Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-03-11
CHAPTER XII.


who would not have given time to mere
political event The teams We're early on
the roads. and before 10 o'clock great
clouds Of dust on all convergng ways indl-
Gated that residents of the commonwealth
living at considerable distances had Start
ed mighty early, determined they nave
a time"
Perhaps the busiest woman on earth was
Betsey Bobbn. She had had the mothers
of the babies who were to enter In her
great and unique contest rendezvous at the
Cooper house. and that staid and ordinarily
somewhat commouplace-looking establish
ment early presented an appearance Wmch
had never before been paralleled in New
Jersey or any other state. There were ba-
bies of all kinds, and they were every
where. .
They are even as the sands of the sea-
said Selkirk, quite aEhast. when he dropped
in to get some points about them Tor later
publication in his paper.
He fell over infant on the doorstep
trod on another's toe as he attempted I"
recover his equilibrium, pushed young
ster down in whirling to get off the tehdei
member, and almost sat upon 1ourth
through weakness resulting from astollsI ,
ment at the presence of so many ana sucii
yaria tons But the sands of the sea are
noiscless, despite the well-beloved man VINO
charges the harbor bar in rhyme with
moanmg-and these babies We're not, so ihe
analogy applied to numbers only.
This settles Musser!' Kissed Betsey, III
an effort to make whisper in Selkirk ear
above the din, for I'm going to make MIN
judge
Then she dashed away to separate two
mothers. each of whom accused the other )
little boy of having struck the hrst oioW III
an interesting fight
When this collection of infants reacheu
the picnic grounds. it was housed IN a
great tent which Cooper had OBTAINED
especially from Philadelphia. There each
infant as 1t entered. was weighed meas
ured and tagged with a ticket bearing
these and other details.
But the babes were only one feature OF
the show which Cooper had arranged lor
the benefit of the voters of New Jersey
their sweethearts, wives and progeny Inc
dry beach below the cliff was broad ana
fine and high tide had already passed SO,
without delay. young and old united IN that
part of the celebration which Wouiu nave
come anyway with Salt water Gay Wy
half of the cOncourse had come prepared
for this part of the entertainment anu
Cooper had not failed to see TO II tladt
copious shelter had been prepared ioI
privacy in changing clothes ba'lnhs SUI ~
were nondescrpt and ranged from the
.boughten' garments to old, cut-of1 over
aIls for men and calico wrappers, win theii
bottom hens weighted with bits OF leau
for the girls and women ne ",ttei -, 20
that river had probably never laVed d iIoie
biIariOus crowd of young and old thitn dap-
bled in them during the next two houfs'
At high noon the aquatic sports We're an
pOnncpi. ana upon the DtttIiA ar" ~
contiguous brine score of country youths
disDorted in trials of speed and endurance
fancy swimming and other wet accom-
pIishments. Cooper sprung ms hrst SUI
prise by giving to Frank Bernard, VIM Ia
carried off the honors, as handsome a pain
inc s1it as could be bought IN Phiiddei-
nina. The crowd cheered at TINS, LOT prizes
were unexpected and the enthusiasm uou
bled when Cooper added, win us usu o
drawing twang exaggerated Tor the occa-
sion: -, ala
But it seems TO me that you all dld
nrettv well and so l reckon that ! d better
pass out some other prizes that l jest nap
pen to have on hand
Then he handed a similar PACKET 10 eNelS
other contestant. ~,
The only difference between me sur ~
givin to the winner and them nj gym
to the BOYS who tried to win and dldn L.
he continued lis in the color. HIS is Dlue
because blue ribbon somehow, means d
winner and the other boys is blue because
the color makes so gooa 49, nla 'n - N'"
they feel because they didn VIII
II was at first supposed tby the cooper
marty as we'll as all the othersl that this
concluded the aquatic sports, out Wh44e tle
crowd was cheering and about to leave the
bluff a shout went up as a queer niue HE
1,re shot across the beach. 1t might nave
been mistaken for Aunt Betsey oopplh III
miniature from the waist up for II wore an
uurer garment which the whole Vlliage hau
often seen upon the dressmaker. Also IT'S
head was topped by a bonnet or Aunt be'-
sev's which had become familiar to the
ne!ghborhood during the last two years
and had been cast aside finally only the Gay
before when she had tied beneath her chln
the ample strings of the bonnet which she
had made especially for this occasion. put
from the waist down there was no SIlh'idl-
ity between the flying little figure and that
of the baby shows BRISK patroness so 1ar
as anybody there present knew Beneath
the short and Topping frill which formed
the lower boundary Of the waist pair OF
ING ipyhT
PEELED attention, and under these there
waved two skinny but extremely active
little legs. embarrassingly bare
"Jerushy Jane Bobbs Porter.s second SIS
ter's husbands ghost" gasped Betsey Bob
bin. as she watched the apparition. IF that
Billy amt limb she snorted. He beg
bed me for them things he's got on yester-
day, and l thought he planned to give EN-
20 the poor
Such a roar had rarely risen from Jer-
sey cliff as went up from the multitude
when the little imp plunged splashing into
the water and began such aquatic tricks as
only the New York urchin trained in SWIM
ming parties diving from the harbor docks,
can dream of. His first performance was
running somersault begun just as he had
reached the water and ended as he struck
the sea I'm sitting posture with a slap that
must have Jared his liver. The spectacle
of Aunt Betsey's well-known garments
clothing a figure busy at such startling eVo-
lutions filed all those Jersey folk with
strong that Aunt Betsey blushed vivid
red as the bare legs flew in circles through
the sprayful air She almost felt as II they
were her own maiden and hidden limbs
which cut the caper. and that the same
thought came to other minds was shown by
the number of laughter-reddened faces,
male and female. that turned toward her as
the generous exhibition of the small boys
flesh was hidden from them by the rivers
foam.
She saw the joke and laughed at 1t con-
vulsively, she covered her flaming face with
apron she covered her flaming face with
her two hands and rocked there in the cliff
in spasms. Howls of JOY gushed from the
men in jerky choruses, and nearly every
woman there and girl old enough to under
stand the sacredness of female loneliness
blushed with Betsey and then gurgled in
mirth quite irrepressible. Billy used all his
fun-provoking antics near at hand, and
then, swimming slowly out, he produced
the strange impression on the crowd that
Aunt Betsey Bobbin had started by the
water route for France. He swan until
he was almost out of sight. and then. tear
ing the dressmaker's bonnet from his head
and waving II in answer to wild cheers he
dfved and disappeared No more seen
of him until. in half an hour. he turned up
again amid the crowd, clothed properly and
seemingly quite unconscious that anything
unusual had occurred.
Now" said Cooper. as the crowd
h-nl ord he hl,,ff Cd.