The Bourbon news. [volume] (Paris, Ky.) 1895-19??, 1911-02-14
Salt on the Birds Tail
Story Of a Mardi Cras
Masquerade
BY SAMUEL E. BRANT
Copyright by American Press Asso-
citation. 1911.


well, l like that. What kind OF
wife do you expect her to make?"
How should I know her qualifica.
tons for wife? Marriage is a lottery
Other men may marry for qualiflca.
tons. but We youngsters don't pretend
to forecast what girls going to be-
And l don't believe the old ones hit II
any better than we."
What makes you set your fiancee
down as q fool?'
I'll tell you, but / must begin back
little way. She's Madge Whitridge,
only it should be Madge Wild6re 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 it! Not intention,
ally, suppose"
We'll. whether there was q spark of
intention in 1t don't know. You never
can tell what woman is going to do
or why she does 1t. 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 bet-that is, If she doesn't shake
ME for another fellow, though l don't
think she would do that now. She
might have done it 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 I'm
this simile than you may imagine, as
you'll see in a moment. But for the
incident. We floor gliders,' as Que
called our dancing club Of young peo-
ple-there was not one over twenty,
and some Of the girls weren't over fif.
teen-cOncluded we'd celebrate the
Mardi Gras with a masquerade ball. Id
been getting sweet on Madge-Wildfre
/ may as we'll call her-and about the
time the costumes were being arrang-
ed / was sitting up to her like sick
kitten to a 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 I'm 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 month ar
ranging my outfit did it all myself.
you know-but when i got 1t done 1t
was n cOrker. i made the body Of n
rooster. which / strapped under my
arms, with an elegant head and comb
In front and fine display Of cocks
tail behind. the tail being made Of
tissue paper Of different colors. You
thing.
81 went to see Madge the afternoon
before the ball. Ii happened that
we got to quarreliIg. and went
off in huff. This was unfortunate.
to say the least. We had spent u 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 1t 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!"
I'VE tried on our costumes in ad-
vance, and when she walked ! told
her she waddled like 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. / strutting.
she cuddling up beside me. we were as
TAR apart as possible and when we
met glared ut each other. After awhile
l saw her sitting in window with
Ned Tucker. This made me all fired
jealous as we'll as mad. and to show
my spleen what did l do but go I'D
near where they were sitting and
whisk around with the intention of
turning my back on Madge. l didn't
calculate how near my tail feathers
were to them, but it seems they
brushed their faces. This made Madge
madden than ever. Ned had just struck |
match to light cigarette. Madge |
jerked it out Of his hand and held it |
under the tip of my tail.
I'm 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 outr
they meant 10 put out the
names or put me out to prevent my set.
ling them all afire don't know. /
was bowling with the burns and with
tear when Roman senator took Off
n 10, To- :