The Cairo bulletin. (Cairo, Ill.) 1???-1928, 1907-10-13
WAS IT FATEp
A Romance of Roller
Skating.

, What brought about Runners weddlnf
or Shyly's or Sour's or little VII
lows? Roller skating.
Willow loved Vera. My, how he die
love that girl. He idoli2ed, worship
7 ed, adored her until 1t was almost
funny Not to Willow, but to others
Vera and paradise; no Vera, the othe;
! thing. That was how he felt about
it, though otherwise he seemed per
fectly rational.
With Willow the one question Of
the hour and all hours was how To
marry and eat three meals day on
SIS week. He passed hours gazing
though Vera had told him time and
time again that she would manage
ii all right
Vera was the slave of a grabbed old
uncle, her only relative, who needed
lots Of waiting on and some one to
abuse, Vera cost him less than
three dollars a week and never talked
| back, Vera talk back to uncle! Her
amateur performance would have
made a fine showing beside uncles
I professional nagging, he having been
! born with a gift for that sort OF thing
| Whenever Vera had beau uncle
| had convulsion Willow was pretty
| busy most of the time, covering his
! tracks, as he knew that excitement
was bad for uncle. They managed
things rather nicely SO that uncle's
weak heart would get no jots. Then
the rollerrink fever broke out.
Willow, a clever ice skater, had
very little TO learn. But Vera Hon
est, it looked as II she just never
would learn Willow presented her
with pair of skates. and she began
home practice, guided by Willows in
structions, and some printed rules. II
was easy enough. In fact, there was
very little to IT, See that the skates
are fastened securely, stand firmly, adj
vance right foot, throw full weight
upon II, bend well forward to get
send, and glide away" 1t sounded
easy, but it did not seem to work
In practice.
Vera never glided Instead she
would wave and wobble frantically
here and there and then .igzag help
lessly to the exact place she did not
want to go, There invariably was
nothing to grab, so down she would
go with such force that everything
in the room would jump, her skctes
always striking last. But she perse-
vered
At last there came a time when she
consented to attend masked carnival
at the roller rink. They wore hired
cheesecloth costumes In dinky
peasant dress Vera surely looked all
right to Willow
She was considerable of a girl, to
begin with. trimming with energy. Be
fore she knew it she had torn herself
from Willows bashful and respectful
hold and was whizzing across the
mammoth rink with power enough to
carry a loaded through freight four
miles uphill on wet day. She had |
lost all control of herself and that |
diabolcal momentum increased with |
every second.
At the opposite end of the rink, |
luffing up out of the distance and the |
disturbance he was causing, careened |
a huge, red, ungainly, masked Santa
Claus, whiskers streaming, his four
extremities doing everything but the
right ones. Plainly the man was de-
termined to cut some particular caper
that he had set mind on If he had to
kill everyone on the floor. Singles
and couples sprawled in his wake,
some able to sit up and send maledic-
tons after him, while others had only
life enough to wave a skate-laden foot
In useless protest. A trolley ear
would have been as sensible of at
tack
The rollers under WILLOW seemed
riveted to the floor with horror. He
saw that at point near the center of
the rink it was foredoomed that Santa
Claus and Vera should collide with
the impulsion got from new skates
well oiled, a floor that cost 81 900 to
sy and polish, a hundred and forty
pounds Of uncontrolled girl and nearly
twice that weight of man resolutely
sending himself in the direction he
was determined TO go.
AS in a dream, Willow heard an |
attendant say: Pal, you shouldn't of
showed your lady out that way when
I'D respin' and thrashin' machine is
)peratin' hisself. We don't dare say
/ word, for he is one of the main
'opes here. and can order US out OF
BUR jobs any time he likes Gee. II
ooks like we was goin' TO need a
DOCTOR or a hearse OF somethin'."
They struck with a frightful impact
Ind then fell apart and spun about.
One of Vera's skates came down on
Santa's head kerwhack. His wig and
beard had fallen of and. ere she
ainted, Vera saw that IL was uncle,
Talk about poetic Justice,
The attendant had almost to carry
Willow across the floor. He was near
y dead. and. oh. how he wished Uncle
vas also, Willows wishes never did
ONE true.
Uncle dead? Before the doctor got
here he was sitti.g up stanshir.g tie