Puck — July 4, 1877 — page 10: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

PUCK. nan row, | myself on . being t } | misphére of the thea- a ie be expected to cally or ti exact in my syn- | m Benen led-by the Fourth this is’a free country, and nobody le. mi Ree us T breathe the air rand Katonah, n #run this boarding. fan wants to come |, Bobody will inter- him: acd the Fourth ‘of July reminds me that there been a play written of that name. a eee and at once lay I shall try ‘Ofithese dramatic Rie ?—I may ory of newspaper lic envy, as well as best man. Just imagine a Fourth # 4 lay, with, say, 3 Steele Makaye play- nan canalle, and Lotta ava firecracke, inding up 4grand Spe transformation, with bal- pas sparks. (BaD when my imagination once breaks is no. limit -to its bilities. ents music could come in in full force, too, “Joe Tooker was the business-manager, I yuld; if ecessary, write in parts for his mad- | 9 his complete satisfaction: ‘Isn't this a lovely day. » eae has just | L, looking out of the window, a few feet | | pull. | tremendous energy; and: hoped, for her sake, | ness. over my pea ot her hair ale areal as pietu resquely as’ possil ¢ had but very little cbesile ‘on egy pyar then ind, it was ve ttle ana to day in my mii with her, eis Au eevataly: De the entire neigh- pose we do, Silas,” I heard a voice re- peat, but it sounded faintly this time, and I be- | gan to hope that it would remain.a aren and no more, ) a But when inta by my’si minutes. pa eet for. departure,” dente lost ‘alk terest in your cartoon: ny: Bandar ow, and what a beau- Isn’t it a lovel: little “ But, that was a failure. tiful brown leafiit is! | that leaf than for “lt doesn't enough to g too lovely on thes r dear!" At first, I wanted to argue swith her;-but real- izing the utter futility of such a course, I acqui- esced at once, but formed a fiendish plan of re- taliation while I was buttoning up my linen duster. As d walked towards. the boat, once more the thoughts of ny ‘Fourth of July drama came into my, mind, and I bad just arranged a scene for Minnie Palmer as a beautiful pin-wheel, when I noticed I had stepped into’ the boat. i lifted Araminta in after’ me‘less gallantly than effectually, and then sat down and. let her She started in with a beaming face and that she wouldn’t give out. ‘There was another- boat: on the lake, which was being handled by friend I had met in Katonah. . His ndmeiwas-Brisbayne. I remem- bered it becatse. I once made it rhyme with chilblain, in /an-attempf at humorous verse, The rhyme wasn't good, but -it served its pur- much, and the painful earnest= Tdon’t think he would shave laughed at the funniest joke in the world. But as he was an Englishman, he wouldn't probably have seen the joke if ycti had made one. I scribbled something on a. piece of paper when Araminta wasn’t looing, and twisting it up in a waterdily, flung it over at Brisbayne. He got some one to pick it up for him, and then drupped an oar in the water in an attempt to catch it, ard read it. He finished réading it without betraying the slightest understanding of its meaning in his face, and then went fish- ing about for the oar he had lost. Meanwhile, his boat was drifting towards us —and I let it drift. “Why, Silas! Silas! Silas!” Araminta shricked. But I said ‘‘Sh—sh” with heroic resignation, knowing how near-we were to the shore, and keeping uppermost in my mind the plan of pose. i Brisbayhe Gouldn’t “row elif little he did-row was done wi | vengeance I had formed. ‘The lost oar was floating about in hopeless uncertainty of purpose, and Brisbayne and the other oar were fruitlessly trying their best to | get at it. Well, I won't harrass your feelings by keep- ing you in needless suspense. The smash came. I couldn’t manage the Pe crear. It's | feel like it. Thad told Araminta so. She wouldn’t believe’me. “She didn’t believe me. She would go rowing. I knew it all along. I had antici- ited the danger... Araminta flew out of the and into the water like an exhibition-diver | in’a swimming-school. She didn’t drag me after her. She tried to—bitt it was a popeless ‘She: ull: by, herself. “The chan; e was ‘changed into a color pler, wouldn’t have 3 and her beautiful far beyond the realms of a hot hair-pin, I jumped ashore and saved her from a watery grave by letting her climb up on an oar, ~ But you ought to have heard the conversation that followed. The number of times’ she” told”"me she was going to get di- vorced on the Bt conldn’t be got intoa single ultiplication-s ir ¢ om the drama, “ Woodleigh,” at Wal- 3 i Park innie Palmer's 2 and o1 minta, walking ‘along, to damp, so very damp, threw so many four-sylla- ble atjettiyes at me, that all my really pointed remarks about theatrical affairs were drowned. abl P. S.—She ees. rowing when I didn’t Tt. wasn't my fa S.D. ad P. S.—The note I flung at Brisbayne con- tained instructions to back up against our boat. He hadn't understood it, but he lost tis oar. Thus did fortune favor the brave, and my fell design was crowned with success. m S. D. 3d P, S.—Brisbayne didn’t find his oar, and a panty who had gone out fishing brought him home in the evening, S.D. 4th P. S.— I'm going to work all this into my play, when J write it. S:D:. VERY GRAND. LARCENY. WHAT IT MUST COME TO. Scene — Fashionable Mansion in Fifth Avenue —Small reception to take place in evening— Knickerbocker Paterfamilias and Mater- Samilias at Breakfast. Pater. As there'll be about fifty of our very intimate friends—if I get Superintendent Wal- ling-to send up ten of his most. trustworthy detectives, disguised as gentlenien, I guess they’ll prevent any of the guests walking off with the silver spoons and other valuables. Mater. Fifteen, I think, would be better than ten, as I’m peaked to wear my solitaire ear- rings. Besides, am suspicious of those Sena- tors and members of the Coaching Club whom we've invited, and then these’s the Bishop— one can’t be too careful. Pater. True—and 'll take the extra pre- caution of having a Judge on the premises, and the ‘lock of the cellar-door looked after, so that any of our thieving guests ca can be at once tried, committed— Marer. Yes, my love. Att of Johnny that is left can clean up the back-yard to-morrow, and carry off the rocket- sticks and the skeletons of the dead pin-wheels. “ Georce WasHIncToN,” said his mother, out of the back window, “if you don’t take that cracker out of your moyh quicker’n you ever did anything in your life, I’ll come down to youl” comicbooks.com