The Nezperce herald. (Nezperce, Idaho) 1900-1957, 1911-04-13
SaIton the Birds Tail
Story Of a Msrdi Gras
Masquerade
By SAMUEL E BRANT
Copyright BY American Press Asso-
citation. 1871.

Woman"
The girl I'm engaged to-"
well. I ike that what kind Of
wife do you expect her to maker
How should know her qualidca.
lions FOR a wIfes Marriage is a lottery.
Other men may marry for quaiihca-
lions. but We youngsters don't pretend
70 forecast what a girls going to be-
And don't believe the old ones hit II
any better than We"
What makes you set your hancee
down as foolT
III tell you. but ] must begin back
a little way. She's Madge Whiridge.
only It should be Madge Wildhre In
stead. Not that she Is 50 wild as she
was. She's been quieted down a bit BY
a certain little happening that came
near resulting disastrously. She near
~ caused my death"
.You don't mean IL. Not intention
ally. suppose
well. whefs r there was a spark OF
intention IN 1t / don't know. You never
can tell what a woman Is going 70 do
or why she does It. We can't be sure
she knows herself. II Madge had
caused my death any prosecuting at
tOrney might have made a very good
case against her Of doing It with NAL
Ice aforethought And to tell the truth
I'm not sure but she did
And you're going to marry herr"
You bef-fhat Is. II she doesn't shake
me for another fellow. though I don't
think she would do that now She
might have done II before this thing
I'm going TO tell you about happened:
but. as said. II sobered her. and she's
quite tame That's the time chose for
putting salt on the birds tail
There's more appropriateness in
this simile than you may imagine. as
you'll see in a moment But for the
incident We door gliders.' as one
called our dancing club Of young peo-
ple-there was not one over twenty.
and some OF the girls weren't over If
teen-concluded we'd celebrate the
Mardi Gras with masquerade ball. I'd
been getting sweet on Madge-W ildfne
! may as well call ber-aDd about the
time the costumes were being arrang-
ed was sitting up to her ike a sick
kitten TO a warm brick. In fact. we
arranged 70 have corresponding COS
tunes for the ball.
This was after Rostand's play OF /
'Chantecler' came out. and everybody /
was talking about # You know that
the leading lady chicken in the play
Is the hen pheasant. the leading gen
tleman being the rooster chanticieer
We concluded to get ourselves up as
these two birds ! was a month ar
ranging my outft-E did il all myself.
you know-but. when got II done II
was a corker. made the body Of a
rooster. which strapped under my
arms, with an elegant head and comb
IN front and a fine display Of cocks
tail behind. the tan being made Of
tissue paper OF different colors. You
couldn't have told II from the real
thing.
4 went to see Madge the afternoon
before the ball. Il 50 happened that
we got TO Quarreling. and went
on IN a hun. This was unfortunate.
to say the least We had spent a lot
Of time getting up our bird rigs and
expected TO make a lot OF fun billing
and cooling during the ball. and the
worst OF Il was. now that we were In
just the opposite condition from what
we expected. we hadn't time to get
other rigs"
What was the cause Of the quar-
relT~
I'VE tried on our costumes IN ad-
vance. and when she walked I told
her she waddled like q duck. That
made her mad. and she fred back. and .
We soon were in for It hot and heavy.
when the ball came or. instead OF {
Walking about together. strutting.
he cuddling up beside me. we were as I
ar apart as possible and when we I
net glared at each other. After awhile
saw her sitting In a window with I
ied Tucker. This made me all fred I
ealous as well as mad. and to show I
ny spleen what did do but go up I
ear where they were sitting and
Fhisk around with the intention Of ,
urning my back on Madge. l didn't s
alculate how near my tail feathers d
Tere 10 them. but Il seems they e
rushed their faces. This made Madge q
ladder than ever. Ned had just struck {
match to light a cigarette. Madge u
srked It out OF his hand and held Il d
nder the tip Of my tail. r
"1n second the whole OF It was In z
ames I tried to get the rooster part Il
( me on. but Il was tied on 50 wen s.
lat couldn't do It. The flames ran q
'om the tail to the wings and from S
le wings to the rest Of the body. The O
hole roomful OF people rushed toward q
e scared out Of their seven senses, "
fery one crying. Put him outr e,
neither they meant 70 put out the
lines or put me out to prevent my set Il
ne them all afire I don't know. Il
as bowling with the burns and with IN
ar when a Roman senator took OF *
5 toys and wrapped Il about me. n
Il was taken to a carriage and home &
wasn't burned at all. but Just to pun b.
the confounded girl that applied n
e match gave out that might die
le was knocked clean out. and when d