The Savannah morning news., 1903-07-12

] u
/ and sweet and serious.
She walked directly by the bar into
! the dance hall. where she seated her
| self near the door and looked calmly
! about her. She was dressed entirely IN
white. Cheyenne Harry was leaning
/ over the bar talking attentively, so
/ that he was perhaps the only person
! in the room who did not see her come
| in. A dozen men at once surrounded
/ her and began to chat She answered
/ them good-humoredly enough, but in
| differently.
/ The door once more flew open and
/ Bismarck Anne; standing on the sill.
| cried out in her clear, high voice, We'll
/ boys," She paused a moment. Cheyenne
! Harry, turning at the sound of her
voice. remembered how, about a year
| ago, Molly Lafond had stood there in
/ Just that attitude But he felt great
/ difference.
| Cheyenne Harry had for some time,
/ as we have said, been growing little
| tired of his affair with Molly. The
mental ingredients of safety were all
| present. but he had as yet received no
| conscious notice of their existence. He
! imagined himself as much fascinated
as ever. If something lately had SEEM
! ed to lack. he had laid it to circum-
| stances and not at all to the state of
! his relations with the girl. But for all
| that, the safety had been real. He only
! needed to be told of it to realize it
himself very plainly. Bismarck Anne
| had told him.
| He saw now absolutely no attra ction
for himself in Molly Lafond, and that
without attempting to deny her intrin-
| sic attraction for others. He simply
| did not care for her any more. 1t SEEM
ed perhaps like a sudden revulsion, but
it was not SO really; it had been inevi-
table from the very first, and from
the very first it had been slowly ma
| turing. Not even the results were sud
den; only Cheyenne Harrys knowledge
of them.
He had always felt his relations with
| Molly Lafond as more or less restrict
i've, because the good is always so. He
had dimly caught the truth that, with
| out deep moral incentive, restriction
is always irksome; that although pure
love is the most ideal condition in the
world, it's stimulation is the most weari-
some after the novelty has worn off;
and all the rest of the long psychology
| zeal train of emotion and reasoning
| common to the trifier. But now for the
first time he. knew it. He knew it be-
cause, standing in the doorway, look
ing It elm with bold black eyes, was
the eXA,t opposite of all this, and he
recos1-iz,d a mighty relief.
dI - all in black. She had the taste
to appreciate the effect of one red
flower in her hair as her only orna-
| ment. She had the sense to wear her
dress cut neither too low above nor too
| high below. And so she was exceeding
ly handsome as she stood there the de-
| vii of excitement in her eyes
Cheyenne Harry abruptly ceased his
conversation with Lafond to shake
hands with her. They turned in COM
pany. Harry linked his arm through
| hers, and they entered the dance hall
close together, and took their seats in
a corner far removed from the rnusi-
clans, where they continued engaged in
such earnest conversation that none of
the men Ventured to approach them.
| After a time, when the music struck
up for the first dance, she seemed to
be commanding something to which
| Cheyenne Harry seemed to be object
ing. Then the latter arose slowly and
asked Molly Lafond to dance the first
dance with him. She accepted with
sharp pang at her heart. The newoom-
er had scored.
Owing to the scarcity of the gentler
sex, it had been decided that no one
set" was to be blessed with more than
one girl. Thus they would go around
better Molly, glancing across at her
| rival, saw that she was surrounded by
a laughing group of men. The woman
was joking broadly at each, wriggling
ner white shoulders, darling side
glances, half promising, half denying
In moment the group broke, and the
members of it rushed in her own direc-
ton. They were already quarrelling for
places in her set. The matter was ar
ranged somehow after much wrang-
ling. Then, too late. Molly saw that
the other woman had scored again
| lem vol no. i
her partner, but also the other six
members of the set. Thus she had made
seven men happy and none jealous.
| A Western dance is a sight worth
seeing. The musicians call off the fig
ures. The head fiddler does it until his
voice gives out Then the second fid-
dler and the accordion take try at it.,
after which further calling is unneces-
sary owing to the fact that most of the
dancers are very drunk. This comes to
pass because, at the end of each dance,
all are supposed to visit the bar. The
most heinous crime, next to horse
stealing or sluice robbing, is "shying
drinks" at such times. AS some men
can hold more than others this enforc-
ed equality of quantity consumed
brings about unexpected variation in
the hilarity of the consumers, all of
which adds to the variety of the oc-
casion.
The interims between drinks are oc-
cupied by square dances. The men go
through some set of monkey shines
which they call figures, the principal
object of which seems to be at once
the tripping up of such male and the
prolonged squeezing of such female
dancers as they may come into init
mate personal relations with on their
grand rounds, which is conducive to
hilarity of the loudmouthed variety
The exercise itself is rather violent,
; and as the room is low, lit by lamps,
and comparatively windowless. the air
soon becomes heavy with the reek of
The floor acquires a heaving motion
and the lights sway back and forth.
The homeliest of the dance-hall girls
somehow looks like a fairy through the
haze-a rather elusive fairy, with a
rather heavy unfairylike gait At this
period there is usually a good deal of
noise. Then all at once it is morning,
and somehow the scene has changed to
the ravine, and there is a tomato can
poking itself into the small of the
back.
Molly tripped gracefully and easily
through the figures of the opening
dance, seeming scarcely to touch the
floor. Bismarck Anne leaned heavily
on each man in the swing, and pressed
her bosom against his arm. Twice she
half slipped and caught by the Shout
der of her partner of the moment. and
her breath was hot against his throat
She said not one word the whole dance
!, through,