Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1897-11-28
zERAH WEsTBROOK's FLUTE.

IT see they've elected Zeary West
brook Mayor of Amsterdam, up in York
State somewhere" said Pike county
imam, referring to the Hon. Zerah West
hook. ey-Deputy Comptroller of New
Y, and lately Judge of Montgomery
to a New York Sun reporter.
hoWs what lucky thing it was
that his flute got broken years
airs ago, up in Sussex county, N. j.,
ght we went over and gave him a
Else party.
Ieary was born in Sussex county
lived on the far only a few miles
IN the Delaware, and he came over
Pike county when he was l6 or II,
8 go to school at Milford. He was
popular among us young folks, but
thunder! there wasn't anything about
him, either of outward show or inward
light. in those days that would have
furnished material for the best ALL
round prophet in the business to build
a future for him beyond the confines of
the rail fence around that old West
err toadrbrook farm over in Jersey.
Some folks went SO far as to prophesy
that he would come to some bad end,
basing their forebodings on what seem
ed to be the all-sufficient fact that he
played the flute. He didn't exactly play
the flute, either. He leased it. He wor-
ried it. He hurled from it staccato
toots that jabbed holes in the Silly
summer night. He forced from it dis
tressful meanings, gasping gurgles, wo-
full walls and wild and despairing
shrieks. He cut these up into sections
and, fcalled them tunes. The NOSE. de-
spairing, the ost hopeless, the ost disE
tressful of these was his favoriteJ' He
Z called it Napoleon Crossing theyAlps!"
/ never believed it. Napoleon, had a bad
time crossing the Alps. fbut it was
never, never SO bad as that. People
WHO feresaW his<awful finish declare to
lis day that it would have come long
Defore this if something hadn't hap
.pened to separate him from that flute.
ssZeary quit going to school at Milford
after while, and thought he could do
better by going back home to help with
the pig-killing and the chores about the
farm, SO he took his flute and went,
leaving a vacuum in Milford musical
circles that fife and drum corps failed
to fill. Then, after a while, when the
weather got cold and the sleighing
good, lot of us young folks thought
we'd take a sleigh ride over to the
Westbrook far and give Zeary a sur
prise party, taking lots of cakes and
things along, as was the surprise party
custom in those days. That was the
coolest night | was ever out in. 1t was
30 cold that when our sleigh upset on
the way over and dumped us all down
10-foot bank, and a pan of custard
/ had charge of climbed up on my head
turned itself bottom side up, squoshed
down on my crown and sat there as
hn1y, on IN
soldier, it froze fast before | had re-
covered from my astonishment suffi-
GENTLY to take it off, and | either had
to be scalped to get away from it or
leave it there until we could get some
where to thaw it out, and | left it. The
girls all had Mysteries for while, but
no opalvs hurt.
nu6ply col2Ie of miles from
iaae NAen this mishap
e soon Strengthened
mt on. AS we neared
bat cleaned from the
VS., suddenly the
their ears, stopped
round in the road
driver quieted them
ack at us, frightened
ought to us on the
id sounds of agony
eXcruciating walls
2 exclaimed one of
e come here to meet
perhaps death?'
other, who recognize
Ne haven't That's
G Napoleon over the
IEeary and his flute, still
kpting fate. We soon hustled inside
with our surprise, and it was sur
prise, too. But even the sight of me
frozen fast by my hair to a tin pan
couldn't turn Zeary from his course
He had Napoleon at such a critical
spot in the Alps, that he couldn't leave
him there with safety, and he kept on
crossing him overo. He got him to the
pinnacle of the heights at last, and cast
him down on the other side with such
an appalling burst from the depths of
the flute tht one of the girls reached
out for more Mysteries and got 'em.
Then Zeary threw the house wide open.
They thawed me out, and we were hav-
ing a joyful time, when Zeary moved
toward the flute again. We were about
to order UP the horses and fly but we
didn't have to. Somebody or some
thing, somehow, had wrecked the flute.
Whether it had been sat on, or jumped
on, or what, there it was, broken be-
yond repair.
''Zeary was sad, but he kept on. He
= nexer could get another flute that suit
e. him, and the charm of the farm wos
broken He left the place by and by,
and went up into New York State.
There he got into politics, and the first
thing we heard he had got to be a
Judge and then Deputy Comptroller of
the State And now he's a Mayor.