Belding banner. (Belding, Mich.) 1889-1918, 1908-12-31

\ Wnen suddenly ClafnOr came, anu II
her train were Tumult and Uproar.
Turmoil and Riot. Shadowy forms
danced madly about in the faint moon.
light. shooting incontinently, yelling
horribly, beating pans. Fact had II
that the occupant of the house having
that day been married. his friends
were indulging themselves in the In
delicate western custom known as a
"chivaree" = assailing the nuptial
abode with a sort of epithalamial
chorus of hideous noises until the
groom should appear with brown jugs
of sedative liquors. Fancy, however.
knew well that here was a wild night
of battle; hoarse shouts of blood.
thirsty outlaws; deafening detonations
of musketry; throbbing tom-toms OF
savage allies: groans of wounded,
signs of dying; rapine, pillage, slaugh-
ter.
! With no thought of retreat, but in
pitiable perplexity as to the identity
Of friend and foe. Don Quixote made
inante hither and thither about the
borders of the melee. The uproar
waXed terrific, eliminating in vast
and universal ululation of victory,
when Benedict, yielding at last,
brought forth his tribute to the turbu.
lent disciples of Bacchus. A noisy
division of the spoils followed. and
Karl was edging in closer, when an
unsteady figure staggered toward him,
engaged with a furious combat with
his own shadow. The shadow be-
came superimposed upon Don Quixote,
and ii occurred to the befuddled war
rior to discharge his pistol in close
proximity to the ear of Rosinante.
The result was retreat inglorious, un.
at length pulled in his trembling
steed, darkness and silence enveloped
him.
Yet at last stern Fact took nimble
Fancy TO wife, and their offspring was
Adventure. Crouching by the roadside
over a fire of brushwood ne had with
difficulty constructed, Karl passed &
sleepless night, obsessed by haunt
ing dread that though the gods might
vouchsafe TO him Pisgah sight of
these, their promised glories, they
would deny him participation. And
at dawn, when he mounted stiffly
and spurred the unwilling Rosinante
onward, his heart was very heavy.
Then it was, however, that he at,
tanned and achieved.
For, 10! out of what could but be
Dead Mans gulch there appeared an
undeniable stage-coach, drawn by six
quick-trotting mules. 1t debouched
upon the main road, overlook Karl
and passed him in a cloud of glorious
dust. 1t does not matter that the
normal function of this vehicle had
long since been usurped by 40-horse.
power Mercedes; nor that it now
served merely as a reliable and dust.
proof carriage in which to transport
| from the railway station the superin-
tendent of the Golden Eagle mine, the
monthly satchel stuffed with pay-en-
velopes and an occasional visiting
stakeholder. Nor is it even Of impor-
lance that the man who stood waiting
with drawn revolvers behind a bowl
| der, a little farther on, was not
recrudescent road agent, but a
discharged gang foreman, seeking
at once revenge and recuperated for
tune. Reality and appearance were
in all fundamentals identical.
And so when Don Quixote, relent-
| lessly squirting Rosinante forward in
! the hope of one last glimpse, galloped
over the crest of little ridge, he saw
! before him true, real and indu-
bitable stage coach robbery the
three hapless passengers standing
with uplifted hands at the mercy of
the menacing weapons in the hands of
lone. masked bandit. The supreme
moment had come, yet Don Quixote
did not hesitate, for his part in the
drama was all too obvious. Instantly
he slid down from the unstable back
of Rosinante, and, kneeling, rested
upon rock the long, brass-bound rifle
OF the Schutzenverein. Facing about,
the road agent opened fire upon him,
but Karl did not hasten unduly. Four
times the bandit fired, and though he
missed, received no reply; the fifth
bullet from his revolver, striking Karl
in the hip, spun him over in the dust
unconscious. But in that same in
slant, the long target rifle had spoken
also. and it's word was deadly.
Thus briefly ended Don Quixote of
the Market his knightly errantry. For
though the mine superintendent
caused him TO be cared for most ten
derly, yet even when he emerged from
the delirium of the initial fever il
appeared that he was not wholly sane.
And il was therefore deemed best to
send him. under the care of a doctor,
to that address which, along with
some moneys, was found in a curious
old wallet under his shirt. Thither
he came safely. and when he had been
nursed back to health by his brother
wife, he told tale of his adventures
in that far, free, fabulous western land,
which they needs must believe even as
he did, for he bore its proof upon his
person.
Under the gigantic dummy ham
which hangs before the door of the
l -