The Washington times., 1901-09-22

| Providence, together with newspaper
advertisement, had brought about his en-
| gagement as cornet player in one OF the
| big summer hotels. The hotel orchestra
| consisted of two besides himself-a violin
| ist of Polish extraction. who in winter
was emkployed at one of the lesser city
| theatres, and a pianist. The pianist wore
vivid neckties and parted his hair down
the middle. He had a soul Of brass and a
wrist OF iron. 1t was the duty of the trio
| to play during meal times, and also from
! to lO;3o each evening In the great dining
room, cleared by the colored walters for
| dancing. Under the electric lights the
| floor was then like a shifting flower bed.
gay with whirled muslin skirts and bright
ribbons. Night after night, from the ros-
trum in the corner of the room. the cor
| net player watched the same familiar
crowd; night after night he had to play
the same music for their pleasure making
1t was his first engagement Of the sort
and for a time the thing was new to him
He liked to follow the cominss and 60
| ings, the schemings and amusements of
| this world to which he must always be an
outsider. psE
But after while its sameness began to
pail upon him. Always, the one type in
the flushed faces and dainty gowns swung
past him; always the one kind of chatter
came brokenly to his ears between the
waltz tunes. He grew to see the universe
peopied by a medley Of puppets who
danced mechanically; himself the machine
that ground out their music Two STEP
valse and schottische; vaIse and two STEP
He said once to the pianist with half
savage humor: I'VE might be nickel in
the slot machines-only they never put
the nickles ini"
Out of his weariness grew presently
dull dislike. an antagonism against the
fortune which had set him asoof there to
play that others might dance. The pro-
prietor of the hotel had named It Beacon
by-the-Sea; presumably because 1t stood
a quarter of a mile inland. But the name
worked its magic in advertisements, and
the place was crowded. r The cornet play
er used to watch the young people about
him, and hated them bitterly for their
pleasures and gayeties In which he could
nave no part. He was himself younger
than many of them; he had all the yearn-
Ing Of youth toward youth the keen hun
ger for enjoyment which Is harder than
any wants of later life. 1t is only the
middle aged who can afford to wait and
plan and dream. Each day takes US fur
ther 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 cernet player
would have given the half of his later
years for one hour Of the transitory pleas
ure which these others of his own age
TOOK as their commonplace due. 1t would
have meant so much to him. He brooded
over 1t while he watched the maze of
their shifting feet.
O1ten the younger set monopolized one
side OF the floor uproariously for square
dance. He had to listen to good humored
chaff aand -snatches of laughter; jokes
that he knew by heart There was one
Harvard student among them named
Holden, who kept hts companions I'm con-
tinual ripples of mfrth. The cornet play
er grew to hate deeply the very sound of
his students voice.
Sometimes he pictured to himself yith
bitter sarcasm one of this careIessiy good
natured set ever coming on to him be-
tween the dances to say. Here, you have
turn once while take your placer But
their kindliness was only toward each
other. 1t would stop at him like a high
brick wall. He had had proof of this
once soon after he first came there, when
he had Joined unconsciously in the laugh
which followed sally made by one of
little knot gathered by the edge Of the
rostrum. The look of blank and frigtd
astonishment whirled upon him instant
ly by the goddess of the party-a slim
schoo: girl in a muslin frock-was among
those things which he would always re-
member. They plainly regarded him, If
they regarded him at all, as merely a
part of the hotel furniture. He was there
to play their music, week in. week out,
-
tired or willing. i'll or well. until it pleas
ed them to STOP. Beyond this he could
have no more part in their lives than the
chairs they sat on or the f3oor upon which
they danced.
He wondered sometimes II this view of
their position ever appealed in the same
way to his companions They seemed to
him to take the daily routine in a manner
purely businessiike. even cheerful Round
the corner of the instrument he could
watch from where he sat the automatic
rise and fall of the pianist's steel fingers
striking out deep octayes in the bass and
wonderful treble runs that shook the pi-
ano like storm The pianist seemed to
take no notice Of the crowd beyond oc-
casionai comment on their individual ap-
pearance or characteristics. His whole
interest in them he, ia fact, summed up
to the cornet player during an interval in
the programme. They never seem ready
to let up. do they?" The cornet player
almost enyied him his supreme indiffer-
ence. He questioned with himself wheth-
er the pianist had never at any time wish
ed to change places with them: to Dance
for once in his life. while others did the
playing. He imagined him a man from
whom long hardening had removed all
human feeling. -
On Saturday evenings the hop was open
to outsiders. The dancing was then from
to L.. The atmosphere in the big room,
under the glare Of thellights. was ali but
tropical The orchestra played with hand
kerchiefs tucked strateg1calIy into their
collars. Windows were open to the west
veranda outside, wheror the older people
sat out and listened to the music. Be
tween numbers the dancers crowded out
to stroll up and down between the closely
placed chairs. the girls with light wraps
flung round their throats in the cooler
air. Inside the emptied room the musi-
clans leaned back and famed themselves
with sheet music. glanciHg wearily at the
clock. Through the open window came
mosquitoes and the hum of voices, and,
very rarely, a breeze.
Between hours their tine was to de-
gree their own. They employed these in
tervals of leisure after their own fashion
The violinist chiefly read police novels;
the pianist lounged about the bar with
his hat on and a perpetual cigar between
his teeth. and on rare occasions, when the
clerk was off duty played poker with him
in back bedroom. Through no intent on
their part of unsociability. it happened
that the cornet player found spare time
hanging heavily upon his hands. He used
to loiter about the outskirts of the ten