THE COURIER
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THE QUEEN OF THE BALIdBT.
The Biography of a Tender Coryphee.
Mile. Alio Sameo was tho Queen of tho Ballet.
Sho was fair and young (onco), and intensely human.
Yes, MUo Sameo was human. Ono could tell that almost at a
glanco.
Sho was born of poor but dishonest parents at Rouen, and it was
owing to this early intlucnco that sho became the 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 ho stuck to it right on up to tho day of his death.
When yet a giddy young thing of forty-Beven summers, Mile.
Sameo ran away with a very wealthy artist from the Quartier Latin,
Paris. That is, tho artist ran, and sho ran after him. Sho 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 frappees, 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 quite a butterfly
existence, so far as eating was concerned.
She. was a precocious child, and in timo learned to speak French.
Sho could say Garsong, Swci bier! in tho 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 danseuse.
She had made a vow to astonish both the old world and tho new,
though the chances wero that both would bo old before sho should
do so.
Her master said, however, that sho was born with terpsichorean
feet. They were a birthmark.
After that, whenever sho saw a little boy prattling at his play sho
would think, "Somo day, little boy, when you are nice and bald
headed, you will worship from the front row tho world-renowned
star of the ballet, Mile. Alio Sameo!''
Mov6d by this laudable ambition, and a notice from her landlord
to quit, she 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 ono of her grandchildren, and thereafter sho
dined at least twice a week.
A century sped by.
She could now dance like a bird.
Her debut was announced. She was to make her first appearance
on any stage by special permission of the board of health and under
police protection.
Sho was exactly ono hundred and ninety-nino years old on tho
day of hor 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 was a large, reckless audienco that night, and Mile Sameo
danced for her lifo. Sho bobbed around all over tho stage, spun
about on her toes, dislocated hor spine four timet, smiled, waved
tho gauzo that did duty as a skirt, sprained her diaphgram, kissed
her hands, fractured her vermiform appendix, broko her contract,
kicked, skipped, cavorted, pranced, and finished with a Mobilo buck
down tho centre.
Tho audienco gave ono yell and then went out to got a drink.
It was a great triumph.
Mile. Alio Sameo was a ballerina for tho gods, as well as for tho
baldhcadcd sinners in the parquetto.
Paris rang with her name. The next day sho was ongaged to
danco ten nights and eight matinees a week for a term of one hun
dred years, ner salary was five hundred francs a minute.
Sho could now have champagne for her breakfast.
At tho ago of three hundred and seventeen she camo to America
on the ship Champagne, in the displacement of which sho took so
much interest.
By a coup (V etat she escaped custom houso detention and fumi
gation, and a fow nights later sho appeared at tho Academy of Music
in a rovival of tho "Cracked Bloke" Tho next morning a leading
newspaper 6aid:
Mllo Alio Samee, tho celebrated young premiere dan.ieu.te from
Paris tripped her way into popular favor last night. But it was her
last appearanco on any stage.
Why her last appearanco on any Btage?
Hero was a mystery. Tho newspaper did not explain. All New
York was excited. Why? why? was the question on every tongue.
The breathless populace gathered in tho street before her boarding
placo as though waiting election returns.
At last at last tho truth became known.
Tho mystery was a myBtery no longer.
Mile. Alio 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 tho races."
"Ah, yes," said the clergyman, with a sigh. "Wo don't seem to
exert much influence over our own families, do we? By tho way,
doctor, please convoy my warmest sympathies to your wife and say
to her that I am sorry sho is still unablo to find any relief from her
rheumatism."
RUDGE & MORRIS CO.,
VlRHYNlREn STOMES N(to JKTOMRE
We are receiving new goods all the time. And the new goods are the
goods to buy. The Quick Meal Gas Range takes the lead. The Leonard
Hardwood Cleanable Eefrigerator can't he beat, and sold only by
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