have di-
vested himself Of it. He had failed, so
far, in the accomplishment of his I'M
| dertaking, but he was determined not
to be conquered by thing without
brains, and he was stripping himself
for mortal combat.
| He seemed to have forgotten my
presence. And II lay back In the
hammock and laughed so much that
my sides were sorer than his body was
next day. verify believe.
I think he kept 1t up for at least
three hours. Once in a while he had
to pause and take breath. His clothes
were wet with sweat. The perspiration
ran down his face in little rills. But
he was not yet ready to acknowledge
defeat. He tried that wheel from all
quarters He straddled the seat and
tried to get under Roadway by walking
tiptoe and getting up motion in that
way preparatory to getting control of
the pedals. Then he got on the horse
block, and tried to mount from that
position. Just about half the time, as
nearly as l could calculate, he was
either on his face or his back in tie
dust, or getting on his feet Once in
while l saw him rubbing what l pre-
sumed to be bruised places on his an
atomy, and l noticed that he was evil
IDENTIFY getting sitter rapidly, as the
encounter of mind and matter went on.
BY and by he sat down on the horse
block and seemed in deep thought He
looked that wheel over from all points.
He pushed it back and forth far
enough to make the pedals go around
once and made calculations as to the
position they ought to be in at the mo-
ment when the foot took them. Then
he reused himself for the final encoun-
ter.
He decided to make this attack from
the rear. He took hold of the handle
bars, got the pedals in such position
that when the right one had made one
revolution it would be about where his
foot would strike it when on the down
grade, provided all else went well, and
then he was ready for the trial. He
started; he made the leap; he came
down squarely in the saddle, and, oh,
victory! his right foot caught the ped
al at the proper time and he went
ahead without going over. He seemed
to feel that he had conquered at last,
for he gave little whoop of exultation,
but just at that instant the front wheel
began to kink and wobble in that ut
terly depraved way peculiar to front
wheels at times, and the more he tried
to steady it the more uncomfortable it
got. 1t seemed to have the st. Vitus
dance. All this time his right foot
was clinging to the pedal with deadly
desperation, while his left one was fly
ing wildly around in space to find the
pedal on that side of the machine,
while he was going ahead with sudden
and unexpected shifts to all points of
the compass. Then, all at once, the
entire machine seemed to tie itself up
bucked like a mule for all the world,
and the poor man was pitched head
first into great clump of bull thistles.
They scratched him terribly, but he
ought to have been thankful that they
were there, for they broke the force of
his fall. He lay there so long that l
began to be alarmed, and went to his
assistance. But before l reached him
he struggled to his feet, corkscrewed
me with glare of awful intensity, but
said not a word. He seized the inno-
cent-looking wheel and dragged it to
the veranda in a series Of vindictive
jerks, and deposited it there in silence.
Then he glanced at me again, but not
a word escaped his lips. l have al
ways thought he dared not trust him
self to speak, for fear he would give
utterance to some of the thoughts that
"arose in him."
The next day his nose had a great
black and blue spot on it, and was
swollen to twice its usual size. There
was a bruise on one cheek, another on
his neck and thistle scratches all over |
his face. He walked with great dignity |
or difficulty-and seemed subject to |
twinges of rheumatic pain whenever he
sat down or got up. took pity on him
and hired a man to take him to his
afternoon appointment. He never even
looked at the poor wheel after that. He
ignored its eXistence.-New
York Ledger.