Evening star., 1909-03-07

and We Began to Drift
could introduce the curse scene from Richie
lieu: but we must not try to do too much. AS
the poet says
1.-the world would gleam with new romance
And bitter teardrops would be few.
If no man ever had a chance
To bite off more than he could chew. >"
1GUESS Fate had it all laid out to head us off
at Mount Vernon. She had chased us pretty
hard from the day on which l had begun my
career as the manager of wizard but we had
kept ahead right along till we struck that mis-
erable, wet little place with its muddy streets
and lonesome hitching posts
While were huddling around the stove in
the hotel trying to dry out and get warm, the
landlord mingled with us in friendly way and
told us about the last company that had played
there.
:" 1t was a piece by the name of Julius
Cesar he said, and guess it would of went
off all right if it hadn't been for the Roman
mob. The company didn't have no mob with
'em; so they had to hire one here They got
sim Ash by and Bob Williams to be it. Bob has
a hemlet that he got one time when we thought
of organizin fire department here. and they
took him because the manager said the hemlet
would make it look more true to life. 1t seems
they used to wear them kind of things in the
Roman army.
81 dunno why they picked out Sim to be in
the mob unless it was because he sings bass in
the Little Gem Quartet and can beller louder
than anybody else IN this town. All the actors
wore was bed sheets, something like that,
leavn' one arm stiCkin out, and the women
wa MT much better 1t was simply scand lous,
and neither Sim nor Bob amt ever had the same
standin' in society since. But the piece was
mighty interestin' Just the same, and l can't
help thinkin' sometimes that it was pity they
didn't have decent clos to wear, SO they could
of played it right.
well, they had big feller that was Caesars
friend and he didn't seem to take well among
the chaps that had made up their minds to kill
Julius Bob and Sim were to get around him
and howl every time he made speech and
things went along fairly well till after they'd
got Caesar stabbed. Say, it was a mean trick
they done the old man there As fur as could
see. Caesar was a fairly decent sort of chap.
One man tried to make out that he done some
graftin; but they hadn't any proofs There
want nothin to it but talk that was started
by some people he'd kicked out of office. But
anyhow they stabbed him, and then this friend
of his got up on flour barrel and commenced
to tell the mob what lot of good things Cesar
done for them.
GIN and Bob stood there lookin' as though
- they didn't more'n half believe it, and that
seemed to make this Anthony mad. Anthony
was Caesars friend He shook his fist at Sim
and pointed his finger at Bob and stamped
around the barrel nearly upset, and oncet
and awhile they'd make kind of low hum
lous with a tablecloth hung over his shoul-
ders and that hemlet on. But somehow you
seemed to kind of forget about that in the ex-
citement; for Anthony kept gettin' madder and
madder every minute thinkin' of the way
they'd treated Cesar Fin'lly he leaned over
toward Sim and said, Howl you blamed fool,
how'll Sim howled all right but Bob just
stood there, first on one foot, then on tother,
and the first thing he knew Anthony give him
a smash the hemlet and said he meant him
too.
Now, Bob amt no man to let folks run over
him, He's peaceable enough when he's let
alone but rie him up and there's purity sure
to be trouble The hemet was a kind of a
tight fit anyhow; SO, besides bein insuted
right there before everybody in town, guess it
hurt him some when the hemlet was smashed
down over his eyes BY George! you ought to
of saw that chap come down when Bob kicked
the chair out fl I'M under him. 1t was done so
quick he didn't know it was comm, and he lit
all over at once. Bob was on top of him before
he could make move and Sim clinched with
one of the other feers that come rllnnln out to