The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1903-02-21
THE OLD CLOWNS WIFE.

The lily that God gave the old clown
John Denier, died Monday-withered
and died just like the garden lilies
after the first kiss of winter.
But his song will be sweet and his
jest merry when he whirls on the stage
in night or so for the last time and
you are not going to know that his
old heart is broken 1t was his wife
that died. 1t was she who waited in
the old nights after thousands laughed
at his jests and applauded his songs
and ditties, and kissed him because he
was home with her again. The world
did not know her. The clown was all
they cried for, and now that she is
dead, old John, who held her beauti-
full head in his thin and wasted arms
! not long ago, just before the end says
that the world need not known that
| the death Of the lily has broken his
! heart
There is Viola, the rose that came
from the lily, and then there is old
Mrs. Fostick and himself, and their
tears will fall on the earth of the
new grave. and give life to the flowers
that will grow over the mound.
Perhaps that grave will be out on
the Ridge. close to where the old home
was before the storm which beat it
down to a waste. and perhaps some
day, after old John has hung up his
clowns suit forever and there is just
enough money to build the old home
up again, in the evenings when many
are telling the little ones how John
Denier made them laugh in the long
ago, the clown of yesterday will be
looking out across the Ridge to where
the mound is.
The little woman who was the old
clowns wife was sweet and kind, and
after John grew wrinkled and his voice
cracked and there was a hollow ring
in his laugh, she would hold his hand
just as tightly as she did in the time
when the circus men were calling for
John, because they wanted the world
to laugh for an hour or so every night.
That wealth of love drew the man out
of the clown, and John began training
young men. hardening their muscles
and developing their chest expansion,
and with each triumph the little wo-
man and sweet Viola would smile, and
that was better to old John than the
money and the praise of the scholars.
They made the old clown professor
of athletics in an uptown gymnasium,
and. aside from working hard with the
young men, he would get up enter !
tainments and he would go back into !
his old clown suit and sing and jest !!
for adjust to help the affair along, |
as he would say.
But the club lost favor. The doors |
were closed and the red flag of the (
was nailed before the place.
1t sent the old clown out into the
world a poor man, but there were his
wife and Viola and his sweet mother
n-law, Mrs. Fostick, and they were
willing to go out on the Ridge with
him, and he was ready to work all
over again and build them home.
So he talked and toiled. and when
he city park commissioners gave him
1 grant on the Ridge for his home,
IN the promise that he was going to
leyote his time to strengthening the
youths of the bayou, the old clown
started building. 1t was a labor of love,
md John never worried about the sun
Or the raw cold: he just went on build
ng, and when the doors were opened
lie led his wife and Viola and Mrs. Fos-
lex into the new home.
There were not many who knew that
he Deniers We're living in the house
n the Ridge until the morning of Dec.
last, when the storm came up and
,eat the boards down.
Pretty Viola heard the wild song of
he wind and managed to half drag
nd half carry Mrs. Fostick out of
he place and into the open, but be- .
ore the old clown and his wife could ;
ret out the wind cracked the house, {
,nd II tumDled down, the boards faIl-
ng upon the sleeperS. ,
Viola had had her arms built up by ,
Ter father and she used her strength
nd was pulling the boards away when ,
ome men came up and began helping :
Ter, and they took the elder Deniers :
ut of the wreck in an unconscious T.,
ondition.
They brought them to the hospital. :
ome thought that the old clown was /,
DING to die. but he heard that his
rife and child and Mrs. Fostick were |
live and he prayed that he would 1
we, too, and be with them again '
John did not known just I
here, but he wanted to be with them 9
He began mending, and not long ago !
e left the hospital. i
But the dear, good woman fingered a
ntil, three days before the New Year, a
he end came. The song of the rain S
gainst the window panes in the ward d
f the hospital was over, and the sun q
anne out and stole through the glass k
found her asleep. and only touched '
he silver of her hair with the caress e
eternity's promise c
And now the clay of the good little C
oman is waiting in the parlors of t
Schoen, on Elysian Fields Fl
venue, while Denier, now more than f,
yer, is waiting the cue that means h