Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-09-28
Love, Clown, Love!''
By Helen WeIshimer.
A September Romance Under
che Big Top.

TO Ohm MITCHELL saw her first as
she stood just inside the door of
the big tent, ready to join the eques-
trian act of which she was a part.
She was very small and slender and
a. her eyes reminded him of blue flow
he had seen growing among the wheat
Sheaves down in Texas when he a boy help
ing his father. One of the members of the
troupe had been taken i'll and this girl had been
brought on to replace her, he had heard. She
noticed the man at almost the same moment
and laughed merry, twinkling sound, which
contained the echoes of wedding bells and
church bells and sleigh bells and school bells
when they We're rung for dismissal instead of
for classes.
''Oh. you're funny!" she said :.
Thanks, miss In my profession that's the
original intention. But wait till you see me hit
the sawdust A laugh in every antic a smile
IN every gesture John Mitchell. king of clown
dom, that's met" He smiled back of the red
and white streaks that made his painted face
and gave bow that was interrupted by his
roly-poly boundaries, which the fiamboyant cos
tune converted into an animated Easter egg.
Are YOU warm with all that stufhng?" she
asked. one ear listening for the cue which would
presently come. How many pads have your"
Pads?" Then he knew suddenly that she
thought he was straight and slender and the
extra pounds were imitation She didn't know
he was fat! He looked into her blue eyes again,
eyes that were raised to his with daring imp
ish little smile that succeeded in being wistfuI,
too. He knew in an intuitive flash that she did
not know that he old. Being a clown had
its advantages.
Then the band swung into a gayer tune and
she hurried away. laughing at him over her
shoulder, and he in turn, stumbled around the
tent kicking other clowns in the seat of their
trousers; jumping until he bounced like rubber
ball due to his elastic slippers; waving his nit
tened hands at plump housewives and skinny
little school girls who also thought that his
poster colorfulness concealed something that
Nunc NAV and I4nwa<2
ONCE the girl on the horse threw him
kiss He waved his hat pretended to catch
the kiss within it, and folded it in his pocket
laugh in every gesture.
From that the friendship of Mary Bolton
and John Mitchell began. Every afternoon and
night they met in costume at their entrance
door and talked Sometimes, when their per-
Torrance was over they went to the refresh
ment tent and drank cold things from frosted
bottles, and at night they would stroll around
outside the Big Top. Maybe she would stumble
peg in the understanding grass and he
would have to take her arm
Perhaps they would end up by buying pea
nuts and eating them while they chartered with
the man at the ticket wagon about the weather
and the good and bad show towns along the
road. They would see other couples strolling
too. Would hear girls breathless laughter
now and then and mans deeper mirth. Boys
those from the towns, strolling arm in arm
murmuring things in low voices, unmindful of
the noisy music from the big tent just beyond.
But always John Mitchell was in costume
clown who looked gay as county fair
mefry-go-round. She painted doll in
fluffy red skirts over which she a shabby
brown coat with cheap fur collar.
She never asked him to remove the bald wig
he wore or wipe away the grotesque lines of
youth, and he glad. So long as he hadn't
said that he was young and slender she couldn't
accuse him of deceit, he reasoned. And, any
way. she seemed to prefer him to the others
who composed the gaudy pageantry of which
they were part If one didn't look too closely
at the shoddy rings, the suits were still new,
and the gilt could be taken for gold The same
thing was true of him.
Mary Bolton was always there waiting for
him and she laughed harder than any one at
his antics but sometimes he caught wistful-
ness in her eyes, just as he had on that first
day. like the look of a little girl who didn't
have doll of her own.
One night, when the moon hung unusually
low, and she turned to him with some breath
less joy quivering in her blue eyes, he forgot
and kissed her, holding her close against the
gaudy suit Then he remembered and let her
go quickly. She had yielded INTERESTINGLY, and
then she drew quivering breath.
UOH why did you do it?" she asked
"Because-because-" He couldn't
tell her. He was old and she was young
She crying. You shouldn't have! You
You shouldn't have!'
She turned and ran from him. and he
thought of Peter Pan, who had searched for
his shadow that youth might stay. His own
A~1s-