The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1907-06-09
DOPFS Ills hat TO LAUNDRIES
NEATNESS ONCE SAVED HARRY
WILLIAMS FROM DEATH.
Il Was When the Song Writer Was an Aero
hat In q Circus Miners Accused Him
OF Killing One OF Their Number and
Wanted TO Lynch Hlm-The Rescue.

There's a man in this town who every
time he walks by a laundry takes OF his
hat to 1t. The other night he explained
to some friends why he did it.
The man is Harry Williams. He is the
rather unusual young fellow of 20 who
writes the words for the music Of the songs
composed ny Egberu Van AlstytIe. both
Of these young men-Van Alstyne is 2S-
made early beginnings.
Van Alstyne toured the country as an
infant prodigy at the piano with Pat Gil
more's band when he was only II. Will
Jams was an acrobat with several circuses
before he was IA. The pair struck New
York with a 81 note between them and a
lot Of songs in manuscript a few years ago.
Now they nave to work overtime counting
their royalties.
All this has nothing to do with Williams's
habit OF taking his hat of to ~laundries,
but is merely by way Of fixing the>Bertillon
upon him.
Some fellows of their bonnets to a
passing load Of hay for luck, but my lid
comes of to the laundries for memory's
sake" he said. THE fact that l always
was a clearly young person-regard me
carefully, even at this ate-was once the
bLllhB lldV % Nv CSlh6 yhNAS
by a bowling mob of coal miners,
That goes pack some. In 1897, when |
was 10, l was doing Zip flaps and things
in the sawdust on the payroll Of the Lemon
Brothers circus. When the show orept
into a little GOAL mining town in southern
Illinois on Fourth of July morning, in the
summer Of 18s7-it was one OF those We'll
come to our fair city hamlets OF 20 1000 or
1E mn nbitapta-pa frat pooya altar
hitting up the Java in the cook tent was to
trudge to the laundry with a little bundle
! of soiled linen under m arm.
THE boss Of the laundry and had quite
a chat. When he found out that l was
with the CIRCUS he wanted to know about
a lot Of things, and it was past 0 o'clock
before I hit the pike for the two mile traipse
to the circus lot.
'"As soon as l reached the outskirts
1 saw that something had come of. The
big top hadn't yet been tossed up, and
the tentmen and hard eyed scramblers
Of the show were walking o with
stakes in their hands. ready to give the
Hey, Rube!' yowl if they should be at
tackled by the ugly crowd Of coal miners
who had formed a ring about the plant.
Il trudged through the crowd OF coal
miners on my way to the dressing tent.
when the sudden howl went up, There's
the little murderer nowl' and l didn't knwo
that the howl meant me till a couple OF
zap constables with the chin spinach
jumped out of the crowd and grabbed me.
They hustled me into a buggy n drove
me into the town. where | was stuffed into
the oalaboose.
$50 there was |. on a bench in a hanky-
pank cooler, a kid OF 10. without the slight
est idea Of what it was all about. That's
why I've got to get ahead Of the story
a little bit and unravel the meaning Of
the thing.
Il had only been away from the circus
lot on my way to the laundry for a few
minutes when a mob Of coal miners, pie
eyed already with Independence Day
booze, cantered up to the grounds and
announced that there wasn't going to be
any circus that day. That kind of talk,
in ordinary circumstances. would have
been the signal for the raising of the Hey.
Rubev cry and the battle. But the pro-
p~rietors didn't want to have the certain
chance Of big gate receipts on the national
holiday messed up, and so they prevailed
upon the hands TO be patient.
Finally, the ugliest Of the coal miners
crept up TO the rear of the baggage wagon,
pulled down a valise from the top of the
heap and began to kick it all over the
place, football style, The valise belonged
TO a sixteen-year-old jockey Of the show,
a boy of about my own size and looks.
| This Jockey boy, a quick triggered little
Muiiigan as 20 the temper thing. came
up just then.
stop that, you. said the ,youngster
to the coal miner. Flag it. That grip
belongs 10 me-
aThe miner glanced contemptuously at
the kid jockey and made for him.
Belongs TO you, hey, you weaself
and he raised his calloused mltt as II to
lay the palm across the youngsters cheek.
"The jockey boy leaped back, picked
I'D one OF the long and heavy blue stakes,
gave it a couple Of whirls in the air and
brought it down upon the skull OF the miner
with all his strength, which was consider,
able for a lad. The one blow stretched
Isthe coal miner dead upon the ground.
THE boy dropped the stake and gazed
for half a minute at the dying man. Then
he turned to a bunch Of the baggage wagon
hands.
Slash mel was all he said TO them.
Slash is circus patter for Cover
"The hands grabbed the boy and tossed
him into an empty stake wagon standing
behind a big bunch OF other wagons and
out OF the view OF the miners. They covered
the kid over with tarpaulins. and in that hot
! nook the stashed youngster spent his six
teenth Fourth Of July. He never left the
tarpaulin covered wagon, in fact, until after
the show had got out of town.
THE other miners around the baggage
wagon ran away at this and spread the
hubbub among their companions. The
whole bunch OF miners scrambled for the
spot where the dead man was lying and
loaded him into a passing vegetable cart
to be carried to his shack near the mine.
THE circus hands were holding OF the
mob Of miners when ] nudged along on my
way back from the laundry, only TO get
myself grabbed by the pair Of Zeke con-
stables who got to the lot after the jockey
had killed the miner. ] was the one, you
see. The miners howled that as soon as !
showed up. My way Of dressing was pretty
much like that OF the jockey. in addition TO
my physical resemblance to him, and their
mistake was natural enough. considering,
too, how het up with Independence Day
rum they we're.
Now, as | say, / didn't know a note Of
what I'd been pinched for until nearly an
hour after | was deposited In the c~alaboose,
and during that hour a great mob OF miners
had formed outside the clink, all OF them
yelling for my blood. They we're out for
the lynch thing, there was no mistaking
that.
sPut ] wasn't worried about il. not for a
minute imagining that the roars meant me,
till the jailer came along TO me-, looking