Baxter Springs news. [volume] (Baxter Springs, Kan.) 1882-1919, 1905-11-02

experience was going to split him wide
open. Dad and I agreed that we
would keep that q secret. hut II he
has told about II, there is no use OF
my keeping still. We struck Athens.
and dad felt that here was a place
where he could boss the people around.
cause everybody seemed to be dressed
like ballet dancers; the men wore q
sort of starched pettlcoat. and they all
looked as though they we're lovesick,
and didn't do anything but pose to be
looked at, and we couldn't blame them,
for the women were the whitest and
handsomest we had seen anywhere,
with red cheeks. and great soulful eyes
like Americans. Yes, sir. everybody
in Athens seemed TO be In love, and
dad thought the men looked effeminate.
on account Of their clothes. but every
man is an athlete and q fighter from
the word go.
"Well, we went up on the hill to the
Acropolis. an old marble ruin that
overlooks the town. and dad paced on
the ground, to see how much terri
tory 1t covered, and figured up how
much good marble there was In 1t.
that could be used for gravestones,
and when some Of the policemen asked
me what the old man was doing l told
them he was o rich old party from
America that was going to buy the
Acropolis and move Il to the United
States and make It over into morgue,
and that he didn't care for expense,
for he was the richest man in the
world.
well, we looked things over, like
all tourists do, and we went to Mars
Hill, where Paul preached. and dad
read up on Paul, and offered to bet
that Paul could give cards and spades
to any preacher, and then peat him
preaching, and the next night we went
to the place where Socrates and Plato
taught school, and some Of the Greeks
had watched us pretty close, and just
after dark. as we were walking around,
q beautiful woman, like Greek statue,
rose up before us, with a white robe on,
and she went up to dad and claimed his
protection, as she was being pursued
by robbers. and she cuddled up to dad.
At first we thought she was ghost,
but when she touched dad, and chung
to him, he said she was warm all
right, and was no ghost, and he told
her not to worry, as she was under
the protection Of the American flag,
and he would stand by her till hades
froze over, and he put his left arm
around her and drew his revolver.
can remember the scene as though 1t
was last night, and how that Greek
woman chung to dad. and thanked him.
and she smiled a smile full Of teeth
and red lips, and then she locked out
into the moonlight and screamed:
There they come" and she tainted
in dads arms, and then we were sur
rounded by about a dozen Greek ban
dts. dressed in whits petticoats, and
with long crooked daggers, and one
fellow that seemed to be the chief.
put a crooked knife to dads throat,
and dad turned blue and said what
are you going to do, but they didn't
say anything, but took US to cave,
where the woman got over her faint
ing spell, and then they dressed dad
up in a white petticoat, and these long
socks such az ballet dancers wear, and
we all got on to small mules and start
ed for the mountains, and rode all
night.
Say, dad was a picture. The Greeks
are small men, and they look all right
in petticoats. but dad was so fat he
looked swelled up, and even the mule
noticed 1t, and the girl, who was on
the white mule, laughed at dad. and
she could talk English, and she told
dad that the bandits only wanted his