The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1905-06-03
THE KISS AND THE TRAMP.

both beautiful and rich-was saved
dressed and presumably evil smelling
tramp, she was properly grateful and,
drawing forth her silken purse, said
sweetly, take this my brave man in
recognition of your gallant deed
or some equally appropriate senti-
ment of the newly saved to an humble
rescuer.
But the tramp, brushing the dust
from his whiskers removing the cigar
stump still clenched in his mouth after
his tussle with the frightened horse,
took off his dilapidated felt hat, made
a sweeping bow, and in a verse or
poetry of which Miss Farley can re-
member nothing save that it had
something to do with Her eyes like
stars shine through the twilight OF
my SOUL" refused the money and de-
clared that the only reward he coula
possibly accept would be a kiss from
those ruby-duby lips.
Whereupon Miss Farley brushed her
wealth of sunshiny hair from out her
starry Wary eyes, and pursuing her
lips received the chaste salute OF her
GaIlihad in rags and felt against her
damask cheek the prickle of his
speary-wery beard!
And all this happened in Philadel-
phia, where nothing is ever supposed
to happen, and in the Park, and was
printed in the dispatches. And later
there was a storm of protest from the
editorial sanctums that, drying up in
the dust of tariff discussions, have
lost the sentiment of romance. From
these criticisms, Miss Farley vigorous
ly defends herself. Are maidens of
the goth century better than those of
the long ago, when men like ships or
armor plate contested for a lady's
gage? Nay said Miss Farley, clasp
ing her iamony-wimony hands and
up-throwing her newly-lit meteoric
optics, R-romance still lives!
az offered him money" she says
because he seemed to be in need of it.
| consider it an act of gallantry on
his part to have refused the money
and to have asked for kiss. When
ever the knights of old helped a lady
in any manner they demanded a kiss
or some token from the lady for the
deed they had performed in her be-
half.
"A kiss was considered a proper re-
ward for the brave knight of old.
If the tramp who saved my life had
accepted the money | am sure there
would have crept into my thoughts
that he had only a mercenary object
in view when he risked his own life
to save mine.
But when he spurned my silver
and asked only a kiss | could not but
think that it was gallantry of the
true type, even if it did come from the
heart Of a man in rags and tatters.
81 am sure that there are many
men in the higher society who would
have hesitated to stop my horse in it's
mad rush.
There seemed to be a streak of the
romantic in my reScuer for his re-
quest for a kiss was clothed in verse.
| cannot remember all of the poetry
he quoted. One thing / remember
was, Her eyes like stars shine
through the twilight of my SOUL"
In spite of which, this thing does
not somehow seem just right don't
you know. We can understand Miss
Farley, but not the tramp. Miss Far
ley's language reads like tale of the
middle ages. She talks of tokens
and silver that was "spurned" and
"mercenary" motives. Miss Farley is
quite too too-too to be counted on, but
what of the tramp? What part did
the evident Quixoticism of the damsel
play in his description? Miss Farley
was just evidently aching to be u
heroine. Was her reScuer really a
tramp, or was he some Yale student
in disguise doing a summer stunt for
the last spring hop? We venture
there was something wrong about his
trampshiD on several counts. Who
ever heard of weary Willy going to
any such lengths before. either of
sentiment or haste? We are told that
he rushed out and grabbed the horse,
was cyclonic in his activities in fact
1t is a wonder that his heart did not
utterly fail to beat after the eXertion,
rather than to quicken to poetry
about starry eyes and ruby lips! The
whole affair-if he was really a
tramp-is inexplicable save on the
one base hypothesis that he was too
drunk to think of future beers, which
the silken purse might have pro-
vided him. But at any rate, we have
the comfort of Miss Farley and the
kiss she gave. She at least has pluck
ed the heart of sentiment, is a shivery-
wivery daughter of 'chivalry-right!
And, after all, he may have been a
tramp. And as he gazed into those
twinkle-winklely eyes they may in fact
have acted like radium on the black
ness of his soul, so that he was
changed man-who knows? And
under the rags of his heaving bussom
his manly heart, ennobled by lo-ove,
may have already started to the
heavens of ambition to wrap close
those starry eyes for ever more.
There may be wedding to happen
in Philadelphia yet!
The manufacturers of textile ma
chinery are organizing a trust That