The daily palladium. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1904-1905, 1904-05-30
When Binning
Did the Elegant
BY w. BERT FOSTER
...Copyrigk (, 1908, by T. C. Mcclure.
BY w. BERT FOSTER

Binnlng, with Il beautiful smile on his
face and applauding harder than the
uSherS.
l turned upon him when the curtain
went down and said GROSSLY, Did you
ever see such rot?'
"Is it? l didn't notice." he replied,
still smiling. "Fact was l was think |
ing of the first time ever came to this
old ranch. And, oddly enough, sat in
this very seat. My goodness, how time
does fiy"' he added, with the air of a
man discovering a heretofore unknown |
fact.
"Tempus certainly fugits," l re-
marked, settling back to hear. But go
en- with the tale.''
"Ah, and it is a tale-a tale of VICE."
he returned. "It happened a good bit
ago, too; not long after | came down
here to the city, believing in my green
ness that l could cut swath in law
that would lay over anything l could
do in the plow making line.
dad got me a chance with good
firm and then paid no further attention
to mechanical attention, l mean. I
was as lonely as strange cat at first.
in the office introduced me to rather
nice family up town.
"There were three girls in the fam
lily. and as l had hardly spoken to a
girl since leaving home CHS introduce
ton seemed a godsend to me. But
I've wondered since if my fellow clerk
did not introduce me simply to make
his own escape from matrimonial tolls
the easier. AS my visits increased his
decreased
cit came to me finally that could
not continue to accept the hospitality
they showed me without in some way
returning it. l couldn't invite one of
the girls out without taking the moth
err along. and in that case it would
have been equal to declaration of
love in the eyes of the family Ger
mans are mighty careful that way.
80 it was up to me to treat every
body alike. And l was determined
to do the elegant. I invited the bunch,
daughters and mamma and papa, to
! go to the theater; bought six seats
right in this very row.
ut pretty nearly cleaned me out.
Six dollars was two-thrds Of week s
salary, and after mentally figuring it
self after the show and let my guests
go home alone. l could not afford
even another round Of car fares.
''Well, we rustled into our seats like
q flock Of pigeons, papa at one end
and myself here on the aisle. After
the first two or three numbers on the
programme the walters got extremely
busy. To tell you the truth, I had
not taken into consideration the fact
that liquid refreshments were served
but I figured that l could stand one
round for the crowd, even if l had tC
,, walk from the office to my lodgings
, several evenings to pay for it.
,, $50 1 suggested a drink to the CIR
next to me. She took me up will
positively frightful alacrity and pass
ed on the proposition to the others.
turned to beckon the waiter, intending
:, to order six of those foaming glasse:
4 in an offhand manner. bound to i'm
press the observer with the fact tina
I was the real thing.
"'Oh, Mr. Binning.' said the daugh
ter next to me, I think I'll take {
n lemonade"
n "'And so will l. Mr. Binning,' sait
the second sister. The third and mann
ma followed suit. Whew! In thos
n few seconds my collar wilted.
even the old man, evidently con
sidering that would be offended if h
ordered beer, asked for something il
the line of mixed poison that l knew
hn,l
the waiter, with increasing affability
looked at me.
-, cts a terrible thing to be a coward
n Jack / wanted to blurt out, No
I, II with my money!! But l didn't dare
n so | ordered the same mysterious drin
Ii that the old man had spoken for an
saw the waiter hurry away with
feeling that he might as we'll brin
the house officer back with him whe
he returned with the refreshments.
''ThOse six drinks would amount
$3.50 and l had just rs cents in m
-, pocket.
m 'All the impossible means Of ge
LII ting out of the ENHANCEMENT race
IS through my mind. l couldn't even sc
- what was going on upon the stag
The falling of the curtain and burs
of applause reused me.
"That waiter would be back 500
But there would be rather long wa
u between the last and the next act.
must get away where l could thin
My guests were chattering about tt
show, and l broke in on them.
"'Do you know what I've done?'
said to them with an air of cando
"a ~ I've forgotten my keys, and my Ian
lily lady locks up at II o'clock sharp.
- "'While this wait is on I'll run ov
90 to the house and get them-it's lucki
10 only few blocks away. She's a pc
perry tempered old lady. and if shou
,;,,ry hor mn lot o ha MIGHT mt mo n