Worcester Democrat and the ledger-enterprise. (Pocomoke City, Md.) 1921-1953, 1925-03-14
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By -.OSCCE C. SCOTT

- VERY town has Clyde Davis.
L. God saw fit in His great plan for
this world to send down into each
community somebody to make "ta"r
pnple lau~h Everything Clyde ia
Wis lid was funny--at least TO us. VINO
scent our rather lisilrss days IN M'd
,,letown. Ind. When he came after
his mail the post Office Always ran !:
with a good shout of old fashioned
merrimenl. Our church socials went
lat if clyde happen'd to be away IN
indianapolis seeing show. lie won
more baseball games for our school
cam than all the members Of IL :
line.
In our amateur thpntri1ls he sh"r"
best. Our home newspaper would
merely have 10 s:iy:
The play given next Tuesday
evening at the bncra House has
a talented cast. the chief comedy
role falling into the capable hands
of our true humOrist, Clyde Da
Wis
That was the trouble with Mildred
Walker. She took Clyae's love max
ing as a joke. Not that she didn't
care. She did. Mildred Wake,
would Jingle under the quaint bits of
love making performed by our town
humOrist-until she saw his face and
then she would break from his arms
with laughter-saying his face looked
80 much like Buster Keaton's.
A year before. Millie graduated
from the local high school. Clyde
had been out Of school thr"e years
and was trying with friendly over.
lures to build up a detected little ga
rage business taken over from slip
shod uncle. He had the promise Of
good automobile agency when he
got on his feet and he would have
been standing there erect months ago.
had he had Mildred. But she pooh
pOOhed such an extravagant cOmpli-
ment.
Then to make matters far worse,
two things came along. The first was
a catastrophe-Millie Walker inherit
ed nearly hundred thousand dollars
from her Grandfather Walker. The
second was the advent Of dramatic
coach. who hailed from BOsten and
coached plays for living, after an al
legged successful fling in metropolitan
vaudeville. The whole thing looked
like the makeup Of the old fashioned
melodrama with Clyde Davis the de-
jected hero, Mile, the pure hearted
heroine. and DeVoss Langdon-he of
BOston-the villain. Langdon talked
knowingly of back stage acting" and
''hogging the spotlight" and very early
he branded Clyde ham comedian"
but he retained him in the cast, for
there was none other to be found
One hesitates to jump to conclu-
sions, but at the local hotel several of
us boobs unwisely told this LangdOn
Of Mildred's fortune. by way of get
ting reflected glory for ourselves.
The night of the play saw Clyde
take Mile to the darkest corner Of
the theater and I saw her run away
from him. I knew the Jig was up be-
tween the two. Clyde muffed every
chance at laugh that night and was
funny only because he was so miser-
able and acted so rOttenly.
She came to him afterward.
think she felt guilty maybe. He told
us that De VOss was leaving after bus
mess arrangements the next night and
Mile was going away with him. He
confided in me the whole story. Mil
lie had told him that her folks were
set on Clyde and thought her love for
the coach infatuation. "But gosh.
Be-" he said to me tragically, "it's
the real stuff" He told me how he
had offered his Glowing to help her
get away. for the Walker home is
less than fifty yards from our little
depot and facing away from the tracks
onto the Main street. Clyde was to
amuse the family with stunts just at
train time and Mildred was to beat
it with her sutton. My protests were
hushed. He said he wanted to.
I watched him the afternoon of the
elopement. had point Of vantage
that nobody has ever seen.. He start
ed his fooling with Miles little Sis
ter, Bessie But nothing would tempt
the parents from the house. For some
strange reason Clyde's feeling had
lost its charm. He clowned with the
little sister, with Miles great Dane.
he called in vain to the house for them
to see his stunts; once Mrs. Walker
came to the door; but she went back
and far away the engine Of the East
bound train whistled for Middletown.
Her folks had always come out be-
fore to smile over his antics. Mile
might think he was not honest In his
desire to serve. If he failed she would
only despise him. De Voss had gone
to the train in the hotel hack fifteen
minutes before. Mile was prisoned
by parental eyes.
An idea! His fooling was forgot
ten. l saw him stagger about. I
heard him shrek, ooh God, am dy-
ing" Then he fell headlong and be-
fore I could get to him, Miles faith
er and mother were bending over him
and he was half laughing, half cry
ing. Into our circle came Mildred.