The Bellefontaine Republican. [volume] (Bellefontaine, Logan County, Ohio) 1855-1905, 1899-11-14

"What was the matter with you the
other day?" asked.
"What day." he said snappishly.
yesterday, l think. You were going
down Bond street in a hanson. You
were without a hat. Your face was
dusty and your nose was bleeding. Your
collar was"-
"Stopv' ne said "I'll tell you about it.
| Are you a foolY'
NO. replied.
you're fairly clever?"
Certainly. In faA, that understates
| it,
''Then it will be a warning to you. 1t
was cleverness brought me to the condi-
tion in which you saw me. I've been get
ting cleverer and cleverer Of late. Mind,
| I've signed off now. I'm going to be as
big fool as other people in future, butt
| 'Do get on with the story"
81 say that it was a dirty trick of Jen-
nings to run away like that. And those
silly books about Theodore Hook and
"You're too incoherent. Begin at the
beginning"
"That's what l was doing, more or less.
If hadn't read that stuff about the man
betting that he'd make the utter stranger
| invite him to dinner and winning it, /
| could have kept quiet, but after that
kept on having clever ideas. Mind, my
idea about the ticket inspector wasn't
bad, though that wasn't what
"Tell me about the ticket inspector
first"
"Oh, that was at Baker street. l saw
there was an inspector on the hunt, and,
having first class ticket, got into a
second class carriage. My idea was to
tell him that l hadn't got a second class
ticket, but was quite willing to change in
to the third Then he'd say that l could
not do that and should have to pay the
excess, the difference between second and
third. Then should have replied that l
wouldn't pay and that l would change.
Then when he tried to stop me from get
ting out / should have shown him my
first class ticket. See?'
"Yes."
Cant you imagine what silly goat
that inspector would have looked? Well,
he came to my carriage, and he said,
Tickets, please l began, 4 haven't got
a second class ticket, but Then he in
terrupted me. He said Show your tick
i. eft. please speaking quite civilly, as if he
were being patient with child that
couldn't understand. Then had to show
it. and he didn't seem surprised or anus
ed or panied He said, Thank you,' and
went on. Other people in the carriage
smiled a good deal, and l rather fancy
they were smiling at me. These things
don't work out the way you have planned
them beforehand. That was what was
wrong with the signaling in the park"
"What was that?"
"That was what brought me to the
l. III -k4-
day. l had seen the soldiers signaling il
the park. They fool about with flags
and notebooks and crowds come rouni
and get frightfully interested. Well. my
idea was to do some bogus signaling thai
didn't mean anything and take in th'
crowd. l meant to write to the paper:
about it afterward, so that the crow(
would know they'd been fooled and ge
mad with themselves. That's the las
thing, by the way, l ever do with Jen
nings. l told him about it, and he was
good deal amused and said he'd join in it
We put on blue serge suits and yachtin,
caps. so that we looked official, with dasl
; of the navy about it. We had no flags
because we thought it would be more full
to signal with our arms and legs, but w
both carried laundering big notebooks
We took up our position in the parl
about so yards apart and took care to b
near path where plenty of people woul'
be passing. Jennings signaled first. Fl
stood on his left leg and worked an i'm
aginary bicycle with his right. Then h
raped his knees together sharply twic
and finished by striking his chest wit
both hands alternately very quickly.
thought | should have died of laughing
but I controlled myself and pretended t
d take down the meaning of all the signal
in my notebook.
"Then it was my turn to signal. di
a windmill action with my right arm an
bell pulling with my left Then l covere
my left eye with one hand and stampe
J. with my right foot. | threw in fey
more eccentric movements, and of cours
Jennings pretended to record them. B