The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1911-01-27
Salt on the Birds I all
Story Of Mardi Gras
Masquerade
BY SAMUEL E. BRANT
Copyright by American Press Asso-
citation. 1911.

"who is the biggest fool you ever
metz
Man or woman?"
woman"
1.-THE girl I'm engaged tor
"Well, like that. What kind Of
wife do you expect her 10 make?"
How should | know her qualifica-
tons for wife? Marriage is a lottery.
Other men may marry for qualifica-
tons. but we youngsters don't pretend
to forecast what a girls going to be.
And don't believe the old ones hit it
any better than we"
what makes you set your iancee
down as a fool?'
"I'll tell you, but must begin back
little way. She's Madge Whitridge,
only it should be Madge Wildfre 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"
well, whether there was spark Of
intention In it / don't know. You never
can tell what a woman is going to 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 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 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 in
this slmile 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 ildfire
/ may as we'll cali her-and about the
time the costumes were being arrang
ed l 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 in the play
is the hen pheasant, the leading gen
tIeman being the rooster chanucleer.
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 1t
was a corlleT. l made the body Of
rooster, which / strapped under my
arms. with an elegant head and comb
in front aud 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.
Il went to see Madge the afternoon /
before the ball. It so happened that
we got to quarreling, and went
or in a hun. This was unfortunate. |
to say the least. We had spent lot |
Of time getting up our bird rigs and
expected to make a lot Of fun billing 4
and cooling during the bali. 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 guar I
relT"
1--WE tried on our costumes in adj
vance. and when she walked ] told i
her she waddled Ike a duck. That /
made her mad. and she fired back, and /
we soon we're in for It hot and heavy.
when the ball came on. instead Of 4
walking about together. l strutting.
she cuddling up beside me, we were as
Tar apsrt as possible and when we