New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1901-09-15
ONE OF THE OTHERS


cornet player in one of the big summer hotels.
The hotel orchestra consisted Of two besides him
self-a VioliTist of Polish extraction, who in win
Ter was employed at one OF the lesser city thea
tres, and pianist The pianist wore vivid neck
ties and parted his hair down the middle. He
had a sou! of brass and wrist of iron. 1t
the duty Of the trio to play during meal times,
and also from : to 1870 each evening in the
great dining room, cleared by the coored wait
for dancing Under the electric lights the
floor then like a shifting flower bed,
with whirled muslin skirts and bright ribbons.
Night after night, from the rostrum in the
of the room, the cornet player watched the
same familiar crowd; night after night he had
10 play the same music for their pleasure MAX
ing. 1t WAS his first engagement of the sort,
and for time the thing was new to him He
liked to follow the comings and gongs. the
Screenings and amusements of this world 10
which he must always be an outsider
But after IA while its sameness began to pall
upon him. Always the one type in the flushed
faces and dainty gowns swung past him; always
the kind OF chatter came brokenly to his
ears between the waltz tunes. He grew to see
the universe peopled by medley Of puppets
who danced mechanically himself the machine
that ground their music. Two step, valse
and schottische: valse and two step. He said
once to the pianist with a half savage humor:
they never put the nickels in!'
out Of his WEAKNESS grew presently dull
dislike an antagonism against the fortune
which had him aloof there to play that
others might dance. The proprietor of the
hotel had named it BeacOn-by- the-Sea; pre-
sumaby because it stood quarter OF
mile inland But the name worked its
magic in advertisements. and the place was
crowded. TIE cornet player used to watch the
n and hate
terly for their pleasures and gayeties in which
he could have no part He was himself younger
than many of them; he had all the yearning OF
youth toward youth the keen hunger for en-
iovment which is harder than any wants of later
life 1t is only the middle aged who can afford
10 wait and plan and dream Each day taxes
us further along the road. and the cry of the
young is to have their pleasure while yet they
are young, not when they will have no longer
need of it. The cornet player would have given
.bA half of his later years for one hour of the
transitory pleasure which these others Of his
own age took their commonplace due IL
would have meant so much to HIM lie prooded
over if while ne watched the maze of their Shllt-
ing feet.
often the younger set monopoized one side Oh
the floor uprcariousy for square dance lie
had 70 listen to god humored chah and
snatches of laughter; jokes that he knew by
bear+ There was one Harvard student among
,bem named Holden who kept his companions
in continual ripples Of mirth. The cornet player
grew To hate deeply the very sound OF TINS stu
dents voice
Sometimes he pictured to himself with bitter
e.,rcaeun one of this carelessly good natured set
eyer coming on to him between the dances 10
cay Here. YOU have turn once While take
your MACE" But their kindness was only
t,vard each other. 1t would stop at him like
high brick wall. he had had proof of this once
soon after he first came there, when he had
Joined unconsciousIy in the laugh which 1ol-
lowed a sally made by one of a little Knot
gathered by the edge Of the rostrum. The look
Of blank and frigid establishment whirled upon
him instantly by the goddess of the party-a
slim school girl in a muslin frock-was among
those things which he would always remember
They plainly regarded him, if they regarded
him at all. as merely a part Of the hotel fur
niture. He there to play their music. week
in week out and continue playing just the
same tired or willing, IL or well, until it pleased
thcrn TO stop. Beyond this he could have no
more part in their lives than the chairs they
sat tAe floor upon which they danced.
He wondered sometimes if this view of their
position ever appealed in the same way to his
companions. They seemed to him TO take the
daily routine in manner purely busineSslke,
even cheerful Round the corner of the instru
men h. fob frnrn Ia