The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1906-03-02

would be free to all, including cross
eyed men. This put some life into
them. and they tagged on behind. I
opened the show by exhibiting a pic
ture OF the beef trust raising the price
Of liver 400 per cent. Wherever else
this picture has been exhibited it has
been greeted with dismal groans as
showing the feelings Of the masses, but
in this instance a man stood up and
swung his hat and shouted:
"Hurrah for the beef trusti Long
may it wave! Let's have another 400
per cent raise!"
He was cheered for Ave minutes, dur
ing which time several products OF the
vegetable kingdom were thrown my
way. I then followed with a picture of
Washington crossing the Delaware.
When this spirited picture was exhib-
tied In the town OF Come Oh over 100
free American citizens sprang to their
feet n cheered until Eve lengths Of
stovepipe fell Gathering to the floor.
During the excitement that followed
some n picked my pocket Of 81, but
I did not lay 1t up against him. I long
ago discovered that when an American
citizens patriotism is appealed to he'll
do most anything TO show his desire to
die for his country.
In this instance the picture did not
receive n SINCE cheer. though I kept
it in front OF tie audience for five min
utes. When my looks expressed the as
toni5hment I felt the mayor got up and
said:
Move him along. G.. Wash. Is a
back number. Give US something up to
date"
did. | gave them the picture of the
congressman found guilty on two trials
of stealing government land O a
hundred miles from their town and
was about to deliver q" brief lecture on
the enOrmity Of his offense when the
crowd rose up and began to cheer and
hurrah. They said the congressman
was a bully boy with a glass eye and
that they would sign a petition for his
pardon. I choked off my remarks and
exhibited a picture of. an orphan girl
starving on the streets Of New York.
Not M sympathetic sigh did I hear
from the audience. I showed the same
girl dead on the sidewalk, and several
persons broke into laughter. I showed
her entering the gates of heaven after
her trials here on earth, and the mayor
rose up and said:
"This ere show seems to be a good
deal Of a fraud, and if it don't i'm
prove I shall treat it as a fraud"
I then exhibited a picture Of a trust
buying up all the butter, eggs and
vegetables In the country and holding
them for a raise, while workingmen
and their wives and children were eat
ing burdocks to keep life in them.
Wherever that picture has been ex-
hibited it has been received with the
widest enthusiasm, and in two cases
men have gone out of the halls with
shotguns to pepper members of the
trust, and here it was a dead failure.
Nobody cheered and nobody groaned.
After a painful period of silence a red
headed man arose and said he had a
duty to perform. It was a duty he
owed to himself, to his town and to the
country at large.
Whlle l was wondering what he was
getting at he came over and hit me a
swat on the jaw that rendered me I'M
conscious. When I recovered I was be-
ing escorted out of town by a band Of
hilarious citizens, and before turning
back they made it plain that if I ever
entered the town of Get-Away-Quick
again 1 might lose my valuable life.
Upon casting up the damages I found
they had injured me to the extent of
$50, to say nothing of the humiliation
to my feelings. I vas cast down for
an hour or two, but finally charged it
up to profit and loss, and the songs Of
gladness came back to my soul again.
A pilgrim is M Of the fellers you can't
keep on the grass long. NJ. QUAD.