The daily morning journal and courier., 1898-08-04
THE WHISPERS LEAGUE.

 How it Rose, Flourished and Fell.
 The Whiskers league is the unusual title of "driebund" which was formed and fourished and fell on Burlington train last Sunday during the period oc- cupied in making the round trip from the Omaha exposition to Kansas City. The members of the league were three telegraph operators employed in one of Kansas Citys commission houses and the story of their brief alliance is told by one of them.
 ''You see we couldn't think of leav- on a pretty good skate and of course, after we got started we had to do some- take long to form the league and draw up constitution and bylaws, which
 were to the effect that every man wear ing a beard who came into the car was
 to be accosted by each of us in turn, ceIlQ llllll lIleiL lietu ScLiSIlI straw or something in his whiskers. We drew Vlots to decide the order in
 which we should begin the campaign and agreed to change the order on each new man, for we still had sense enough to know that, while the first one of us might be thanked graciously for his | kindness, the last one would be running the risk of receiving bodily harm. Well, Bait had to start it, and
 came second. The train was just Teav~ | ing little station, when big, old | farmer with a thick brown beard | squeezed with way through the door and began looking down the car, over | the tops of other peoples heads for a. I vacant seat. He didn't find any, of ] course, and Bait edged up to him and l remarked that the car was crowded. ! There was nothing in that remark to arouse the farmers suspicious, and when Bait apologized for taking the l liberty, but informed him that there was something caught in his whiskers, l his services were very gratefully ack- | nowledged. After another pleasantly 1 or two, Bait disappeared in the crowd. It was my turn next.
 | "I got in range of the agriculturalist
 and asked him some question about the | country we were passing through and I how the crops were, and then, glancinS I at his bushy chin-covering, said: 'Ex- cuse me, sir, but there's a straw hang ing to your beard
 GA what?' asked the old man, rather | suddenly backing off to get better
 view of me. and at the same time
 brushing suspiciously at the imaginary straw I didn't wait to explain, but
 resigned my place to Herrick, who was | getting anxious to distinguish himself He watched the old man, carefully in-
 specting his offending lilacs over by the window, and then Herrick made his debut He ventured some commonplace remark or other, which the old man didn't notice, and then, deftly touching his hirsute ornamentation, excused himself with the remark that it was just a piece of string that had blown ir at the window. The farmer squared | himself.
 "'Looky here, young feler, do you
 belong to that dodgasted gang of un-
 licensed whiskers inspectors that's in
 festin' this train?' He didn't say any more, but he closed with a swift ges-
 ture that Herrick was able to only partly dodge, as one of the old mans
 harny knuckles peeled off strip of hair just above his ear.
 ''The next man wearing beard who
 entered the car was the conductor, and
 the league disbanded. .''-Kansas City l Journal