The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1898-01-02
MISSILE AND NANNY.
Pretty Incident Witnessed on a New York
Street Car.


A Boulevard car was crawling along
near Sixtieth street the other day when
a tidy. comfortable looking negTesS,
placid and white-haired. swelled the
passenger list at the corner she car
ried In her hand a little basket covered
with a napkin snowy as the frostwork
on her woolly locks. other passengers
were few school girls, benevolent
gentleman in drab and a lovely woman
of the rich olive type, superbly Eowned,
a Lady Prosperous air about her and
that easy. settled grace that marked Il
warm. ripe vintage of 30 years ago.
Scarcely had the winSome old negresS
seated herself opposite to the olive Juno
than her gaze seemed riveted on that
uueenly face. Her ebony features re-
Elected serious mental agitation, a curl
Gus mixture of hope and doubt. as she
gazed fiXedly, lost TO every other sur
rounding. AT last she could bear the
strain no longer. Placing her little
basket nervously on the seat beside her,
she approached the olive beauty with
her heart in her mouth.
+" Skuse me. lady but" here she
caught her breath and courage-'but
you minds me SO pow'ful of my sweet
little missile from de good ole days in
Tennes-"
She got no further. The olive goddess
turned those wondrous dark orbs full ON
the fond old questoncr; a sudden smile
of reminiscent JOY made them sparkle
like Il pair of .kohinoors, and with
soul-stirring why, nanny and with
the blissful abandon of girlhood the
goddess had one arm around that faith
full black neck and the other about her
ample waist. while her shapely head
rested in that gracious hollow where
it had nestled SO peacefully in the tired
days of long ago.
And nanny The dear old creature
I1, F1y
She could only hold her lovely charge
in her fond embrace while her body
swayed to the fancied cadence Of a lul-
laby. and the unforgotten, musical
Honey" fell softly at intervals from
her trembling lips.
The beauty's eyes were closed. Her
soul had floated back, back on the goss-
amer wings of childhood TIL it rested
amid the heavy fragrance of magnolias.
saw the double row of jasamines that
lined the roadway to the old Southern
home. heard the songs from the darby
quarter as they died away in echoes
down the cotton field, along the rivers
widowed shore.
solemn but respectful silence tSet-
lied on the beholders. Some gazed open
mouthed in amazement. the benevolent
gentleman In drab wiped bit of moist
ure from his glasses; not a school girl
giggled Then came the savage clang
of the car bell and The winsome trance
was broken. The beauty brushed tear
away. came back To the world again.
and nanny and her little missy,
close together. ehatted low and lovingly
of dear, dead days.
"Doan' you fret bout me getting
home. honey: dis ole darby amt gwine
ter think O. nothin' till she sees yo'
habes''--were the last words heard from
nanny as she followed her gorgeous
missile from the car
The machinery Of commonplace again
revoiyed, All heaved sigh and all
were melowed for the vison---a cameo
in black and white, or loyalty and love,
that laughed at flesh tnts, a rare, too-
passing glance at the one oasis OF tender.
fadeless green in the sad Sahara of the
old slavery days.