The herald. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1905-1953, 1911-04-27
Salt on the Birds all
Story Of a Mardi Gras
Masquerade
By SAMUEL E. BRANT
Copyright by American Press Asso-
citation, 1911.

Man or womanT"
woman"
"The girl I'm engaged to-"
swell, / like that What kind of
wife do you expect her to make"
How should / know her qualifica-
tons for wife? Marriage is a lottery.
Other men may marry for qualifca-
tons, but we youngsters don't pretend
to forecast what girls going to be.
And don't believe the old ones hit it
any better than We"
What makes you set your fiancee
down as a fool?'
"I'll tell you, but | must begin back
little way She's Madge Whitridge
only it should be Madge Wildtire in
| stead Not that she is so wild as she
was. She's been quoted down bit by
certain little happening that came
near resulting disastrOusly. She near
/ ly caused my death"
"You don't mean it! Not intention
ally, suppose"
"Well, whether there was a spark Of
intention in it l don't know. You never
can tell what woman is going to do
or why she does it. We can't be sure
she knows herself. If Madte 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 bet-that is, If she doesn't shake
me for another fellow, though | don't
think she would do that now. She
might have done il before this thing
I'm going to tell you about happened;
but, as | said, it 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 floor 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 a masquerade ball. Id
been getting sweet on Madge-Wildfire
may as well call her-and about the
time the costumes were being arrang-
ed l was sitting up to her like n sick
kitten to warm brick. In fact, we
arranged to have corresponding cos
tunes for the ball.
'"This was after Rostand's play Of
'Chantecler' came out, and everybody
was talking about It, You know that
the leading lady chicken in the play
is the hen pheasant, the leading gen
tleman being the rooster chanticleer
We concluded to get ourselves up as
these two birds. / was a month ar
ranging my OUTFIT did it all myself,
you know-but when l got it done it
was a corker. l made the body of
rooster. which / strapped under my
arms, with an elegant head and comb
in front and a fine display of cocks
tail behind. the tail being made Of
tissue paper of different colors. You
couldn't have told it from the real
thing.
81 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, and the
worst of it 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-
rel?
1--WE tried on our costumes in ad-
vance, and when she walked j told
her she waddled like a duck. That
made her mad, and she fired back, and
we soon were In for it hot and heavy.
when the ball came off, instead of
walking about together. l strutting.
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 a window with
Ned Tucker. This made me all fired
Jealous as well as mad, and to show
my spleen what did l 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 1t seems they
brushed their faces. This made Madge
madden than ever. Ned had just struck
match to light cigarette. Madge
jerked 1t out Of his hand and held II
under the tip Of my tail.
"In a second the whole of it was In
flames. tried to get the rooster part
of me off, but it was tied on so well
that couldn't do it. 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 afire l don't know.
!. was bowling with the burns and with
fear when a Roman senator took of
, his togs and wrapped it about me.
81 was taken to carriage and home
I wasn't burned at all, but just to pun
ish the COMPOUNDED girl that applied
the match / gave out that might die
She was knocked clean out, and wher
! let up on her she wilted. She had