Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1935-03-03

Sister Tinkerbun, who was nine years
his senior. or the hired girl. who was
twenty-five years his junior. Which
ever it might be, the entire caravan
felt with not unpleasing horror that
already. with their own host. they
were beginning to sniff the wickedness
of Paris.
In Drawing Room B were Sine
Bendelari, apothecarian bachelor and
man-about- village, and the reporter
from Duluth.
1t seemed that on one particularly
white night at the mansion. Cordwood
had invited the Duluth reporter to 60
along. Cordwood didn't remember the
invitation. but he had learned many
years before that on the morning after,
it was better not to inquire too curl
ously into what he might have said
after midnight. Anyway, the Duluth
reporter was lovely fellow, and it was
good thing to have a contact man for
the press. He did not know, and he
never afterward learned. that the
young gentleman from Duluth had
been fired by wire. after ignoring four
commands from his paper to come
home
This Drawing Room B was Cord
woods refuge all the way to New
York. He was very happy there. He
lost $l16.5O at poker, and he was
often allowed to sing. He was the
gladder of the refuge when. within
an hour after the train had left Jack
rabbit, he learned the real characters
of little Irving Berklund, and of
Magnolia Ilgenfritz. the hell-child.
No one knows the nature of the
Little Ones until he has seen them
relieving the tedium of train journey.
After he has seen them thus. he re-
allies that Calvin was absolutely
right: that infant damnation is not
only just but highly agreeable. Cord
wood had beheld Irving and Mag
nolia as normal children. who were
prettily grateful for bags of candy and
who had no disagreeable tfaits what
ever, except perhaps yelping good
deal. throwing stones at windshields,
and secreting dead kittens in ones
overcoat pockets. But the magic of
travel was upon them now. and it
revealed the Little Ones as complete
demons. They chased each other
through the aisle. They had game OF
tag in which the goals were the
shrinking knees of the older pas
sengers. Irving brought from the
observation Car ponderous brass
ash-tray. and with this Magnolia and
he played catch, while the adults,
their faces furrowed with agony,
crouched in their seats. and the COW
ardly CordwOod. though he admitted
that he was responsible for these
horrors. fed into Drawing Room B
and demanded a drink.
At St. Paul and Minneapolis. there
were hundreds of spectators, with
reporters ranging from the financial
editors. who desired to know Cord.
woods views on the Latvian bond
situation. to the religious editors. who
demanded of the frightened Rev. MIR.
Mitch whether it was true that he was
going to hold services in Notre Dame
de Paris. But it was in Chicago that
Cordwood really got into the news.
The trains were met by eighteen
reporters. nineteen press-camera and
movie-camera and sound picture men,
and more than a thousand laymen.
Percy had. at Cordwoods insistence.
rather sulkily telegraphed ahead to
get police permission for a parade up
State Street, during the six hours when
the Jackrabbitites we're to study the
economics. ethnolOgy. art treasures,
and bars of Chicago. Gleefully the
drum major whirled and caught his
stick. at the head of the procession.
Gleefully the troubadours of Jack
rabbit whammed the drum and tootled
the fife and blared on the cornet. as
they crashed into such novelties as
THE Washington Post" and "There'll
Be a Hot Time in the Old Town
Tonight" Gleefully Cordwood and a
hundred other male stalwarts trudged
at the rear, waving large pennants
painted with pink wild roses and the
valiant words, "Jackrabbit Creek,
Biggest Small Town in u. S. A."
And gleefully the simple citizenry
A.