The Tupelo journal., 1906-12-14
COURTS VOICE IN PHoNocRAPH
THEN TREES TRIcKsTERs.
JOKE TURNED ON JoKERs
Plan to Scare Newly-Married Couple
Goes Wrong and Proves a Boom.
erang-chuckies Are
Changed.

Slab City, Wit is generally be-
lieved hereabouts that the next time
Albert Pratt INDUCES in practical
jokes he will not daily with a phono-
graph az a mean to his ends.
Bert, as he is known among friends.
is to Slab City what Byron G. Hughes
is to New York, and many a towns
man has smarted because of the tricks
he has put up on him. These Jokes
have been harmless in the main. but
now and then Pratt has perpetrated
one which developed serious conse-
quences. Not so many years ago he
dressed up as a ghost and scared old
Elder Cummings SO badly that he
jumped into a well, where he nearly
drowned before he was rescued by the
joker and a hired man On a later oc-
casion he surreptitiously placed ipe-
cac in pumpkin pies served at a
| church social and gave all the local
| doctors a busy half hour.
But these efforts lacked novelty and
when Bert made his first trip to New
| York on the fall excursion he kept an
| eye open for ideas. He was in a par
ticularly receptive frame of mind one
afternoon when he stopped in front OF
a Broadway shop where a tempting
array of cameras, sporting goods and
| monographs we're exhibited. Within,
a salesman was explaining the work
ings of a talking machine to a pros
| pective customer. At that moment
the l~onged-for idea flashed into Bert's
mind.
II don't suppose we've got one O.
them contrivances thatll boot like an
owl, have YER he inquired of the
salesman.
well, no, I don't believe we have"
gasped the astonished clerk, "but
we've got a fine record Of a bears
howls."
"Sho, we don't say!" exclaimed Bert,
%manlfesting great delight. NOW, come
to think ont, l figger thatTl fill the bill
better'n an owl-that is, if it's a real,
genewine bar holler."
Its genuine all right" laughed the
salesman. "The company sent a man
up to the Bronx Zoo last spring when
the animals were pairing off and he
got a fine record of a disappointed she
bear. I'll just try it out for you and
maybe you'll recognize some of the
blood-curdling love notes."
Bert fairly quivered from sheer de-
light when, a moment later, the wax
! cylinder began to revolve and fierce
wailings came belching through the
funnel of the machine. It was the
most realistic thing in the way of
making bear calls he had ever heard
outside the forest at home, and when
the instrument had been explained to
him he paid the price and logged the
precious burden to his lodging house,
where he took into his. confidence
Shorty" Stebbins, a bosom friend and
companion on the trip.
1t so happened Fatty" Bates, a pal
of both, was to be married shortly
after their return to Miss Becky Mann,
the village belle, and it was an open
secret that FATTY" was in mortal fear
that Bert would play some unholy joke
at his wedding. 1t also happened that
roaming the mountain at the foot of
which young Bates was to begin house
keeping with his BRIDE in a modest
cottage was an ugly old bear, known
as Sly, because no one had been able
to capture him.
For some reason unknown to man,
but perfectly familiar to bears, Sly had
been ostracized by his kind and had
spent the summer bowling dismally
for a mate.
"Becky's turrlble afraid of that ERE
bar explained Bert in telling
Shorty" of his plan. AN Fatty amt
overanxious to meet him, for he hain't
got a gun, so what we're goin' to doll
be easy. Well just take this ere ma