The Bossier banner., 1901-12-05

80 miles away"
always excepting the mysterious
Belle of Bear City," she interpolated,
suppressing strictly artificial yawn.
Poor thing! Alone among all those
men-what did you say was the popu-
lation?"
Il did not say, but there must have
been hundred showed in under the
Tundra Bluffs, and every mothers son
of us man." He grinned feebly.
always except" she began again,
when his eyes caused her to relent.
Don't he pleaded. "You queens of
the stage have your trials, of course,
but they are apt to be those resulting
from safety rather than starvation.
We seven got so that we hated the
sight Of each other only a degree less
than we abhorred the average Bear
Cityite cached in the other cabins.
Fling a dozen society swells into pig
sty and they will herd together; not be-
cause they weary of each other less,
but to avoid the pigs"
mo wonder she was popular" Satir-
iSoA CIh Oil
the personal pronoun. "How and when
did she arrive?"
I'm an old newspaper some fellow
unexpectedly fished from his chest.
There she was on the front page, photo
gravured to the life. Rare and radiant
she looked to us poor devils socially
starving under the north star. A Til
nook squaw from St. Michaels with her
hair done up in beads and fish oil would
have soothed our eyesight. Imagine
the effect this ravishing vision produced
upon our esthetic sensibilities, as we
tackled her up on the wall and wor-
SHIPPED. The golden calf of the Israel
ties was nothing by comparison.
Dear me! All this masculine
splutter over mere picture?" And
such is the divine perversity of the sex
that she seemed vaguely disappointed.
"Sure. But such picture! 1t grew
upon us as Botticelli Madonna is said
to permeate your very being if you
only look at it long enough. At least
that was the way came to feel"
"Yes?" Miss I.amar's lip curled; for
little as she professed to care for man
in the abstract it did not seem right
that man as an Individual should waste
his alteration on a picture, while the
real article abounded in other parts of
the globe.
"Yes," he blandly continued, II was
the seventh man, you know. That is,
[ came into our mess as number seven,
which, being considered lucky nu-
neral say!" he suddenly sat bolt
upright. "Are you at all supersti-
tious?"
"Of course, I am" She shuddered
sympathetically. eff you had been
No. 13 now"
Il think I should have given up
right there; but being the seventh
man, I said to myself: I will find
the original of this picture some fine
day."
"Aha!" with chilling accent, as if
to show that her interest in the
Belle of Bear City would relapse in
to Indifference if that aggravating
creature pushed herself beyond the
photogravure stage of existence.
II kept on saying it all winter" /"
continued Sterling, abstractedly.
Later on, when we struck it rich
and the others forgot, would go up
to her ladyship, after wash and
brush-up, and repeat my VOW. Then
the boys would satirically intimate
that our belle had made at least one
permanent mash"
AS Sterling enthused himself over
his words, Miss Lamar became iron
ically skeptical.
''This is good enough for play.
We must consult Fitch" Fitch was
her manager. "But when luck
evinced itself in a more solid way by
making you suddenly rich, suppose
her ladyship had to take gallery
seat"
''On the contrary, she became my
bright particular more than ever.
had named my claim Bear City
Bellies, No. - How the boys did
laugh. But when I began to sluics
out ten dollars to the pan, they said
No. Z was all right, and that the
Belle was no f1irt-"
Here Sterling, with side glance
at the actress, meditatively added:
81 have often wondered if they
were right
81 suppose you found that out long
ago, if there was an original to that
photo--or was it a newspaper? They
print anyone's picture nowadays;
literally anyone's. 1t is rather q dis
tinction to be let alone. Mine, you
ask? Look on the news stands.
Such caricatures!"
"Such divinities!" he interrupted
eagerly. II loved your picture long
before I saw you over the footlights,
Then I made myself known"
by prosecuting poor Fitch until
he had to do something to rid him
self of you."
"And now-am I not your slave?
Dear Gertrude, if l may call you SO;
have you not guessed my riddle
Where are your intuitions? You
know I love you deeply, devotedly-"
"Alas! Poor Belle of Bear City!'
1