Richmond Palladium (Daily), Volume 45, Number 319, 20 November 1920 — Page 16
PAGE FOCR s
THE RICHMOND PALLADIUM, SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 20, I92f
Little
SV jsfTORY We're called away from a house party, I, my ilster and twenty-four guesta, of botb aexes, on Wednesday morning by a telegram from my father, saying that he's bought a steam yacht; for us all to pack nd come at once to San Francisco; that we were to go on a cruise In the Pacific. The first tight and day have been passed on board the yacht. ; FOURTH INSTALLMENT . Do you like mysteries? Gee, that's one I'm ciaiy about mysteries mysteries and pineapple sodas. Oh! Oh f Well, the days and weeks had been going by fast now. The kids, or -or "Iambs", : as a person I know says, had been having a great time, playing- horseshoe, and other deck games. Tie? spent about half of tjjstr time, too, jollying a sailor p on the forward deck, whq tfiey called "Slippery ' Slim"-- for some reason or other J !TSver could find out what was so funny about thte , man and his name; for, every time I asked, they all fell to laughing so hard I never did get anything from it at alL i got mad once and said that Ray Oldenberg had "bats in his belfry," and, not catching the joke, he whipped off his cap and looked! wanted to be on the safe side, I guess. - About two In the afternoon 1 sliped down into the after deck for a soda- Dorothy brought in a girl or two a few minutes after and they sat down on the opposite side. I paid no attention, I was mad for some reason or other. When I'd finished, I wanted another, so 1 got it a pineapple. Gee! those are swell, though! Ever try one? You'd better, the next time you stop In at a drug store. Cracky, but they're good! Johnnie L' Merincour came "fllppln"' in , in a moment; came up and said, Innocently: "You haven't any brains, have your; I said, "I have more than YOU have, that's one certain thing." Til admit it!" Gee! that kid's crazy.. First time I ever had a kid admit it. What d'ya say? "Let me see where was I? Oh, yes! Then he said: .."You surely are lucky!" "Why?" I asked.. "Didn't you hear?" "Hear what?" "You must not have, then but Marge Clartll said she liked you awfully well." THANKSGIVING DAY Thanksgiving day! What Joy for, all-,". The happiest day in all the Fall, That yearly comes around to show The blessings that we all must know Come from above. ' Oh, let us never fail to give Thank3 to our God while we shall live; Let peace and happiness and joy Fill full the heart of girl and boy For God is love! Lilian Hall Crowley. "Of what are you afraid, my child?" Enquired the kindly teacher "Oh, sir! The flowers, they are wild!" Replied the timid creature. Peter Newell.
Gee, Ma! Take Me Down to That Big Lot of
TOYS
they fcave displayed at The Weiss Furniture Store. I saw Just a few of those toys In the window and I want 1o see their entire display, as I hear they have Teddy J3oars, Kewpie Dolls, Desks and Ghalrs, Sleds, Velocipedes, Rocking Horses, and just a big lot of things.
Old Santa has surely been here, will be welcome.
Weiss Furniture Store
505-13 MAIN
Bit of Everything
Isn't that nice?" Spitefully. "I'll admit it!" - "Hang it, anyway! Can't you ever won't you ever, stop that admit business?" 1 asked. "Well, why don't you?" "I don't want to "GOOD night!" I said. Then I left: PART II. : There's not much to do on a boat in the day time, but at night there's plenty. One night, I remember, there WAS plenty doing. Gee! I never went through such a night In my whole life. Yoa know, it was about nine-thirty, and when I went la vat cablfl to sleep, somehow. I' didn't feel like It so I rolled over" in the bunX switched on the bed lamp, and begafl to redd. I must have read a lot, 'bout eeved or eight chapters, I guess. The name of the 'thing' was "The Lost Gold of the Monteiuma'B" naturally very interesting. 1 glanced at the clock once; it was eleven-thirty. It was my bed time, I knew, but as the hero was about to stab the villain I decided to read, at least to the end bf the next chapter. So I did. About the end of the sixteenth would be better. I had a monstroustrous I mean, an awful, time persuading myself, upon looking at the clock, two hours and a quarter later, that it was just fifteen minutes till one. I stopped, you can bet on It, but I didn't go to sleet, I don't know why. instead I undressed, put on my night gown, bathrobe and slippers, and went out on deck. No one was in sight, so I jumped Into a steamer chair and lay down. After drawing the covers over me, I thought. I didn't know why 1 had come out on deck. It just seemed as if I'd been drawn out by some unseen power. I dozed off after awhile, then woke up suddenly. I saw a figure slipping away In the darkness, and, dark as it was, 1 recognized Marge Clarell. "HI, ajarge!" I called in a hoarse whisper. "My, you scared me," she laughed. "Please tell me What you mean by being out on deck at this hour of the night?" "One might apply the same question to yourself," I said. "Yes, one might but, then, you see I have a right to be!" "A right to be?" "Yes, you see, I 'm a selfappointed night watchman." By this time she'd slipped into another chair on my right. There was silence for some time, then I ventured a question: OAK PARK HIGH BUYS JOY BUS FOR KIDDIES OAK PARK, 111. Pennies, nickels, and dimes given by boys and girls of Oak Park high school have bought a $500.00 "Joy-Bus" for the kiddies of the University of Chicar go Settlement. The bus is a joy forever, says Miss Mary E. McDowell of the settlement. Morning, noon and night it is filled with happy , children, mothers and babies, some of whom have never ridden in an automobile before. The first republic with which the United States had official relations was the republic of Venice when, just before its fall in 1797, John Adams, then president, appointed a United States consul. Bring the kiddies. You STREET
1 1
. "REALLY, I mean it, please tell ' . i , . . . i .... me wny you re oui mis late "Oh, I'm one of those people who keep very late hours." "So I see." "In the second place, I like to look at the moon." "Anything else?" I asked, thinking of how queer it was, for there certainly was no moon that night. "Oh, dear me, yes, oceans more." "How much more?" "Oceans." "Oceans?" "Why,' yes; haven't you ever heard that expression before?" "Yes." "Then why Oo you ask?" "I dunno!" "Oh, you're off! 'nd no mistake." ' "I swear" "SWear not at all." "Then I won't." "Oh, THAT was pretty!" "Thank you!" "Conceited! I wasn't approving your remark, but that meteor that flashed across the sky and dropped into the sea way out yonder." "Poor me!" "Poor you? It had better be poor me think of what I've been through I mean oh, It's nothing nothing at all! Why, who's that?" . My attention was directed to a boy whom I recognized as Speedy Evans, coming down along the deck, ahd singing that wonderful ballad, "My Little Bimbo Down on Bamboo isle." "I've got a bimbo down on the bamboo isle. She's waiting there for me, Beneath a bamboo tree. Believe me, she's got the other bimbos beat a mile She dances gaily, daily, She'd be a hit with BawiumBailey " " Ja-Da umph-Da Da-Da ! " With all the little run sand trills and singing it in his very elaborate manner. His knowledge of the song ceased at this point, but he was not discouraged, and began anew: "I've got a little bimbo down on Bamboo Isle, ! Beneath a bamboo tree. . . . Other bimbos beat a mile! Um, um, da . . . Dances gaily . . daily! . . . With Barnum-Bailey." He did not notice us, and walked on, entering a stateroom a few doors from there, and was seen no more. Gee! it seemed ro mysterious and romantic to be there on deck at one-thirty, on that nice, cool night, watching the sea and rolling clouds, and not caring when or where you were going but just to be there and to be thinking about what a fine, big, and tree place an ocean is. I heard "Chunky" L Merincour, picking a banjo on the other Bide. "Do you know the name of tho piece he's playing?" I asked. "Yes; will you wait a moment, please, while 1 go get a drink?" she asked. "Yes," I said. And she slipped away down the I deck before I could follow her. I lay in the shadows of the decks waiting for her to return. 1 waited ' five minutes at the most, then 1 saw her coming. She came to within fifty feet, then turned in a door, spoke a few words with some per son, then disappeared the door shut. Judge then, of my surprise, when looking up after awhile, I saw her come out of another cabin, at the other end of the deck, and ap proach me from the opposite end of the boat! She walked by with a "Good evening nice night!" I was too astounded to reply She went to the stairs going to the upper deck, and, ascending these, she disappeared from sight. A few moments after, she came out of the same cabin she'd entered In the first place! "G-o-o-d Night Nurse!" I said, under my breath. "Tell the doctor I'm worse!" We sat down again and sat in silence for almost three minutes, then I became aware that some one was Blowly, but surely making his way along the deck. He kept close in along the cabin, ducking down when he came to a window or a
porthole, and slipping out and around or sometimes stepping over the chairs. It ' was a full-grown man in a long coat and a slouch hat. Marjorle insisted afterwards that he was la, full dress suit wearing a silk hat. "Sh! sh!" I heard coming from the depths of the chair at my side "Sh!" "Who Is that man?" I asked. "Do you know?" "Be quiet! it's Slippery Slim." He came along In the darkness, slipping along quietly, not making a single noise. Then, all at once It came to me why the kids called
aim um. u was oocftuee b CCuid "slip" aip.g ia " Ihd darkness so ncie3ifi!y, so soundlessly. They probably had seen him from their own cabin windows on other nights, v On a&d on, he came nearer and hearer. Once he stumbled over a chair. "Gosh hang! De dam fine! To h wit' yer!" he swore. Then all wag as silent as before. (See, I'm a poet.) Closer and closer nearer and nearer fifty feet from us, then forty-five, twenty-five, fifteen, fourteen, ten feet then, five feet! Now, I'm not going to say 'continued next week' just yet there's still some more coming. PART III, Not a sound from either of us. Not a movement of any kind. As he approached, I saw that he wa9 a drunkard tottering, stumbling and falling, all over himself plum full, musta' been! As he ran against the chair at my side he gave one look at the pale, frightened face, then screamed! Gee, It waB an awful sound. Marge jumped up in the chair, gave one leap, then disappeared to her stateroom, I suppose. As for me: I looked down at the crumpled figure at my feet. It gave a tremor or two, then all was quiet. The next moment a tramping and pattering of feet were heard, coming to the ladder leading from the upper deck. Voices and screamg wer eheard, too, yelling, crying and praying with all their might. Scores and crowds of women and children stampeded the deck. I saw my father, mother, Dorothy, and a lot of their guests, sweeping down the passage way then a cry. il was a lerruying cry, rising high above the noise and tumult. Thrill after thrill w.ent through me and 1 drew back into th shadows. All the decks were crowded now; full of men, sailors, officers, women, boys, girls, cflildrcn everybody not a soul stayed behind. All were shuddering and crying, some praying, some screaming! It was Just as if the whole yacht had gone. wild. The life boats were j r idden of their covering, and were i got ten ready for denarturn. Wnmpn and children climbed in, and cried out to please lower them quick. Then again, rose the cry that cry still echoes in my ears. It was the cry that made men shudder, women faint and children scream. Thou glancing around, I saw Marjorle Clarell Btanding in the center of all this as if dazed. At the same moment I again heard the cry: "FIRE!" "Fire! Fire!1 the air. Then Marge Clarell thrice repeated in I rushed toward and yelled, "Come quick quick!" and, running, I grabbed her up In my arms, carried her to the rail. Sho leaned there for a time, whilo I ran down the companion-way to the passage leading to my stateroom. Grabbing up a few necessary articles from the dresser. 1 grasped a revolver off the chiffonier, and tore out into the passage again. The far end was going to destruction. The fire had already gotten up that far. On the other hand, the yacht had begun to sink. The floor was slanting fearfully to the Btarboard side. The water was coming down fairly pouring down, the main stair case at the other end of the salon, and I had an awful time getting up the stairs. The water was pouring down it so swiftly that I was swept off my feet twice. At last, gaining the top, I rushed over the watery deck to see a limp figure which was clinging to the rail. The last boat had just dropped over the side into the sea, and we were! forced to do the same. After res-j cuing two life belts and fastening them around both of our bodies. If climbed up on the railing, then, with one arm around her and the other around a life preserver, we plunged downward Into the sea
and my last thought was, that no-
body would ever know what had ever become of tha yacht "Princeton" or of Marjorle Clarell and Donald Reed. Fifth Installment next week.) Nbrlhrup R. Elmer.
A Fall Question I asked the advice of some crickets, I sought tho advice of gome bees; At last I consulted a robin That rollicked about in the trees. I wish you could i. 15wer my quesor years I have wanted to know Who paints all the trees in tho autumn, And where do the hollyhocks go?" The rollicking robin Was saucy; He shpok his impertinent tall. "I never stay late In the fall, miss, You better go question the quail.1 I looked for the quail in a thicket; She rose with a flutter and whif Like a leaf tossed abut; and haf vanished Before I could put It to her. So now I am not any wiser For all the opinion of bees, Or cricket, or quail, or the robin That rollicked about In the trees, They none of them gave me tho answer For years 1 have wanted to know: Who palnt3 all the trees in th autumn, And where do the hollyhocks go? By Martha Banning Thoma in Youth's Companion. BOYS HAVE PARLIAMENT IN, EDMONTON, ALBERTA In Edmonton, Alberta, there Is ai Edmonton Older BoyB' Parliament, and who knowB but that some ot the members that fight the debates in this parliament may be future rulers of the Dominion of Canada? The parliament is an exact miniature of the Canadian government; There is a cabinet with a Secretary of State, a Finance Minister and all others necessary. According tt reports, the coming session is to b a busy one. What queer article Is at its betC when used up? An umbrella. 6CMHX NUSBAUM'S Warm Clothes for Children Children's black fine ribbed Hose Boys' School Hose, extra heavy quality, 65c and 59c value, pair 40 Special "November Drive" Reductions on All Children s Underwear, Dresses, Middies and Coats
3f i
"mm
