Beadle's Dime Library, No. 406 — page 20: what you’re looking at

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

20 ets” “Well, Mr. Bownsse, if you’re calm enough to understand anything, perhaps you'll tell me why you sent for me, and what you mean by all this abuse. I’ve managed shows for twenty years, sir; circuses to which your paltry little concern would not be worthy to act as a side-show; and I say, sir, that in all that time, sir, I was never in- sulted so, sir! I didn’t ask to join your show, sir. You had to send and beg for me to come, and | wouldn’t do it till I had a re- sponsible guarantee for my salary. I’ve worked your dirty little concern as it was never worked before, and driven your rival —a better man than you, sir—off his own twenty-years’ route—and you presume to swear at me, sir! Confound your impu- dence! manage your own show. You don’t know how to treat a gentleman.” And in proportion as the portly agent, with his white hair and beard, grew excited and swelled and fumed, G. B. Bownsse be- gan to pull in his horns and think he had gone too far in his excitement. Onion George was essentially a bully and a coward, with an unlimited reverence and longing for just one thing—money. 7 He had beena poor man, and had had to _-eringe, in his time, to vulgar brutes possess- ed of more money than himself; for show- f men in very many cases are vulgar and bru- tal to the core of their hearts. _ Now that he had money and a show of his own, he treated others as he had been treat- ed himself, and let loose his temper as it suit- ed him on his inferiors. But, with all his bullving of those beneath him, he still cringed as humbly as ever to _. those above him in the show scale, and he __-well knew the terrible power that lies in an _ advance-agent, if he belong, like Taylor, to a large show, and have a spite against the owner of a small one, running anywhere near _ his own concern. | And Taylor was a man of letters who had been a successful dramatist and squandered two fortunes, being well known all over the _ States, in places where Bownsse had never | been heard of or mentioned, bo Only his extreme rage had blinded the big manager to this, and as soon as Taylor bad | finished, he began to whine: : e ‘* By gosh, Taylor, you’re so peppery, by < | gosh, you can’t understand a man, by gosh! Vm nigh crazy, by gosh! I’m ruined, ruin- ed! Look at those papers and see if I have- n't reason to blame you. I leave it to your- ate see, by gosh!” ime is tone instantly softened the other, who | was a gentleman by instinct, and he said, / more placably: You ean do that with perfect safety, sir. | If I'm wrong I always acknowledge it. My - reputation is worth more to me than any | amount of money. What are these papers you speak of?” **Here,”’ groaned the manager, giving him the bundle. ‘‘ Look at’em, by gosh! Ruin- ye Od, by gosh—ruined, ruined!” - Taylor pretended not to notice him, though Onion George was now fairly biub- bering at his own woes, and the old agent Me! uietly scanned the papers the other had ) rown him. , He did this in a methodical way, first put- | ting them all in order of dates and places, | then looking them over with the rapid, searching glance of an old clippings editor. — Occasionally he compressed his lips or al- lowed a faint smile to ruffle his white beard, “but he made no remark till he had scanned the last paragraph, when he laid down the papers and said, quietly: By Jove, Bownsse, that’s well done, Ill never undervalue a little man who has shab- by clothes again. That’s Moone.” : , Bownsse growled miserably. A “What do I care who it is? I’m ruined, zi" ‘by gosh! Tlissed in the streets! Stones _- throwed at my partner and his friends in the _ fourin-hand. Sure card everywhere else, _ -and here they just pelted ’em with mud and eggs. Not a soul in the afternoon show, by ry osh, except the gosh-darned reporters, come to write up the affair, asking more questions, by gosh, than if they was detectives, and _ then waltzin’ over to the other show, by gosh, | and writin’’em up like they was a reg’lar boss band of angels in upper-crust society in - heaven, and we was the lowest of the low. - “What’s to be done, Taylor? What’s to be cs y ¥ « a ™ my 7 _" f * % fs A dea : rai ® « ' nv “ ¢ at Old Pop Hicks, Showm aaa aaaaaaaaaaaaacaaaaaaaaaaaaasaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa than we were when we started, you know.” done? Gosh-darn it, you’ve got me into the | scrape—get me out.” And Onion George blubberéd like a calf. Old Taylor let him sob a little, and then said, in his grave, quiet way: “There, there, man. I thought you were used to the show business. This is only a smart trick of little Moone’s. Oh, he’s a good man, sir, a good man. He’s beaten me fairly, and Lownit. But I’m not dead yet, Mr. Bownsse, and this fight’s not by any means over, as you'll find. Where’s your partner?—the moneyed man, [ mean. This thing wants to be handled well, but we need money. This Mr. Stone, I must see him.”’ Onion room, and said gloomily: “They’re in there, by gosh! never seen them, by gosh! It'll stick to me fur twenty year. Hissed in the streets, by gosh! Elephant and all! They’re in there. Go in—go in.” He waved his hand, and Taylor opened the door, to find a hotel parlor, in which sat two gentlemen, trying to smoke and talk to- gether, Wish Id CHAPTER XXYVI. PLAIN TALK FROM MR. TAYLOR, THe old agent was slightly acquainted with both of them, but only in a business way. When Bownsse had written to him, at the beginning of the season, offering him an engagement, Taylor had been out of a job, owing to a quarrel with his managers in the large show, he being a peppery and pom- pous personage. He had written back to give his terms, but insisted on a guarantee for his salary, which Bownsse had been unable to give till he met Stone and Leonard, and the young mine- owner had become his guarantee in writing. Since his engagement the show had _ pros- pered, making the present blow all the more unexpected and stunning. Quarry Center was one of the towns where Taylor had put in his best work, and where Moone’s articles had been refused, but the Quarry Center people read the Stoneburg pa- pers, and by the time that the shows arrived extracts had been hawked about the streets, and had excited the people as only insults to women can excite men of the Anglo-Saxon race, They had started the cry as soon as they saw Leonard’s four-in-hand in the streets heading the show: ‘Down with the mashers!” **Tnsult ladies, will ye?” ‘Give it to the mashers, boys!” Then came a shower of eggs, and mud, and stones, till Stone and his friends had been fairly driven to the hotel, and the police had to be called in to help the circus men. Pop Hicks’s show, on the contrary, had been surrounded with friends for the first time in a week, and was doing a rushing business, just at the time when Pop was thinking he should have to send home for money to meet the dreaded Saturday night that brings so many shows to grief. Such was the state of affairs when Mr. Taylor walked into the hotel parlor and found Stone and Leonard quarreling over what had happened. They eyed him with no friendly glances as he came in, and Stone observed, in his savagely sarcastic way: ‘‘Good-day, sir. Have you come to take a look at the results of paying you seventy- five dollars a week to manipulate public opinion for us? I don’t think you've any reason to be proud of your abilities, when you let a little Bowery side-showman walk away with you like that.” This was more like the talk Taylor was accustomed to, and it nettled him to say, as bitterly as Stone: ‘‘] don’t see that he’s got away with me so much. If you'd told me you had such a weak Win Nr I could have looked out for it. [ thought it was all to be legitimate show business; but it seems you've let a woman | run away with your wits. [’m not going to be held responsible for that.” ‘‘He’s right, Stone; he’s right,” burst out Leonard. ‘* By Jove, he’s right, you know. It’s a beastly shame, you know. And I don’t see, by Jove, that we're any nearer the end ee eee Stone curled his lip. CC ee TTT —— Eee i SE ———— + — a ap “You never do see. Didn’t we have the man nearly ruined? Didn’t his best rider offer to come to us?” “No no, by Jove, no. Give the devil his duc, you know, Stone. No, he didn’t. We sent for him, you know, through Jim Per- _kins, and he said he’d come if Pop Hicks didn’t come to time on Saturday. But he teorge pointed to the adjoining | didn’t offer to come to us, you know.” ‘“Well, it’s all the same, anyhow,” said Stone, indifferently. ‘‘He’d come if he lost a week’s pay, and that’s enough. Pop hasn’t got the money to pay his hands, and one day’s good business isn’t going to give it to him. Here we've had eight days’ good houses to his one, and he didn’t get out of a single town without a dead loss. This is a check; that’s all.” ‘Certainly, certainly,” broke in Taylor. “Only a check. Such things must be, in the nature of the show business. Up to-day, down tomorrow. Very sensible view to take, Mr. Stone.” Stone sneered at him. “Yes, for you. It’s all your fault.” Taylor colored high. ‘It’s not my fault, sir, and you know it. It’s yours for deceiving me,” “Deceiving you? Well, I swear—” ‘“You needn’t, sir. I say deceived me, Had you told me your object was to get this girl into your power by ruining her father I should have known what to expect and how to work the papers. My only instructions were to break down the Hicks show: by any means in my power. I think I may say I did so pretty effectually, till that little fellow sprung a trap on me, for which I give him due credit. Now I suppose you rant to know what to do to remedy the evil?” ‘“‘Of course we do; but you can’t tell us, I'll bet,’ snapped Stone. Old Taylor laughed. ‘My dear sir, you don’t know quite as much as you think you do. It’s as simple as ABC, Which of you is it that’s crazy after this girl?” Stone bit his lips and looked at his friend, who drawled out: ‘* Why, I am, if you want to know. She’s pretty, and she rides so devilish well, by Jove, that I’m enchanted with her.” “And you want to get her out of that show, while you're a millionaire, and don’t know how to do it,’ said the old agent, with a chuckle, for he was a fat and very sensual man in his way, with few scruples to. prevent him from joining in such a scheme. ‘‘Why, my dear sir. it's by no means necessary to ruin her father to do that.” Leonard jumped up—positively jumped in his eagerness, exclaiming: ‘By Jove! You don’t say so. it, Stone, you told me it was.” Stone sneered bitterly. ‘“‘T’ve told you a good many things, but you won't follow my advice. Of course you can buy the girl, if you want to plank down fifty thousand dollars in trustees’ hands to secure her against loss if you marry. But that’s not what you wanted, as I under- stood it. You wanted to do it cheap. The cheapest way to get the girl was to ruin her father,” | Old Taylor looked at the gambler in a singular way, half-admiring, half-disgusted, as he observed, dryly: “You may be right, sir, if you succeed in ruining the poor man, but how about your conscience afterward?” Stone burst into a scornful laugh, and Leonard followed him, asking: ‘“By Jove, I say, Colden, is the gentleman a parson, you know?” Taylor flushed deeply. The sarcasm on his single impulse of honor and gentlemanly spirit cut him deeply, and he retorted, with great dignity: ‘No, sir, only a gentleman. Possibly you don’t understand my meaning.” Leonard looked at him stupidly. ‘‘No, ‘pon my soul I don’t.” “T mean,” returned Taylor, ‘‘that if you want to prevail on the scruples of a circus- rider to live with you, and can’t do it with- out ruining her father, you must not expect me to help you, sir. I'm no Joseph, I admit, and the show business has taken out of me a good many scruples I once entertained; but, by Jove, sir, count me out of any such plan. ComiEehbooks. Confound —— = If you you ¢ wee V tranct he ness ° fool t herse suali to re you weel Le sé drec sant