THE COURIER
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THE QUEEN OF THE BALfoET.
The Biography of a Tender Coryphee.
Mile. Alio Sameo was tho Queen of tho Ballot.
Sho was fair and young (onco), and intensely human.
Yes, Mllo Samee was human. One could tell that almost at a
glanco.
Sho was born of poor but dishonest parents at Rouen, and it was
owing to this early intluenco that she becamothc grand old ruin sho
was.
Sho danced first to tho tuno of a slipper in the hands of her mere.
Here mere was a teaser.
Her pere breathed for living. It was a grind, of course, breathing
every day, every hour, every minute breathing, year in and year
out but he stuck to it right on up to tho day of his death.
When yet a giddy young thing of forty-seven summers, Mile.
Samee ran away with a very wealthy artist from the Quartier Latin,
Paris. That is, tho artist ran, and sho ran after him. She wanted
alimony, or something of that sort.
She got nothing but a bad cold in her upper register.
Tho artist compromised by painting her picture and hanging it up
in a saloon.
He hung it up for three absinthes f rappees, ono for her and two
for himself.
It was on this occasion that she got her name. When ho asked
her what sho would take sho replied "Samee."
Mademoiselle led a gay lifo in Paris. It was quito a butterfly
existence, so far as eating was concerned.
She. was a precocious child, and in timo learned to speak French.
She could say Garsong, Sicei bier! in the most offhand manner. In
the Latin Quarter sho learned Latin.
At the tender ago of sixty-two she entered a dancing academy and
began to study to be a premier danseusc.
She had made a vow to astonish both tho old world and tho new,
though the chances were that both would bo old before sho should
do so.
Her master said, however, that she was born with terpsichorcan
feet. They were a birthmark.
After that, whenever sho saw a little boy prattling at his play sho
would think, "Some day, little boy, when you are nice and bald
headed, you will worship from the front row tho world-renowiied
star of the ballet, Mile. Alio Samee!''
Mov6d by this laudable ambition, and a notico from her landlord
to quit, sho worked ten hours a day mostly on tho question of
where her next meal was coming from. After a time, however, sho
experienced tho rare good fortune of being able to borrow sums at
regular intervals from one of her grandchildren, and thereafter she
dined at least twice a week.
A century sped by.
She could now dance like a bird.
Her debut was announced. She was to mako her first appearance
on any stage by special permission of tho board of health and under
Iolico protection.
Sho was exactly ono hundred and uinety-nino years old on tho
day of her debut.
Tho Society for tho Prevention of Cruelty to Children tried to
prevent her appearance, but tho effort was unsuccessful.
So tho only thing the society could do was to warn parents to keep
their children at home.
There wna a largo, reckless audienco that night, and Mllo Sameo
danced for her lifo. Sho bobbed around all over the stage, spun
about on her toes, dislocated her spine four times, smiled, waved
tho gauzo that did duty as a skirt, sprained her diaphgram, kissed
her hands, fractured her vermiform appendix, broke her contract,
kicked, skipped, cavorted, pranced, and finished with a Mobile buck
down tho centre.
Tho audienco gave ono yell and then went out to get a drink.
It was a great triumph.
Mile. Alio Sameo was a ballerina for tho gods, as well as for the
baldheadcd sinners in tho parquetto.
Paris rang with her name. Tho next day bIio was engaged to
dance ten nights and eight matinees a week for a term of one hun
dred years. Her salary was five hundred francs a minute.
Sho could now have champagne for her breakfast.
At tho ago of three hundred and seventeen she came to America
on the ship Champaijne, in tho displacement of which sho took so
much interest.
By a coup iV ctat she escaped custom house detention and fumi
gation, and a few nights later bIio appeared at the Academy of Music
in a rovival of tho "Cracked Bloke"- The next morning a leading
newspaper said:
Mllo Alle Samee, tho celebrated young premiere danseusc from
Paris tripped her way into iopu!ar favor last night. But it was her
last appearance on any stage.
Why her last appearance on any stage?
Hero was a mystery. The newspaper did not explain. AH New
York was excited. Why? why? was the question on every tongue.
Tho breathless populace gathered in tho street beforo her boarding
place as though waiting election returns.
At last at last the truth became known.
Tho mystery was a mystery no longer.
Mile. Alle Samee, the Queen of the Ballet, had ossified!
Town Topics.
THE RETORT CLERICAL.
"Since you take mo to task so roundly for my failings,' said tho
physician, somewhat nettled, "let mo ask you why you don't restrain
your own son. He gambles, drinks and plays the races."
"Ah, yes," said the clergyman, with a sigh. "We don't seem to
exert much intluenco over our own families, do we? By tho way,
doctor, please convey my warmest sympathies to your wife and say
to her that I am sorry sh'o is still unable to find any relief from her
rheumatism."
RUDGE & MORRIS CO.,
FURHYNlRE, STOMAS M(to HfUTOMRE
We are receiving new goods all the time. And the new goods are the
goods to buy. The Quick Meal Gas Eange takes the lead. The Leonard
Hardwood Cleanable Refrigerator can't be beat, and sold only by
&
ODO
22 K S0TIEE,
