The Celina Democrat. (Celina, O. [Ohio]) 1895-1921, 1910-07-08

THE ROOM TRIED TO DISCOURSE TO HIM
or IT'S DIVERS TENANrl1Y
an unwholesome, surfeited worm that
had eaten its nut TO hollow shell and
now sought to ill the vacancy with
edible dodgers.
He asked If there was a room to let
"Come in" said the housekeeper
Her voice came from her throat; her
throat seemed lined with fur. II have
the third door back, vacant since a
week back. Should you wish to look
at it?"
The young man followed her up the
stairs. 4 faint light from no particu-
lar source mitigated the shadows OF
the halls They trod noiselessly upon
stair carpet that its own loom would
have forsworn II seemed to have
become vegetable-to have degenerat-
ed I'm that rank. sunless air to lush
lichen or spreading moss that grew In
patches TO the staircase and was viscid
under the foot like organic matter. At
each turn of the stairs were vacant
inches in the wall. Perhaps plants had
once been set within them II so they
had died in that foul and tainted air.
"This is the room," said the house
keeper, from her furry throat. ITS
nice room. II amt often vacant ]
had some most elegant people in it last
summer-no trouble at all and paid in
advance TO the minute The waters
at the end of the hall Sprowls and
Mooney kept it three months. They
done a vaudeville sketch Miss B'retta
Sprowls-you may have heard Of
her Oh. that was just the stage
names. Right there over the dresser
is where the marriage certificate hung,
framed. The gas is here and you see
there is plenty Of closet room. It's
room everybody likes. It never stays
idle long"
"Do you have many theatrical people
rooming here" asked the young man.
"They comes and goes. A good pro-
portion of my dodgers is connected
with the theaters. Yes, sir; this is the
theatrical district Actor people never
stays long anywhere. get my share
Yes; they comes and they goes"
He engaged the room, paying for a
week i'm advance He was tired, he
said and would take possession at
once. He counted out the money. The
room had been made ready, she said
even TO towels and water. As the
housekeeper moved away he put for
the thousandth time, the question that
he carried at the end Of his tongue.
a young girl, Miss Vashner-Miss |
Eloisc Vashner-do you remember such |
a one among your lodgers? she would |
be singing on the stage, most likely |
"A fair girl. Of medium height and
slender, with reddish gold hair and
a dark mole near her left eyebrow"
"No: ! don't remember the name.
Them stage people has names they |
change as often as their rooms They |
comes and they goes. No; don't call |
that one to mind
No-always no; five months Of cease
less Interrogation and the inevitable /
negative; so much time spent by day |
in questioning managers. agents, |
schools and choruses; by night among |
the audiences Of thclierS from all |
star casts down to music halls 50 low
thar he dreaded to Gud what he most /
hoped for He who had loved her
best bad tried to find her He was
sure that since her disappearance from
home this great water girt city held
her somewhere. bur II was like a mon
strous quicksaDd. shifting its particles
constantly, with no foundation, its up
per granuIes Of today buried tomor-
row in ooze aud slime
The furnished room received it's lat
est guest with a first glow Of pseudo
hospitality, a hectic, haggard, perfume
tory welcome like the speciOus smile
If a demirep. The sophistical comfort
came in reflected CLEANS from the de-
,ayed furniture, the ragged brocade
upholstery Of a couch and two chairs,
/ foot wide cheap pier glass between
he two windows, from one or two gilt
picture frames and a brass bedstead
II a corner
The guest reclined. inert upon
hair, while the room, confused in
speech as though it we're an apart
nent in Babel, tried to discourse to
lin Of its divers tenantry.
A polychromatic rug like some bril-
liant Powered rectangular, tropical is
ct lay surrounded by a billowy sea
# soiled mating. Upon the gay papered
wall were those pictures that pursue
he homeless one from house to house
The Huguenot Lovers" The First
quarrel" The Wedding Breakfast"
Psyche at the Fountain" The mantel's
hastely severe outline was inglorious-
y yelled behind some pert drapery
Irawn rakishly askew like the sashes
f the amazonian ballet Upon it was
ONE desolate fotsam cast aside by
he rooms marOoned when a lucky
all had borne them to fresh port-a
rtfing vase or two, pictures Of ac-
resses, a medicine bottle, some stray
ards out of deck.
One by one, as the characters of a
become explicit, the little
igns left by the furnished rooms pro-
ession Of guests developed a signid- ]
ance. The threadbare space in the
ug in front Of the dresser told that {
Ovely woman had marched in the
hrong. Tiny finger prints on the wall
poke Of little prisoners trying to feel
heir way to sun and air. A splattered /
tain, raging like the shadow Of
ursting bomb, witnessed where /