The Florence daily tribune., 1899-03-08
ROUND A HAT.


night the theater was crowded Every
seat in every part of the house was oc-
cupied-every seat, that is but one,
and that one in the pit This was all
the more remarkable as this seat looked
r good seat-well up forward, nearly i'll
the center, quite as advantageous, as
pit people are wont to hypocrize rs ten
and sixpence wasted on stall. And
yet the seat was, all tho same undenia-
bly, vacant
1t was not being kept" either. The
young man on the other side of it al
ready had his young lady with him. l.
on this side, did not have young lady
at all and did not expect one. either
That seat was neither reserved nor talk
en-. There was IA mystery about it-a
mystery ! was acquainted with, mys-
terry you will get to know, too. if you
have the courage to go on.
You may be curious why | did not
move up into this excellently good seat
There is another mystery in the matter,
and. Just as in the case where two mega
tives, we are enormously assured. con
stitute II positive Affirmative, so these
two mysteries, being explained, anEul
one another. As a matter of fact, | had
moved into chat seat ON entering and
then had hastily moved back again,
while had the chance for immediate
ly in front was stylish young lady
what is generally catalogued smart
girl-young, good looking, very nice,
in the height of fashion. and-need |
say it-with hat.
There you have it-not the hat, which
is probably i'll the same possession un'
less, of course, the fashions have again
changed. rs lis to be expected. consider
ing the incident took place nearly n
week ago-aot the hat, but the elucida-
tion; for the luckless individual who
paid to come in and took up his station,
sitting down. behind that hat would
have absolutely no return for his money
but a gratuitous and highly exasperat-
ing view of ribbons and dead birds that
Regent street glorities into "crea-
tion.
We knew. you know. We had tried
it, | the first and the quickest and then
the other men, who, wandering in late
and thanking their lucky stars for their
great, good fortune, bounced into that
seat with wide smile on their faces
remained perplexed and fidgety for sew
eral minutes, frowned and coughed and
shufiied their feet where the floor
sounded loudest and then finally depart
ed somewhere into the back with inar-
ticulate mutterings and much painfully
suppressed emotion.
An old gentleman at the back of me
who evidently made habit of misan-
thropy and allowed none f'his fellow
creatures sadness to pass without
proper merriment was spending
most enjoyable evening in consequence
The world to him was good deal more
than stage, and he would certainly
have been content to wait all night for
the rising of the curtain. provided the
fun in front went ON so uninterrupted
ly. When somebody from the rear made
move for this seat. his face beamed
with the gratitude of Thanksgiving As
the somebody sat down there he scented
to let OF profound chuckle When the
somebody faced the hat and fidgeted,
his sides shook and his double chin
trsmbled. did not approve of this
gloating, and as often as possible with
ont creating conversational friction |
leaned back suddenly and let one of my
shoulders fall ON to his nose That gave
him pause and breathing time, but he
used it only to get ready to enjoy the
next victim
Just AS the lights went down and the
curtain went up II young man. the
~ oil 70.
his way in from the side and tumbled
into that open trap. piously took off his
silk ''tile" and put it under the seat
punched himself mp into that prepon-
derant attitude that is necessary for
proper receptiveness peered eagerly
forward and saw beautifully-ai the
blackness of the lady shat Then en-
sued the usual pantomimic demonstra.
tion OF foiled expectation-coughs and
discomforting because very sincere
growls The old gentleman at the rear
seemed to be in danger of bursting a
blood vessel, and the breaths of his en-
joyment came into the nape of my neck
warm and frequent and vigorous
What was MOST remarkable. however
was that this young man did not aban-
don the position. like his predecessors
but held on and stuck there in forlorn
hope, rousing himself at intervals to-
pivot round on his vertepral column
and describe most alarming contortions
in rash attempts to get his head. and
more particularly his eyes, into some
nook or crevice where the stage was not
completely etfaced. then sinking down
in failure and despair and collapsing
into unwilling resignation. tempered
by ebullitions of mufiied groans. and
the old gentleman behind was quiver-
ing with commissions of joy. SO that
fell back on him again and did him
more personal injury without. how
ever. much damping his scstatic rap
ture-
The girl on the right of us her