Omaha daily bee., 1906-12-30
MISSOURI TAKES THE PRIZE
A Fish story Ornnmented With DIa-
mOnd-studded set of False
Teeth.

IT go fishing about once every year."
began the man from Memphis sometimes
on the St. Francis, sometimes at Reelfoot
lake, sometimes / go to Michigan, but
every once in a while I like to get up
in the Ozark country, in Missouri, and
fish in the beautiful clear streams of that
lovely region. Some years ago I Joined a
st. Louis party and went for two weeks
camping trip on the Gasconade. 1t was a
mixed crowdAmen and women, some solid
business men like myself, and some IN
clined to be rather sporty, though all were
eminently respectable. One of the party
was a woman of rather uncertain age, but
kittenish. She was great on clothes and
jewelry; had a leaning toward the stage,
and was steady patron Of the race
tracks. One day She made a haul on a
4o-to-1 shot, and, being pretty well loaded
with diamonds in the ordinary way she
took a notion to follow the lead of an
actress she was daffy about, and have one
set in her teeth She was rather short
on the natural articles, but she had a
pretty gool plate filled with molars and
bicuspids, etc. so she bought good-sized
sparkler and turned 1t and the plate over
| to her dentist while she went into retreat
| for a few days
"Well nobody could deny the fac that
she had a dazzling smile, but to a plain
man like myself 1t was rather disconcert-
| ing at first. However, you got used to II
after you'd been n her company a while
| for she kept the diamond exposed pretty
much all the time.
"It was a gay party, all right and we
had a mighty pleasant trip, but one day
| the lady under consideration was leaning
! idly over the edge of boat gazing into
the crystal waters of a deep pool when
another boat, run by an unlicensed en-
gineer in our party, butted into hers.
with a gasp and a blood-curdlng scream
that dislocated her upper maxillartes, she
| tumbled over into the water, and when
they fished her out she had lost much
Of the freshness of youth, and there was
a lack of plumpness about the mouth
that made her look like she was in the
last stage of consumption.
"She had 10 admit her loss but she was
so knocked out by the shock that she took
the first train back to st. Louis and left
us to search for the diamond. We did
our level best, you may be sure, for a
500 diamond is worth going TO some
! trouble about without considering the
matter of teeth; but we couldn't find G
trace of It, and after whole week spent
in the neighborhood. we returned to oul
homes. The lady got her another plate
and was soon as plump and rosy as be
fore.
ut was a year after this and all of vi
had forgotten the incident, when a fish
cleaner at one OF the stalls in Union Mar
ket at st. Louis picked up a big rec
horse, a fish that IL quite common II
Missouri waters, and was cutting It opeI
when his knife struck something hard
He dug around carefully. and when H.
brought the hard thing to light he nearl!
fell over In a fit, for II was the missing
plate OF teeth set with the diamond, still
intact. OF course. the story got out AM
into the newspapers. together with al
elaborate account of the loss on the Gas
conade and the lady was so mortite'
that as soon as she got. her diamond
back, which she did after paying a goo
round price for 1t, she went to New York
It was altogether a lucky thing fer heI
though, for the advertisement she got GU
of the business helped her to irst-roN
place I'm the chorus OF comic opera com
pany, and she's still circling round tn
country showing her teeth to delighte
audiences. st Louis Globe Democrat.