Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-05-22

A Pat from Vision
nNCE-how we'll | remember tia tall.
1.-THE girl, simply but beautifully dressed,
stepped from one of the halted trains at our
deepo with elderly man. The beauty OF
her face was like that of a Greek lntagllo.
She stopped before me. chubby, gawky boy.
and asked me some trif1ing question and patted
me on the head when | answered. | can feel
her cool, gently patting hand on my hair as l
write 1t was the first time. during all my how
crings at deepo to watch the trains come
and go, that I'd ever been noticed by any OF
these wonderful beings from the distant plan
cts. much less by so supremacy lovely an appar-
ition of girish womanness. And so l stood
considering. in a trance. as the train moved
out. the world growing darker with its NOV
ing.
Dye know who that lady was what was
pattin' YOU, sonny?" the station master. COM
ing up behind. asked me.
OF course l didn't know How could have
known?
That was Mary Anderson. the great act
ress. the station master told me- And 1t
amt ev'ry cub what gifts his head patted by
Mary Anderson, I'm tellin you'll!
Yes and she was Mary Anderson! verified
that by looking at photograph of Mary An
lerson in Morgan's bookstore window that
same day. | didn't say anything about it to
the fellers; didn't brag about it at all. for
wonder Really, the recollection too
sacred to brag about. But | was enormously
set up for weeks about it. Me. patted on the
head by the idol of her era, Mary Anderson
the most beautiful and talented girl-woman
of her epoch (even then | vaguely knew that
Last year | met Mrs. Navarro still glori
ousy beautiful woman. when she came over
seas from her English home and visited New
York for the first time in eighteen years.
told her about that head patting down to our
deepo way back yonder in the dimming time
1t was agreeable to hear her amused contralto
laugh.
When Monster Stopped
MENTION must not be omitted here of
IVA one other overwhelming distinction that
was visited me, all unbeknownst, as it
were, down to our deepo. One mellow spring
afternoon a blocky, linen clustered man with
a bushy reddish beard and enough pair
of the "steely blue eyes newspaperishly at
tributed to desperados swung from local
train bound from Kansas City to ST. Joe.
Noticing me. gaping tike. standing idle. he
tossed at my feet the black glazed 'Centen-
NAL" bag. stencied on the side with the device
of two green eagles remember emp which
he was Juggling. saying briefly, Watch 1t.
Bub!"
| watched the bag, while the bushy bearded
man with the sweeping sombrero walked with
a springy pantherlike step into the telegraph
office. where he scrubbed despatch.
He was back on the platform inside OF two
minutes, picked up the black glazed bag was
guarding, tossed a silver dollar at me. and re-
boarded the train for 81. Joe it moving
out. l noticed that the youthful telegraph
operator had taken a stand little back OF me
to watch the trains departure. l looked at
him curiously; for | could not understand
why his face was chalky or why his hands
were trembling SO. He caught gazing at
him in that wondering way. whereupon he
walked back into his cage, shaking his head
and muttering to himself
A month or so later. when Jesse James, the
blacklist hearted bandit. lay dead in St. Joe
at the hands of Ford his former gangster, the
youthful telegraph operator told me 1t was Jesse
lanes whose valise had watched on that day
and who had given me the silver dollar. 1t seems
incredible now to recall the romance that then
attached. in that country of his depredations
particularly, to the name of the cruel monster
Jesse James. There had been rewards aggregat-
ing tens of thousands OF dollars upon Jesse
lanes head that very day when he stopped of at
our deepo to send his telegram. which he signed
with his name in SCorn OF pursuing reward
greedy men; and yet. SO Synony1nlc with Ven
geance was the desperados name that the young
telegrapher had been afraid to open his mouth
about the incident until after he became con-
WINGED that the bandit was really dead
A boy is the keenest hero worshiper. and
Jesse James, in life and in death. the main
hero of that time and section. So | Dragged
Unfortunately, of course of my meeting up with
the great man-and prominent citizen,
who later became a Representative in Congress,