Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1897-11-27

canvas Of the great tent flap in unison
with the blasts Of his horn they all
laughed. and thereafter Throughout the
performance they all paid close atten-
ton when Enos raised the instrument
I'VE tried, of course, always to make
o route for the show that wouldn't con-
dict with anybody else. for there were
plenty of towns that wouldn't stand but
one show at q time. Two would lose
money in them, however good they
might be. But sometimes we ran against
some stubborn man that wouldn't give
way, and then there was nothing to do
but to show and beat him if we could.
"Onoe, when we struck town with
another show, we learned somehow that
they had a great bass horn player in
their band, and of course weGlaailengef
'em for a contest. And they took up the
challenge very promptly. There wasn't
much time to prepare for it, but we
billed the town in an hour and got per
mission to put up stand on the public
square, because it was to be . free ex-
hibition, and that attracted attention.
1.-THE contest was at noon, and of
course the two bands played as accom-
panists Of the hornplayers And that
made big band concert, and the crowd
was something enormous. The terms
were that each man was to play once,
and then q vote Of the people was to be
taken. The man defeated in that round
had a right to call for another. II the
man defeated in the first round won the
second, the man who won tho first
round had q right to call fpx a. third
round But the winner Of two rounds
by the vote Of the people was to be de-
clared tho winner Of the contest.
"Well, the men in our show bet
every dollar they could rake and scrape
on Enos, and some of the more gentle
hearted Of them thought they were just
robbing the men in the other show. Our
old man not only bet all his money, but
he bet the idol of his heart, the famous
old giraffe of. our show, against the
other show s moth eaten buffalo, and he
was so dead sure that he threw in Gin
namon bear to boot.
"Our side had the first inning, and
our band showed EN- how to play, and
then Enos stood up for his solo. And
how be did make the thunderl It was
'oomphah, complain, oomphahP as it
had never been heard before. and he
fairly carried the people of their feet.
"Then the other band played tune,
and their man got up And there's no
use talking, he raised more thunder
than Enos did and set the people
shouting
"Then the mayor got up to take the
vote, as he'd agreed to do, and he was
interested now as much as anybody.
And the people voted for the other man,
as We expected they would. But we
hadn't any doubt about the final result,
for we thought that Enos would I'M
shackle now and break away and make
! tho blow of his life. And he did. We,
who had been hearing him for years,
had never heard him approach what he
did now. It was wonderful. He set the
people wild, and we thought we had
'em sure.
"But the other mans very first 'Ocm-
phah I made us tremble, and as he went
ON we knew we were lost, money, ri.
raffe, everything. We'd never heard
anything like this before. It wasn't Just
simple peals Of thunder-it was 4 thun-
der factory in full blast and working
with adouble force Of men. There could
Be only one verdict.
"That afternoon the whole town
went to the other show and left our big
tent empty. The other people came over
for the animals they'd won before show
time. They wanted to take 'em over
and walk 'em around in theft ring. The
old man had 'em brought ont. When
the giraffe realized what had happened,
he wound his neck around the center
pole and wouldn't bulge. But the old
man finally persuaded him. and over he
went to be made show of in the other
circus
"Enos Stulkintom never blew a bass
horn again. He'd had the opportunity
Of his life, had missed it and he hadn Z
the heart. After that he always blew q
baritone.
For my own part, I always thought
there was trick in 1t. Don't you know.
there are things that look fair and
square ON the face Of them that you feel
certain, all the same, arc of, in some
way. Well, I knew there was something
wrong about that mans bass h6fI play.
ing, and years afterward I heard what
+; it was He had . bellows attached b
the horn, with hole in the side Of the
HON for the nozzle Of the bellows, and
the bellows inside his clothes out d
|: sight, and rod running down to q
treadle under his foot. He re:mfmced
his own blowing with blasts frdm yhil
bellows, and. Of course. the man didn' I
live that could stand up against him.
I've told Enos about this, but it wa
. too hate He'd lost his ambition and
was atisisd now to play second fiddle,
though - night stil have been . cham
ipioa Yxk Sun. 80.