The Press., 1898-12-08
CHAMBER OF CATS.

'There's only one reason l hate to
have him come, " said Mrs. Blackstone.
"Only one, and that's enough, goodness
knows!'
''The cats?'' inquired Mr.. Blackstone.
1.-The darned cats - rejoined his wife,
with vlndictive emphasis.
'I'll tell him about the cats when l
write said Mr. Blackstone He did
Here is the letter:
DEAR 'REGULUs-Of course we want you to
/ come, and of COT rse there is plenty of room,
though it isn't the best kind of room, the good
wife fears. You must know fat is as mar
row and long as the lane between your own
/ mansion and that where you house your cows.
Our guest chamber is the last room of all at
the rear 1t is the biggest and the lightest, but
we dent use it to sleep in because of the cats.
The international cat dueling ground for the
| borough of Manhattan is under the windows.
| Why don't we kill 'em? When one dies, six
come and bewail his death. So we evacuated
| the room for night use and live in the place
| the landlord calls the guest chamber. There
isn't time before you come TO take the bed
steads down and transpose them. 1t takes ten
days to do that, including the time spent in
hospital.
So if you can stand the cats, come, and we
hope you will win your case. Sincerely,
WILLIAM BLACKSTONE.
torney's Office, - County, N. Y.
The Hon. Regulus McShane arrived
on Saturday evening, and was con-
Quoted to his room There were win
dows on two sides of the room. The
bed ran obliquely into the room between
| them. On each of the unwindowed sides
was closet door. One closet ran through
to the bedroom of the Blackstones. Ii
contained a fixed washstand and the
family medicine shelves. The shelves
of the other closet were piled high with
discarded shoes, empty mineral water
bottles and fragments of broken furni
ture.
'Therei'' said Mr.. Blackstone, as he
opened the door of this closet and point.
ed with pride to the display ON the
shelves. 'That is your only relief from
cats. Thatis the magazine. When they
begin to howl, lombard them. Use the
Spanish method. Don't hit. If you do,
they II only make twice as much noise. -
The district attorney smiled grimly.
II rather think Ill stay awake fo1
fear I shouldn't wake up when they
begin to sing.
"Don't you think, my DEAR hel
| husband said don't you think it is
time to let the weary traveller within
our fat go to the chamber of cats? You
trot TO bed and I'll take Regulus and
show him what beautiful decorations
there are inside the refrigerator.
She went her way and they went
theirs. So we'll did the up country dig
nitary appreciate the refrigerator that
it was near midnight when he parties
| with his host at the door of the chamb ben
of cats. AS they passed her door, Mrs
Blackstone noticed that the district at
torney's feet seemed to drag little.
"Poor thing, she said to herself, a,
she winked solemnly at her pillow.
"He is tired. Perhaps he can't helI
dragging his feet, the responsibility Of
carrying those lovely shoes is heavy
heavy
AS she dozed, she heard her husband
saying:
eff you can, cid man, you better un
dress in the dark. The mosquitoes are
awful up here. We would have put il
screens, but if we had you couldn't
have got at the cats. -
| ~ wa PCAhuP an AOuA 4csUOA WAOA
Mrs. Blackstone awoke. The night wal
very still. She wondered what hac
walked her. In a moment she knew.
"Pr-r-r-ow- WOW p came the chal
lenge from half block away. "Pr-r-r
ow !"
"Er-wowu!'' came the answer from
under the back window
"Will, = said Mrs. Blackstone hoarse
ly to the next pillow, Twill, wake up
They're coming. " She sat up and clap
ped her hands softly in her glee.
"Lemme know when they get here, ,
mumbled Blackstone as he dug his heaC
into the pillow again. Mrs. Blackstone
sat up and listened.
"Pr-r-r- ow- wowv' The challenger
was drawing nearer. Not one, but three
voices answered him. For a moment
as they converged, all was silent. Ther
came mastery battlecry. 1t was like
that of 6-months-old infant who hal
swallowed his bib pin.
"Will, said Mrs. Blackstone, wake
up! They've come. He sat up and
rubbed his eyes.
In the next room they heard the
bump and pounding of bare feet on the
floor They heard door open and the
blinking Of glass.