The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1899-04-09
HE BROKE THE H00DOO.
But 1T TOOK a STRADIvARIUS
VIOLIN TO DO THE TRICK.

THE story Told by eN-Tank No. , al
the Last Meeting of the Harlem
Club of Former Alcoholic Degen-
erates-A Job That He Got in
DAYTON to sell Goods in st. Louis,
and what "A snap II Was Until He
Begnn to Touch the Harp Too
Often-The Bargain He Hit in "a
Pawn shop. and How il Brought
Him Around All Right.
From the New York sun.
Now. ST. Louis was my hoodoo town
said ex-Tank No. of the Harlem Club OF
Former Alcoholic Degenerates, uneon-
sciously disobeying one of the club rules
by making rings on the table with the
bottom of his glass Of vichy and milk.
During the progress OF six tumultuous
years 1 never hit st. Louis that it didn't
get me down and out before 1 so much
as had a chance TO take a look at shaw $
gardens. 1t didn't make any difference
whether I struck ST. Louis wearing spurs
sombrero bells and gislamps, coming from
the West, or whether l got into 1t with a
siIker. studs and patent feathers, travel
ing from the East. that insidious Town al
ways took a hold of me during those six
pipe-dreamed years and counted me among
the also-rans before / had show 10 ma
out where / was at. 1t fairly makes me
ache to think of the number of times l
walked under the steelY. glittering stars
that hang over St. Louis. wondering how
] could get just one hooter to make me
feel that life would be worth living five
or ten minutes longer. And l want 10 go
on record as saying that. hard as the
proposition was on each and all of these
occasions, / always got the hoOter. But
as | say, | mad to walk long distances
under stars that just winked me the laugh
before l thought the thing out, and gen
orally had to take my vest TO second
hand store at the finish, at that.
But, fellow eX-Tanks, there never was
a hoodoo yet that couldn't be broken. L
smashed that hoodoo the last time / COW
cred st. Louis. The last time l covered
ct. Louis l got out of 1t on the vanished
cars, and not on a side-door Pullman, and
I had front and all colors of it to my
clothes. This thing Of getting out of st.
Louis as a deckhand on a freight boat
bound for Memphis-but I 'say, st. Louis
doesn't owe me anything now. Stradi-
varlus violin is a great thing anyhow"
Then No. 8 gazed into his glass of vichy
and milk dreamily. EX-Tanks Nos. and
called him to order at once.
What the dickens" they both inquired
together, has getting out of st. Louis
with 81 and a railroad ticket got to do
with a Strad fiddle?"
The Chief Ex-Tank perceived the rea-
condolences Of this question and requested
No. to refrain from drifting.
We'll" continued No. 3, this Stradi-
varius fiddle was the thing that enabled
me to rip out the words of that St Louis
hoodoo and look EN- i'm the face If IL
hadn't been for that fiddle-but it WASH
fiddle; 1t was violin. There's just as
much difference between a fiddle and a
violin as there is between Hickory jim
and George Dewey, and"
At this point No. was again called 90
order by several Ex-Tanks for roping in
extraneous matter in connection with a
recital OF an alleged win-out, as they
put it.
Il wouldn't ha' gone TO St Louis at all
that last time" proceeded No. 8. after