The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1902-06-09
in SEARCH OF DRAMATIC
MANY PERSONS SEEK To MAKE
"GRAND-STAND- PLAYS.
Some Phases that Are Apparent In
Country TOwns-Things Seen at
the Hotel.

1.-The ether day l was over in Police Court
when Chin Hee's trial was being held.
They like a big fire or brutal murder,
surrounded with plenty Of sensational Incl
dent, for it gives them something TO talk
about. read about and think about. How
they love to see a building burn and watch
great tongues of flame licking the heavens.
They fairly go into raptures. It's ques-
ton If all this is healthy, but it is neverthe-
less true and commensurate with the aver
age sensibility
THE love of fires is what makes it posi-
BILE to organize volunteer fire departments
in small towns Go into a village and look
in the shed where the apparatus is kept
and you will find a gang sitting around,
waiting, watching and praying for a fire.
Ibid you ever notice." he continued, no
one ever has their head during fire? The
excitement and exultation renders them
temporarily insane. One time over in Day
ton, o.. I stood and watched hotel burn
and big negro came to the fourth-story
window and heaved out an extension
lounge. 1t opened out in midair, the wind
caught it and sailed it down the street like
a bird, for several hundred yards. He
came back to the window again, threw out
ming out of the entrance with a feather
pillow under each arm.
You will find this search after the dra-
matte particularly strong in country towns
where the fellows haven't anything to do
but lie around and play practical jokes on
each other.
Il came originally from an Indiana coun-
try town. AS small boy l was sort OF
side partner of the son of the hotel pro-
prietor We used to put in our time around
the office breathing secondhand tobacco
smoke, watching the checker games and
listening TO the old commercial men talk.
1t is one of these hotels that you enter by
an iron stairway in front. The office was
wainscoted with beaded flooring and
grained in imitation oak. On the floor were
widths of hemp mating with strips or
zinc fastened to the ends by copper riVets.
The floor and ceiling were kalsomined with
blue whitewash and you could always ten
where the wash stand stood in the room
above by the wet stain on the ceiling. The
clerks desk was covered with lnk-Dlotted
carpet. On one end was small glass case
filled with boxes of smooth, yellow. cigars.
In one of the empty boxes, dirty with
fngermarks the cigar money and postage
stamps We're kept. The door jambs were
SCARED from trunks dragged in and out and
the whole place smelt like an attic.
HEAVIEST GIRLS.
Presiding over the dining room were
lot of heavy-set girls who walked on their
heels as they carried trays in and out of
the swinging doors that led to the kitchen.
At breakfast one of these would stub up
to a guests ear and ask sharply: Howwill-
drummer once told her that he would have
his blind in one eye
Excuse me" said the preacher, II have
been telling so much about the old hotel
that l forgot where l left Off oh, yes, it
was how children seek the dramatic. AS
/ /
boy whose father kept the hotel. He had
grandmother over seventy years old, who
had long ago retired from the duties COM
monty imposed on the women OF hotel
keepers family. She was one of the early
settlers of Indiana and full of fine remi-
niscences of pioneer life. Here is a story
she used TO tell on stormy nights, sitting
in an armchair before the fire, with the
children gathered around her. She gave
it in the monotone OF a low-pitched voice
almost bass.
This rainy night, with the wind a
howlin' an moanin' in round the chimley,
reminds me a thing what happened in this
house many year ago The settlement
wuzn't more'n a baby in them days. an
mighty little one at that. There wuzn't
nothin' but four er five houses, general
store what yer grandfather kept. the
blackSmith'S shop, saw an girls mill, an
the wagon road runnin' through what wuz
used by the movers that wuZ goin in them
days from Pennsylvania to the Illinoi.
There bein so many o these what wanted
accommodation from them that had houses
an not bein' able to get it. they wuz
obleeged to camp out, so yer grandfather
built part o this hotel.
I'VE had it done year er more when
there wuz talk o. the railroad comm
through. an the house wuz just full of
surveyors. 1t wuz one stormy night list
like this 1t had been rainin' fer three
days and nights stiddy, an the wind blew
so hard that every jint in the house
creaked. an it sighed an moaned around
the chimbley till you would thought it
wuZ hanted
Yer grandfather an me had gone to
bed. but wuzn't to sleep yet when we heard
the sounds OF wheels an the splashin o.
horses hoofs in the water along the road.
Yer grandfather seq to me that 1T wuz
rather bad night to be out, an had no
more'n got the words out when we heard
ii stop an a voice hollered. out in a low,
muffied tone like it wuz a comm through
stovepipe Hello, the house." two or three
times before yer grandfather could git the
winder open to answer. AS the house
fun an OWN to the railroad comm
through that way there wuz so many hard
customers hangin' around and the night
so bad, l wuZ almost afraid to have yer
grandfather go out, but he said he wouldn't
let nobody stay out night like that wuz
eff he had to put him in the haymow.
When he went out he found an old tinker,
an he wuz so drunk that he had to be
lifted down out o. the wagon. Yer grand
father put his rig in the barn, helped him
up stairs, give him shake down on the
floor O. the garnet. pulled off his wet
clothes an left him.
THE ABSENT TINKER.
1.-The next morning the tinker didn't
come down to breakfast; he didn't come
down TO dinner-facts is we forgot about
him till yer grandfather happened TO go out
in the barn long towards the middle O. the
afternoon an saw his rig standin' there,
and then he went in the garnet to see
what had come o. the tinker. He hadn't
more'n got up there when 1 heard yer
grandfather give an awful yell like a saw
age an come a-running down the stairs
two steps at time. | run to him, thinkin'
he had been murdered, and asked him what
the matter wuZ, an he SEE, with all awful
look in his eye, a tremblin' in every muscle,
an gaspin' for breath: go up and see'
and the sight that met our eyes will be
with me TILL my dyin' day The tinker's
skeleton was layin' on the shake-down an
his bones wuz licked clean till they wuz
bleached. as white as pearl an the rats
had ct him.
we all started to lookin' around, but
they wuznt a rat to be found. Finally /
thought o some barresS over in corner
what had the extra feathers fer the beds
in en- and we went down an heated great
soap kettles full of boiling water an car
ried ii up and poured it on the feathers.
an that day we scalded upwards o 300 rats
er more.
Eyer grandfather went through every
thing, tryin 10 find out who he wuz or
where he lived, but couldn't. We kept all
his belongings, thinkin somebody might
come an prove a claim, but they never
did. The rig we kept till the boss died
o. old age and the wagon wore out-that's
where your uncle got that fine fiddle, the
one with the old mans face with long
whiskers on the head an a picture OF a