The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1905-10-14
HIS VISIT TO his HOME TOWN.

spend vacation sometimes smashes
the visitors reputation in a way he
does not deserve" said a returned
New Yorker, whose contact with the
inland winds of August had given him
aSdeeper bronze than he could have
obtained at the seashore. "That's
what has happened to me.
'I went, back to where I grew up,
after an absence of twenty-five years.
The morning of my arrival was met
By one of my quondam cronies.
| EsWe were bit shy of each other
affrst.' He adroitly remarked that
must be weary after three days of
| travel. I reckon / looked it. By
that time we had reached the old
city hotel on the square and turned
ins
Diplomatically my friend led the
sway to what we used to call the trough
and when we stood before the old
counter again I said it seemed odd to
be there without Judge Blank.
"sHe hasn't been here for several
years, was the reply.
'Reformed?' I inquired, guard
edly.
Well, he hadn't been here quite
SO frequent as formerly up to within
few months of-of course, you
know be is dead?'
"That was news to me. After a
few questions and answers I lifted my
glass and said:
Let as drink to his memory
"'Hello 7 said my friend, here
comes some one you knew long time
ago.
I turned and grasped the hand
of an old chum. Then there were
more "reminiscences, in which / asked
about his brother Billy.
Poor Billy 7 he replied, You
didn't know? Yes; he went to
Montana six years ago. He never
came back. Fact is he was sick
man when he left home. Never got
we'll.
"We had in the meantime filled
again, and as Billy was a favorite in
the old days / proposed a toast to
him, which was drunk in silence.
ut was getting to be good deal
lodge of sorrow and I turned to the
barkeeper and asked what had become
of Falstaff. That was the village
name for the jolly old soul who was
the boss mixer and dispenser Of the
city hotel when the town was full of
bloods.
'''Ain't been here since go, was
the reply. You know he was
great hunter. Bear was his particu-
lar game. That was his finish. He
was taken for one on his last hunt
and shot by friend. He died afore
they found out the difference
mo man in the business had more
friends than Falstaff. He knew his
place and he was square. | said
something of the sort as we stood
against the bar.
/" This place was closed up on the
day of his funeral, if that's any sign
of how he stood in the public estima-
ton, said the barkeeper, as he rims
ed the glasses, preparatory to anoth-
er round.
"'That was certainly tribute to
Falstaf's popularity, I said. And
knowing the old town as I did, Ispoke
truthfully. Come, boys I added,
let us drink to the memory of dear
old Falstaff.
II was glad when my friend sug-
gested that we move out. AS we
crossed the square I looked up a
stairway and said that it seemed in
viting. 1t was the way to my old
Office. 1 remember the last time l
came out of the place as was leav-
ing the old town.
"'What became of my successor
asked, as I paused before the en-
trance.
"'Killed in the Spanish-American
war thought you knew about that. ;
''I had not heard of it. Just theu
we met Doc as we called the town
uggist-the Oldest one in the place.
If you had ever lived in small town
you know that the druggist there has
more friends than anybody, especially
if he is one of the boys. We visited
Doc place.
"After 1 had looked about I COM
plimented him on his new prescrip-
tion case.
eyes, the case is new, he replied,
but the old bottle and the pitcher of
syrup on the shelf are just the same.
There isn't as much sickness in town
as when you were here-but you don't
look real healthy
"That was enough. We followed
Doc behind the case, and the old
club, or the remainder of it, stood
there as it did in other days when
Docs was the only place in town that
was open.
"While we were there everybody
of our crowd who was not dead, or
who had not moved away, came in,
each buying something up front, af-
ter which Doc called out for the Gus
toner to come back, and greetings
and outlaws were renewed.
II remember that my friend who
met me first went to the telephone and
called up his wife. I remember that
he said something to his wife about
receiving a wire from me, and that |
would not arrive until the next day,
and that he was unavoidably detain-
ed at his Office. The telephone in the
small town is just as handy as it is IN
the city.
IT remember that Doc invited me
to be his guest that night in the
old room upstairs. Doc was still a
bachelor and the room was furnished
right up to date and I was his real
guest.
81 remained in the old town ten
days. l was more careful and more
circumspect than on the night OF my