The Cairo bulletin. (Cairo, Ill.) 1???-1928, 1911-02-08
Salt on the Birds I all
Story Of Mard Gras
Masquerade
BY SAMUEL E BRANT
Copyright by American Press Asso-
citation. 1871.

Ine girl I'm enSaBeu 10.
well, ! like that. What kind OF
wife do you expect her to maker"
How should / know her qualifica,
lions for wife? Marriage is lottery.
Other men may marry for qualitica-
tons, but we youngsters don't pretend
to forecast what a girls going to be.
And l don't believe the old ones hit 1t
any better than we"
What makes you set your 6ancee
down as fool?
III tell you. bat must begin back
a little way. She's Madge Whitridge.
only 1t should be Madge Wildtlre In
stead. Not that she is SO wild as she
was. She's been quieted down bit by
a certain little happening that came
near resulting disastrously. She near
ly caused my DEATH"
"You don't mean II! Not intention.
ally. suppose"
well, whether there was spark OF
intention In it don't know. You never
can tell what 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 very good
case against her Of doing II with NAL,
Ice aforethought. And to tell the truth
I'm not sure but she did"
"And you're going to marry herr"
You bet--that is. IL she doesn't shake
me for another fellow. though don't
think she would do that now. She
might have done 1t before this thing
I'm going to tell you about happened;
but, as said, 1t 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 slmile than you may imagine, az
you'll see In a moment. But for the
incident. We door gliders.' as one
called our dancing club of young PEG
pie-there was not one over twenty,
and some of the girls weren't over az;
teen--concluded we'd celebrate the
Mardi Gras with masquerade ball. I'd
been getting sweet on Madge-W ildtire
| may as we'll call her-and about the
time the costumes were being arrang
ed was sitting up to her like II sick
kitten to warm brick. In fact. we
arranged to have corresponding cos.
tunes for the ball.
"rhis was after Rostand's play of
'Chantecler' came out. and everybody
was talking about 1t. You know that
the leading lady chicken In the play
Is the hen pheasant. the leading gen
tiernan being the rooster chantieleer
We concluded TO get ourselves up as
THESE two birds. was At month ar
ranging my outfit did II ell myself
you know but when | got 1t done II
was a corker. made the body OF q
rooster. which strapped under my
arms. with an elegant head and comb
In front and tine display OF cocks
tail behind. the tail being made OF
tissue paper of different colors You
couldn't have told 1t from the real
thing. aN r H.
Il went to see Madge the afternoon
before the ball 1t so happened that
we got to quarreling. and | went
Off In huff This was unfortunate,
to say the least. We had spent lot
of time getting up our bird rigs and
expected to make lot Of fun billing
and cooling during the ball. aud the
worst of 1t was. now that we were IN
Just the opposite condition from what
we expected. we hadn't time 10 get
other rigs"
"What was the cause Of the quar-
rel?"
1--WE tried on our costumes In ad-
vance, and when she walked.l told
her she waddled like duck. That
made her mad. and she fired back. and
we soon were In for 1t hot aud heavy.
when the ball came of Instead Of
walking about together. | struttlng,
she cuddling up beside me, we were as
far apart as possible and when we
met glared at each other. After awhile
| saw her sitting In window with
Ned Tucker. This made me all fired
jealous as well as mad. and TO show
my spleen what did do but go. up
near where they were sitting and
whisk around with the intention OF
turning my back on Madge. ! didn't
calculate how near my tail feathers
were to them. but Il seems they
brushed their faces. This made Madge
madden than ever. Ned had tust struck
match to light a cigarette. Madge
jerked N out OF his hnnd and held Il
under the tip Of my tail.
I'm second the whole Of It was in
flames. tried to get the rooster part
OF me OF, but It was tied on SO well
that | couldn't do 1t. The flames ran
from the tail to the wings and from
the wings to the rest Of the body. The
whole roomful Of people rushed toward
me, scared out OF their seven senses,
every one crying. Put him out!'
Whether they meant to put out the
flames or put me out to prevent my set
ting them all aflre don't know. !
was bowling with the burns and with
fear when a Roman seNitor took OF
his toys and wrapped It about me.
u was taken to q carriage and home.
wasn't burned at all. but Just to pun.
lab the COMPOUNDED girl that applied
the matchL gave out that might die.