The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1931-05-14

! pick up some Of the gang and tell
them she'd got the contract.
And so you see" she ended soft
ly. there is a fairy godmother and
magic wand, after all. Don't ever
forget that, men. Some day some
Of you may doubt it-but you never
know what's just around the
corner"
One Of the boys - Pigmy -
squirmed uneasily. We'll, what you
so sad about it for2" he asked.
"Sad?" BeryI echoed, and laughed.
am crying with JOY" she said, be-
cause she guessed they'd seen the
CLINT Of tears in her eyes.
Say" Mike exclaimed suddenly.
Wen have to send you flowers!"
'Flowers2"
Sure for your your de"
he paused, helplessly involved with
the word he'd been practicing to
spring on Pigmy the first chance
he got. Mike had an older sister
who liked to think of her first party
as her debut and call it that, too.
Debut" Pigmy aided him, and
got nothing but a grunt of disgust
in thanks. Pigmy, had an older
sister who had been overheard dis
cussing her friends debut"
Let's leave the French until we
become musketeers," Beryl advised.
I'll love the flowers"
She had in mind a huge bunch of
blooms, surreptitiously plucked from
neighboring gardens. But Mike dis
abused her mind of the idea that it
would be done in any such fashion.
And it amt gonna be no measly
bunch Of pansies, either" he prom
ised. We're gonna get you a swell
bowkay."
And so it was-a swell bowkay
with Roses are red and violets are
blue. Sugar is sweet and so are
you" accompanying it.
Before Beryl received it on the
night of her debut, while she was
struggling with teacher to take
the crudeness out of her voice, the
boys worked like young Trojans to
achieve its magnif1cence.
| pERYL herself helped, unknow-
~ ingly. She, like the others who
contributed their services or their
money believed that she was doing
it to benefit Shocks, Pigrny's dog.
The boys had tied one of the ami
mails hind legs up in splints and
muslin and unblushingly declared
that he would be cripple for life.
They wanted, so they said to the
people they approached in respect
to the matter, to get him an up-to-
date dog house.
Beryl wanted to see the leg. but
they solemnly assured her that the
splintS must not be removed. She
had her doubts, but she agreed to
do what they asked.
All they asked was that she drive
her car over to the lot on which
they were staging their benefit cir
Gus and let them use it in their
medicine men act.
Their Families contributed other
properties and in some cases paid
admittance as we'll. Strangers paid
admittance in all cases. Beryls
money alone was refused.
1t was a big event and had a good
attendance. Shocks was given a seat
of honor in the ''royal box" at the
right of the main "stage" and there
Pigmy kept watch over him.
For his sister. who had been re-
fused part in the show (girls
weren't allowed, threatened to
bring her pet cat and find out if
Shocks was really cripple, or if 1t
was 'just fake, like she thought
it was"
The medicine men sold small bot
ties Of lemonade, sweetened with
black mOlaSseS, and called 1t tonic.
There was a Shooting gallery, where
beans were used as the ammunition,
and the usual assortment of freaks
we're on exhibition: the (pillow) fat
man, the tattooed man (whose
mother was filed with horror at
sight of the ink marks on his half
naked body; the sword (collapsible)
swallowing man; the ape man
who'd have a time removing the
glued-on hair), and the man you
could stick pins in.
This last was a very ingeniously
arranged freak. Floyd Merton it
was, standing under box with his
head and hands protruding at the
proper places to appear at part Of
the dummy seated on the box.
Just how Floyd would account to
his mother for the disappearance of
bed quilt that still had year
or two wear in it, the boys had not
yet determined