The Fulton County news. [volume] (McConnellsburg, Pa.) 1899-current, 1900-02-08

s.lF/W show than MS Self-respect
1 as white man and citi-
zen would allow him to bear cheer.
fully. And for that reason he sulked
nt table when the management aud
the staff Of the Bowcry Palace OF
illusions and Turkish Beauty Show"
sat down together in their eating
room to luncheon OF bread and sau-
sages. 1t was the midday intermis-
sion. Below stairs, the barrel organ
WAS dumb. The wicket of the ticket
Office was empty of its vision OF bella
donna eyes aud cornstarch shoulders.
The hall of illusions---of incandescent
lights AMI bewildering mirrors-was
dark and deserted. Aud the curtains
in the last compartment of the exhibit
ton parted Imply on vacant stage
where two ancients in flaxen wigs had
been posing against the shabby hang
ing of a Turkish harem.
Here in the eating-room, the com
pany was gathered about greasy
pine table that stood between the
cooking-stove and the sink. A feeble
light, fltering through the dirty win.
dows upon the bare arms and bare
shoulders Of the women. showed a
suspicious difference in color between
the rough arm that had not been
powdered and the tender white OF the
neck that had. The lad who tortured
the agonized organ down stair0 chewed
rhythmically on tough crust of bread,
his head still turning tunes, his eyes
set in the vacant stare of an animal
at feed. A young girl beside him,
with q smudged face and untidy hair,
choked on her sausage, and "Snipey,"
the counterfeit Mexican for whom she
posed as the human target in the
great dageer-throwing ''stunt" of tho
free performance, rallied her with a
facetious ''Think yeh'd d been swalIowin'
swords"
The ticket-oflice beauty, who was
the managers wife, grinned at this
wit. and the scrawny beauties in the
tawny wigs lifted their pencilled eye
brows appreciatively-but with care
The manager--he was the darker
and the official 'bouncer" in one
muscular person--directed the eyes of
the company to Che sulking Filipino
with q wink aud nod. "Think he'd
been swallowing insults, he chuckled
"Aguinaldo, az they called him,
/ pretended not to hear, hur.,ed over
his plate and glowering at knot in
the table. He had covered his paint
ed nudity with an overcoat and an
underskirt. He had pulled off his
rusty wig, and taken out the ring of
bone that had been pinched into his
nostrils. But around his eyes were
still two circles of yellow ochre. His
color was red brick-dust to within an
inch of his fiat black hair, and there
it turned skin white. When he ate
his sausage, he drew back his painted
Lips and took the food carefully be.
tween his teeth. The grimace set his
face for savage snarl.
"Eats human iesh," the manager
quoted at it, and laughed again con-
temptuously.
The ticket-office exhibit drew her
eyes over her husband slowly, and
swung glance down the table at the
Filipino. "Aguinaldo" was staring at
his tormentor dumbly.
.'Looks as il he'd like to eat me,
don't he?" tho latter whispered loudly
TO the table. They either laughed or
they did not. The organist did not
because no was thinking of nothing.
.'Snipey" laughed to curry favor with
the management, and tie two women
laughed because they understood the
game that was being played and
Knocked at it. They knew that
"Aguinaldo" did not dare to face an
open rupture for fear he should find
himself OH the street There was a
note in their cackling that was chal-
ienge to the manager.
"Any time he likes to try chaw at
me. I'm game" he clustered.
Thore was no answer.
''I amt heard that Filipinos are
much on the fight" ''Snipey"
laughed.
"Aguinaldo" picked up his over
coat, and slouched away to his sleep
ing room, pattering down the hall
with bare feet. The organ grinder,
who shared the room. followed him.
"Aguinaldo," in his room, cast off
tho shirt he wore, and appeared in Il
pair of knickerbockers, from which
tho legs had been amputated high on
the thigh. He had only coat of
brown stain to protect the bulk of his
body from the chill air. II won't t
stand it much longer" he said to him
self and the boy. N'I'd sooner be a
sandwich man again The imitation
bear-skin which he hooked about his
hips did nothing TO warm or CON
sole him. He put on the over
coat again, and coughed tentatively.
"A man nights we'll be in iail as cooped
mp in splintery packin' case. An
that fool pokin fun at him."
He picked up the wig of red-black
hair, and fitted it tightly to his scalp
no tightly that it pinched his skull as
IL in vice, and pulled his eyebrows
high on his forehead. Then the bone
ring found q sore spot in his nostrils
He looked at himself in the glass. He
had hot itch OF revolt in his blood
the revolt OF an irritated skin against
the discomfort of hair shirt-aud
no shook his fist savagely at his re-
Election in the mirror. Then he went
into the back OF the shop which
served to house the exhibition, and
from the wreck OF discarded peep
show drew out flask. II would
keep out the cold. It also kept in