Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1906-03-16
SHATTERED DREAMS.

well, I've done Europe" remarked
the girl who had come into money
land Asia and Africa-and I've done
with them forever!"
WHAT" cried the other girl. 81
thought your enc desire was to keep
travelling for the rest of your life.
You said so when you came into"
20, don't remind me of what | said,"
exclaimed the other one, bitterly, land
don't remind me of my dead dreams
I'm wide awake now, anyhow"
Tell me all about it." urged the
other sympathetically.
"Of course | will. | am dying to sob
it out on somebody's shoulder. You
know how | used to dream and dream
of seeing Rome-and the Coliseum?
You remember how | used to plan
what | should do when old Uncle Will
liam should leave me my fortune? You
recOllect how | used to keep pictures
around my room of the Coliseum by
moonlight, and of the Sphinx and st.
Peters, and all of that? Well, | got
to Rome, and the moment | had I'M
mantically comfortable hotels | went
down to the clerk and inquired where
| could get a carriage to the Coliseum
and what do you think he said?'
Il don't know" replied the other in
an awed tone.
You'd better take a trolley, miss
That's what he said! Fancy! A troll
inHr min IN inn
When | had recovered from the shock
| comforted myself with the thought
that | might forget that trolley in the
joy of viewing that grand old ruin by
moonlight; so l did get on the clang-
ing thing and went in it,"
And was it beautiful by moon
Light"
| don't know, and | never shall
know. There was a great big arc light
hanging right in the middle of the
thing-and if there was any moonlight
you couldn't see a sign of it."
90" breathed the other, sadly.
But that wasn't the worst"
moaned the girl who had been to
Europe 81 got out of Rome as soon
as | could. l was afraid to go to st.
Peters, my dear for fear his holiness
should address the congregation
through a megaphone; so l hurried to
Venice. l had longed all my life to
ride in a gondOla on those ghost
haunted, moonlit canals. My soul had
sighed for the sound of a guitar tink
ling in the distance and the soft
splash of the oars in blue Venetian
waters. I wanted to float past Brown
ing's palace and the palaces of all
those dear old dead dukes and poets
and painters. 1t was with nerves
tingling with anticipation that | ar
rived in Venice-to be met by a
jaunty, putting. fiendish little steam
launch that carried me all around the
canals and past the palaces before |
had even time to think. much less to
dream, while a guide with a mega
phone told us all about it in a voice
that should have raised the royal dead
from their graves
But the Sphinx" pleaded the other
girl, surely they haven't mutilated
the Sphinx"
4 don't know" replied the Travelled
girl, YEARLY. by the time l had ar
rived in Egypt l had lost my appe-
tite for romance and l was perfectly
calm when they put me in a trolley
car bound for the Sphinx. And I
never even bothered to climb it, be-
cause the guide assured me that
could do that much more easily
year or so hence, when they had fin
ished building the electric elevator,
now being constructed in it,"
And Mecca" sighed the other hope
fully. Surely you went to Mecca
as you had planned?"
No" was the caustic rejoinder,
''our party decided not to go to Mecca
this time. They are building a steam
railway so that pilgrims to the tomb
may go quite comfortably in year
or So Won't that be delightful"
Il should have died!" groaned the
other.
so should fright then and there"
declared the disillusioned one, but
was afraid to. l was afraid somebody
would suggest that | ought to wait
until they finished an airship line to
heaven,"-Detroit Free Press.