{ title: 'The Johnstown daily Republican. volume (Johnstown, N.Y.) 1890-1912, December 22, 1911, Page 11, Image 11', download_links: [ { link: 'http://www.loc.gov/rss/ndnp/ndnp.xml', label: 'application/rss+xml', meta: 'News about NYS Historic Newspapers - RSS Feed', }, { link: '/lccn/sn85042216/1911-12-22/ed-1/seq-11/png/', label: 'image/png', meta: '', }, { link: '/lccn/sn85042216/1911-12-22/ed-1/seq-11.pdf', label: 'application/pdf', meta: '', }, { link: '/lccn/sn85042216/1911-12-22/ed-1/seq-11/ocr.xml', label: 'application/xml', meta: '', }, { link: '/lccn/sn85042216/1911-12-22/ed-1/seq-11/ocr.txt', label: 'text/plain', meta: '', }, ] }
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g fed © U e ° « Christmas -A s HERE are no more Christ f mas stories to write. Fic: tion is exhausted; and newspaper items, the next A best, are manufactured by €or > clever young journalists who have married early and have an engagingly. pessimistic view of life. Therefore, for seasonable diversion, we are reduced to two very question» mble sources-facts and philosophy. \ We will begin with-whichever you | choose to call It. - told * 'Children are pestilential little ant mals with which we have to tope un- © der a bewildering variety of condi- | tons.\ Especially when childish sor- rows overwhelm thera are we put to - our wit's end. - We exhaust our paltry stote of consolation; and then beat them, sobbing, to sleep. grove! in the dust of a million years, and ask God whys Thus we call out |. of the rat-trap. - As for the children, | #: -m one understands them. except old wimids, hunchbacks, and shepherd Now come the facts in the case of the Rag-Doil, the Tatterdemalion, and the, Twenty-fAifth of December. 'Gu the. tenth of that month the Child of 'the Millionaire lost her rag- | There were many servants in , « “1L the Millionaire's palace on the Hud- zon. and these ransacked the house and grounds, but without finding the Jost treagure. The Child was a girl Of five, and -one of those perverse lit- | | .He beasts that often wound the sensi- . bilities of wealthy parents by fixing their affections upon some vulgar, in- Then we | -dried earth between the toes. Of course the dog-but Sherlock was not there. Therefore it devolves. But topography and architecture must in- tervene. . The Millionaire's palace occupied a fordly space. In front of it was & lawn closemowed as a South Ireland man's face two days after a shave. { At one side of it and fronting on an- expensive toy instead of upon dia } @ mond-studded automobiles and pony ~ _ phaetons. | . -. The Child grieved sorely and truly, - a thing inexplicable to the Million: aire, to whom the prag-doll market was- - about as interesting as Bay State Gas; * and to the Lady, the Child's mother, . Who was all. for form-that is, nearly alt, as you shall sea. . | The Child 'eried Incomsolably, and grew bollow-eyed, knock-kneed, spin- and corykilrerty in many other . ypempects. 'The Millionaire smiled and tapped his coffers. confidently. pick of the output of the French and German toymakersa was rushed by spe- lal delivery to the: mansion, but Ra- | hel refused to «be comforted. She was weeping former rag child, and was for a high \wrotective tariff 'against all foreign foolishness, 'Then doctors with the finest bedside man- pers and stop-watches were called in. One by. one they chattered futilely about 'peptomanganate of iron and ° sea voyage and bypophosphites until \their stop-watches showed that Bill Rendered was under the wire for show .or placo. Then, as men, they advised hint the rag-doll be found as soon as possible and restored to its mourning - parent. ~\he Child sniffed at thera- -_ peutics, chewed a thumb, and waited t‘l'l'lo Child Grieved Sorely and Truly. for her Betsy. And all this time ca- blegrams were coming from Santa Claus saying that he would soon be 'here and erjoining us to show a trug Christian spirit and let up on the poolrooms and tontine policies and 'platcon systems long enough to give him, a welcome. Exerywhere the spir- It of Christmas was diffusing itself The banks were refusing loans, the pawnbrokers had doubled their gang of helpers, people bumped your shins on the streets with red sleds, Thomas and Jeremiah bubbled before you on the bars while you waited on one foot, 'nolty-wreaths of hospitality were hung in windows of the stores, they who had 'em were getting out their furs. You hardly knew which was the best 'bet in balls-three, high, moth, or 'snow. It was no time at which to lose the rag-doll of your heart. . If Doctor Watson's investigating friend had been called in to solve this 'mysterious G@isappearance he might have observed on the Millionaire's wall a copy of \The Vampire.\ That would have quickly suggested, by in- duction, \A rag and a bone and a bank of hair.\ \Flip.\ a Scotch ter- rier, next tothe rag-dollin the child's heart, frisked through the halls. The hank of hair! Aha! X, the unfound quantity, represented the rag-doll. But, the bone? Well, when dogs find bones they Done! It were an easy and a fruitful task to examine ¥Flin's fore feet. Look. Watson! Earth | The | He Sat Betsy on the Bar and Ad. dressed Her Loudly and Humor ously. ‘ other street was a pleasaunce trim- med to & leaf, and the garage and stables, The Scotch pup had ravished. the ragdoll from the nursery, drag- god it to a corner of the lawn, dug a hole, and buried it after the manner of careless undertakers. There you bave the mystery solved, and no checks to write for the hypodermical wizard or fi-pun notes to toss to the sergeant. Then let's get down to the heart of the thing, tiresome readers- | the Christmas heart of the thing. Fuzzy was drunk. Not riotously or helplessly or loquacionsly, as you or I might get. but decently, appropriate: | ly, and inoffensively, as becomes a gentleman down on his luck. | Fuzzy was a soldier of misfortune. The road, the haystack, the park bench, the kitchen door, the bitter round of eleemosynary - bedg-with- sBhower-bath-attachment, - the - petty pickings and ignobly garnered larg- esse of great citites-these formed ' the chapters of his history. Fuzzy walked toward the river, down the street that bounded one syle of the Millionaire's house and grounds, He saw a leg of Betsy, the lost rag-doll, protruding, like the clue to a Liliputign murder mystery, from its untimely grave in a corner of the fence. He dragged forth the maltzeat- | ed infant, tucked it under his arm, and went on his way crooning a song of his brethren that no doll that has been brought up to the gheltered life . Well for Betsy that she | should hear. had no ears. And well that she had no eyes save unséeing circles of black; for the faces of Fuzzy and the Scotch terrier were those of brothers, and the heart of no rag-doll could withstand twice to become the prey of such fearsome monsters. Though you may not know it, Gro-. gan's saloon stands near the river and ' pear the foot of the street down which Fuzzy traveled. In Grogan's, Christmas cheer was already rampant. Fuzzy entered with his doll. He fan- cled that as a mummer at the feast o. Saturn he might earn a few drops from the wassail cup. He set Betsy on the bar and ad- dressed her loudly and humorously. seasoning his speech with exaggerat- - ed compliments and endearments, as one entertaining his lady friend. The loafers and bibbers around caught the farce of it, and roared. The barten- der gave Fuzzy a drink. Oh, many of us carry rag-dolls. \One for the lady?\ suggested Fuz- zy impudently, and tucked another contribution to Art beneath his waist. coat. He began to gee possibilities in Betsy. His firstnight had been a suc- cess. Visions of a vaudeville circuit about town dawned upon him. In a group near the stove sat \Pig: eon\ McCarthy, Black Riley, and \One-ear\ Mike, well and unfavorably known in the tough shoestring district that blackened the left bank of the river. They passed a newspaper back and forth among themselves. The item that each solid and blunt for- eigner pointed out was an advertise ment headed \One Hundred Dollars Reward.\ To earn it, one must re turn the ragdoll lost, strayed, or stolen from the Millionaire's man- sion. It seemed that grief still rav- aged, unchecked, in the bosom of the too faithful Child. Flip, the terrier, capered and shook his absurd whis kers before her, powerless to distract. She wailed for her Betsy in the faces of walking, talking, ma-ma-ing, and eye-closing French Mabelies and Vio lettes. resort. Black Riley came from behind the stove and approached PFPuzzy in his one-sided, parabolic way. - The Christmas mummer, flushed with success, had tucked Betsy under his arm, and was about to depart to The advertisement was a last - the filling of impromptu dates elise where. \Say 'Bo,\ sald Black Riley to him, \where did you cop out dat doll?\ \This doll?\ asked Fuszy, touching Betsy with his forefinger to be sure that she was the one referred to. 'Why, this doll was presented to me by the Emperor of Beloochistan. I bave seven hundred others in my gountry home in Newport. This doll--\ \CGheeso the funny business,\ said at de house on de hill where--but quick, might be wantin' to play wid it. Hey. --what?\ . He produced the coin. Fuzzy laughed a gurgling, insolent, and propose to him that she be re- leased from 'a night's performance to entertain the Tackytown Lyceum and | Literary Coterie. You will hear the . duplicate of Fuzzy's Jaugh. ~ Black Riley gauged Fuzzy quickly with his blueberry eye as a wrestler the Roman and wrest the rag Sabine unaware. v was fat and solid; and big. Three inches of well-nourished corporelty, dingy linen, mtervengé between his vest and trouserf. Countless small, the quality of his bone, and muscle. {| His small, blue eyes, bathed in the moisture of altruism and woozinéss, | looked upon you kindly yet without abashment. He was whiskerly, whis kyly, fieshily formidable. So, Black Riley temporized. , \Wot'll you take for it, dent\ he asked. | \Money said Fugsy, with husky frmness, \cannot buy her.\ He was intoxicated with the artist's \Money Said Fuzzy With hunky Firmness, \Cannot Buy Her.\ & bar, to hold mimic converse with it, I and to find his heart leaping with the sense of plaudits earned and his throat scorching with free libations poured in his honor-could base coin 'buy him from such achievements. i You will perceive that Fuzzy had the temperament. Fuzzy walked out with the gait of a trained sea-lion in search of other cafes to conquer. Though the dusk of twilight was hardly yet apparent, lights were begin- ning to spangle the city like pop-corn bursting in a deep skillet,. Christmas eve, impatiently expected, was peep ing over the brink of the hour. Mil- lions had prepared for its celebration. Towns would be painted red. You, yourself, have heard the horns and dodged the capers of the Saturnalians. \Pigeon\ McCarihy, Black Riley, «and \Oné-ear\ Mike held a hasty con- verse outside Grogan's. They were narrow-chested, pallid striplings, not ous in their ways of warfare than the ' most terrible of Turks,. Fuzzy, in a pitched battle, could have eaten the . three of them. In a go-qs-you-please encounter he was already doomed. They overtook him just as he and Betsy were entering Costigan's Ca- gino. They deflected him, and shoved the newspaper under his nose. Fuzzy . could read-and more, \Boys said he, \you are certainly damn true friends, Give me a week to think it over.\ with difficulty. The boys carefully pointed out to | him that advertisements were soul less and the deficiencies of the day might not be supplied by the morrow. \A cool bundred,\ said Fuzzy thoughtfully and mushily. \Boys said be, \you are true friends. Ill go up and claim the re- it used to be.\ three tagged at his sides to the foot Riley. \You swiped it or pjcked it up . never mind dat.: You want to | fifty cents fort de rags. and take Kt.J Me brother's 'kid at home- a- \ | alcoholi¢ laugh in his face. Go to the | ' 4 office of Sarah Bernhardt's manager does. His hand was itching to play | from the extemporaneots merty-an | drew who was entertaining an angel But he refrained. Fuzzy | defended from the winter winds by | circular wrinkles running around his | coat-sleeves and knees guarantesd | first sweet cup of attainment. To set I foolishly and dreamily. & faded-blue, earthist'ained rag-doll on | fighters in the open, but more danger | - had been given him. The soul of a real artist is quenched | ward. The show business is not what : of the rise on which stood the Mil- . lionaire's house. There Fuzzy turned upon them acrimoniously. _ \You are a pack of putty-faced beagle-hounds,\ he roared, \Go away.\ They went away-a little way. In Pigeon McCarthy's pocket was a section of two-inch gas-pipe eight, - inches long. In one end of it and in the middle of it was a lead plug. One- ~ half ofit was packed tight with solder. | Black Riley carried a slung-shot, being a conventional thug. \One-ear\ Mike rélied upon a pair of brass knucks- '@n heirloom in the family. \Why fetch and carry,\ said Black f (”k th p. o e \M\\ i. ~= o Fuzzy Entered the Millionaire's Gate and Zigzagged Toward the Softly Glowing Evidence of the Mansion. \We can chuck him in the river,\ said \Pigeon\ McCarthy, \with a ' ;| stone tied to his feét.\ \VYouse guys make me tired,\ said \One-ear\ Mike sadly. \Ain't prog- ress ever appealed to none of yez? | Sprinkle a little gasoline on 'im, and | . drop 'im on the Drive-well?\ - Fuzzy entered the Millionaire's gate and zigzagged toward the softly | glowing entrance of the mansion, The j three goblins came up to the gate and tingered-one on, each side of it, one beyond the roadway. They fingered 1 their cold metal and leather, confi- dent. Fuzzy rang the door-bell, smilirs An atavistic instinct prompted him to reach for the button of his right glove. But he wore no gloves; so his left hand drop- ped, embarrassed. - The particular menial whose duty: it was to open doors to silks and laces shied at first sight of Fuzzy. But a second glance took in his passport,, bis card of admission, His surety of welcome-the lost? rag-doll of the daughter of the house dangling under his arm. n Fuzzy was admitted into a great ball, dim with the glow from unseen lights. The hireling went away and returned with a maid and the Child. The doll was restored to the mourn- ing one. Sne clasped her lost darling to her breast; and then, with the in- ordinate selfishness and candor of | stamped her foot and: whined hatred and fear of the odious | being who had rescued her from the | childhood, depths of sorrow and despair. Puzzy wriggled himself into an ingratiatory ' attitude and essayed the iC'otic smile and blattering small talk that is suf. posed to charm the budding intellect of the young. The Child bawled, and wrs dragged away, hugging her Betsy close. _- There came the Secretary, pale, poised, polished, gliding in pumps, 1 and worshipping pomp and ceremony. He counted out into Fuzzy's hand ten ten-dollar bills; then dropped his eye upon the door, transferred it to James, its custodian, indicated the obnoxious earner of the reward with the other, and allowed his pumps to waft him away to secretarial regions. When the money touched Fuzzy's | dingy palm his first instinct was to take to his heels; but a second thought restrained him from that blunder of etiquette. It was his; it what an elysium it opened to the gaze of hi~ mind's eye! He had tumbled to the foot of the ladder; he was hun | gry, homeless, friendless, ragged, cold, drifting; and be held in his hand the key to a paradise of the mul-honey | that he craved. The fairy doll had waved a wand with her rag-stuffed hand; and now wherever he might go the enchanted palaces with shining footrests and magic red fluids in gleaming glassware would be open to him. fe followed James to the door. He paused there as the flunky drew open the great mahogany portal for him to pass into the vestibule. Beyond the wrought-iron gates in the dark highway Black Riley and his two pals casually strolled, fingering under their coats the inevitably fatal weapons that were to make the re Night was falling more surely. The |< ward of the ragdoll theirs. Riley, \when some one will do it for | | ya? Let him bring it out to us. Hey It-and, oh, | ' eled walk to the iron gate. i Riley, McCarthy and One-ear | | | Fuzzy stopped at the Milllonaire's ° door and betl ought himself. Like lit- tle sprigs of mistletos on a dead tree, certain living green thoughts and memories began to decorate his con- fused mind. He was quite drunk, mind you, and the present was begin- ning to fade. ‘Those wreaths and fes- toons of holly with their scarlet bet rjes making tho great hall gay- where had he seen such things be- | ' fore? Somewhere he had known pol- ished floors and odors of fresh flowers in .winter, and--and some one was singing a song in the house that he thought he, had heard before, Some one singing and playing a harp. course it was - Christmas-Fuzzy thought he must have been pretty drunk to have overlooked that. And then he went out of the pres ent, and there came back to him out of some impossible, vanished and ir- revocable past a little, pure-white, transient, forgotten ghost -the spirit ot noblesse oblige. Upon a gentleman | certain things devolve. | James opened the outer door, A stream of light went down the gray- Black Mike saw, and carelessly drew their sinister | cordon closer about the gate. With a more imperious gesture than James' master had ever used or could | ever use, Fuzzy compelled the qnenial I . house. '] do sho.\ \It Is Cusi—fcustomary When a Gen- teman Calls on Christmas Eve to | Pass the Compliments of the Sea- son With the Lady of the House.\ to close the door. Upon a gentleman certain things devolve. Especially at the Christmas season. |.. - \It is cust-customary,\ he said to James, the flustered, \when a gentle- man calls on Christmas eve to pass the compliments of the season with the lady of the Louse. You und'stand? I shall not move shtep till I pass com- pl'ments season with lady the house. Und'stand?\ There was an argument. James lost. Fuzzy raised his voice and sent it through the house unpleasantly. I did not say he was a gentleman. He was simply a tramp being visited by & | ghost. A sterling silver bell rang. James went back to answer it, leaving Fuzzy \Comp'ments Sheason With Lady Th House.\ in the ball. James explained some- where to some one. Then ne came and conducted Fuzzy into the library. The lady entered a moment later, She was more beautiful and holy than any picture that Fuzzy had seen. She | ' smiled, and said something about a | dgoil. Fuzzy didn't understand that; be reineinbered nothing at all about a doll. A footman brought in two small glasses o' sparkling wine On @ Of | . straightened himself; | couldn't \ year—n I lady prompted: > the lady, with a leading smile. | manneredly. \I can't remember. Drink 1 hearty.\ . | the front door, The harp muflc still | his cold hands and hugged the gate, Cold though he was, he did not think \ | of deserting his post while Fuzzy re» | - mained inside. © . | them after they have tallen so low.\ - tirely gone. i | stamped sterling-silver waiter. The: lady took one. The cther was handed | to Fuzzy. to, As his fingers closed on the slender glass stem his disabilities dropped . from him for one brief moment. and Time, 50 disobliging to most of us, turned back- ward for a moment to accommodate Fuzzy. to y Forgotten Christmas ghosts whiter than the false beards of the most epu- lent Kriss Kringle were rising in the fumes of Grogan's whisky. What had the millionaire's mansion to do with a. long, wainscoted Virginia hall, where the riders were grouped around a sil- ver punch-bowl, drinking the ancient toast of the house? And why should the patter of the cab horses' hoofs on the frozen street be in any wise re- ers stamping under the shelter of the west veranda? And what had Fuzzy to do with any of it? - fade away like a false dawn. Her eyes turned serious. Sho saw, some-. thing beneath the rags and Scotch ter» rier whiskers that she did not under- stand. But it did not matter. \P-pardon lady,\ he said, \but- leave without exchapgin' comp'ments sheason with 'Gainst princ'ples gen'leman And then he began the ancient salu- tation that was a tradition in the pouse when men wore lace ruffies and powder. - - \The-the blessings of another Fuzzy's memory failed him. The \-Be upon this hearth.\ \-The grest-\ stammered Fuzzy, '\*-And upon her who-~\ continued \Ob cut it out,\ said Fuzzy, ill Fuzzy had shot his arrow. The‘yA drank. The lady smiled again the Fuzzy and re-conducted him toward softly drifted through the house. i Outside, Black Riley br-athed on . \I wonder,\ said the lady to herself, musing, \who-but - there were £0 many who came. I wonder whether memory is a curse ® & blessing to Fuzzy and his escort were nearly He | lated to the sound of the saddled hunt. | The lady, looking at him over her ‘ glass, let her condescending smile | Fuzzy lifted his glass and smiled vacantly. | © lady th' | smile of her caste. James enveloped | at the door when the lady called: “James!” , James stalked back obsequiously, ; caving Fuzzy waiting unsteadily, with l his brief spark of the divine fire en- | Outside, Black Riley stamped his cold feet and got & firmer grip on his section of gas-pipe. | \¥ou will conduct this gentleman,\ said the lady, \downstairs Then tell Louis to get out the Mercedes and take him to whatever place he wishes to go.\ Didn't Trouble Her Long. Miss Malaprop, in returning from her first automobile ride, said that the constant osculation troubled her a little at first, but that she soon got used to it. \ SUMMER BOARD GC--23 vae Hiram Green-Silas ca 'Dobent . nee $a swell lot o' boarders,, Tite 'Be all rich? Tim . Cloverfela-Wasl, / they Hi, when they came - CN THE . \Ruggles says dat he hadde 7 £08 wrone TRAIN ; \A €* 9 - - saw ane fifM ff\ seus \2 ke miserable ride yesterday dat had in His life.\ \'Cause be was afraid 1 caught?\ - \Nags; he was on a \THOUGHT HE HAQ @ work F x Mr. Soaker (at two. wel Whac's door? Attendant-Snakes,. are! they? Reverses Don't Feaze There are many poets. wh themselves - unsappraciatad. in - that-hbics Mr. Soaker (relieved)>-~Sh0%3l All right sna »» lg Pov o' hzve noticed that this “98h t em Savannah Press. from writing more ' p P Superfine. Stra® 11x} © \Strategy in war,\ frish military instructor, *J don't let the inimy discoyar th ammunition is run out, but Just! on firing.\ & smace ARX. &A in use for over S0 GATT gori¢, Drops and Soothing and allays Feverishness. has been in constant use IT'jlatulencey, Diarrhoea. E a pase Ck 'CASTORI Sees Stomach and The Kind You Have Always Bought In Use For Over 30 Years THE CENTAUR COMPANY, T7 MURRAY STREET, NEW YORK CITY. Children Cry for Fletcher'$ > 2a . - * The Kind You Have Always Bought, and which has been years, has borne the signature and has been made under his per« - sonal supervision since its infancy, -. -- \ J, I4 Allow no one to deceive yon inghis., ~ > All Countericits, Imitations and ** Just-as-good ~ Experiments that triile with and endanger the Infants and Children-Experience against What is CASTORIA Castoria is a harmless substitute for Syrups. \ are but. ~ '@ health of .-- + Castor Oil, Pare» It is pleasant. contains neither Opium, Morphine nor other Narootic - gubstance. Its age is its guarantee, It destroys Worms - For more than thirty years it for the rciief of Constipation, ._ Wind Colic, all Teething Troubles It regulates the It BoWelS, assimilates the Food, giving healthy and natural sleep. The Children's Panacea-The Mother's Friend,. cenume CASTORIA aways 4 Bears the Signature of 'A R
