The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1915-05-16
II did a whistle and kick act"

he had worked once for n man
~ who educated cats.
HE tool up a line Of ducks
once and trained 'em to quack to-
gether Inc follow the baton same as
an orchestra, but his main line was
cats, and 1t van wide enough for
he show and circus trade, and he
went bankrupt on account Of not being
versatile, and I did a whistle and kick
act In vaudeville, and then l went in
with a circus and the circus people
sent me to Africa to look for unlikely
beasts and I married a girl named
Molly Gilleray. and raised pigs and
chickens that were high bred. but not
educated. and then
"Well," said Uncle Biddle. after a
pause, speaking Of Egyptian cats. I
knew a man once named Tanner"
We were sitting in a row in from.
Of the warehouse on Jamaica Dock,
looking at the sheen and dance OF star
reflections on the bay and hearing
the water tapping on the piles. Uncle
Biddle smoked slowly. Now and then
he pulled an odd or end out Of the
junk heap of his memories. looked at
II and dropped II back into the junk
heap.
"wha about Tanner" some one
asked.
Tanner! Oh! Well. that must have
been when I was a whistle and kicker
and lived at 305 East Twenty-fourth
street. 1t was a peeled n scaly
looking house and I lived on the third
floor back. I was broke when I lived
there.
II was thinking Of leaving vaude-
vile, because It left out too many
meals and was loose on rent. The
room wasn't much Of a room, but 1t
had some points that ! got fond of.
There was cats in the back yard. So
ciable and laxative. and there was a
good faucet.
Speaking OF the faucets. I come to
see that was an uncommon faucet, and
II come about In this way. Because
! didn't have but a nickel one morning
and went to washing myself at the
stand basin I was thinking this was
a sad and mystic world and no place
to whistle n kick in, and while /
was thinking that way there came IA
clink and a squirt. CHEEKY and yet SYM
pathetic, and then there was a round,
shiny 10 cent piece lying in the wash
bowl and looking up at me kind OF
surprised.
"'why. how de do I says.
Then we contemplated each other
a while.
"'Here!' I says, I amt said no in
c~antation.' and I turned 1t over in my
mind. and I says:
Maybe it's that kind Of a faucet
Then I let the water run, but 1t
didn't leak any more dimes. ] went
and got a Is cen breakfast. Now.
there are breakfasts existing and cur
rent for that price that amt bad. I've
ate breakfasts for Is cen6-why, take
Randy S%ullivan's restaurant that used
to be on Whittle and Water
streets"
What about the faucet"
"Hey?"
Ibid it run any more dimes?'
well, yes, I got three more toward
night. I vas going to tell you about
them breakfasts. Well, yes, that was
a good faucet. 1t want a faucet you
could bully or coax. And yet, II you
studied 1t and humored it, it vas a
good faucet Of its kind.
1T want like one of those Arab
lamps you could rub and get a jack
hTlIc VI uihiii'iiu "lht'"S W Wv
house, II you was an Arab and wanted
'em. MOI it van a steady faucet n
it wouldn't work before 9 o'clock or
after 6. Some days it wouldn't give
me a dime. Then again I've known it
TO run eighteen dimes between Q A. NJ.
and 6 +. NJ.
Sometimes it would throw two
dimes to a jerk, and I've known it to
run three. And then again I've turned
her on and of all the morning and got
no breakfast at all. And yet maybe
in the afternoon she'd drop n every
half hour. Real provoking that way.
But handed j%udiciuse she might run
five to eight dimes a day.
you'd think a man with a faucet
like that ought to sit tight and give
Over restlessness of the mind. Seems
to me, | argued to myself about it. !
put up cases out of history. / says:
"'Now Biddle, take the woman with
the gold egged goose. What good did
she get out Of hunting up the origin,
causes, reasons, explanations of them
eggs? None at oil. The rainbow