THE COURIER.
Y
MISS OMAHA VISITS MISS
CHICAGO.
Somo extracts from a story in tho
Omaha Bee written by Mrs. MutheBon.
Thero was nno possiblo result of the
TransMissiBfllppi exposition which wub
not taken into consideration and would
probably never havo been demonBtrated
had not Miss Omaha recently written a
letter to her cousin, Misg Chicago, b tilt
ing that "if it was quito convoniet sho
would like to run over and pay tho latter
a little visit, ae Bbo needed a rest."
I am credibly informed by an Eye
Witness that he thought Miss Chicago
would have strangled to death in tho
paroxysm of laughter which seized her
when tho suggestion boro in on her that
Omaha dosired to visit Chicago for tho
purpose of taking a rest.
This conversation took place on Tues
day and on Friday the Eye Witness told
me he escorted Miss Chicago to the Bta
tion to meet her cousin. After tho train
drew under cover a joung woman
alighted from tho rear eleepor and
looked inquiringly about. "Do you sup
pose that is her?" asked MisB Chicago,
raising her lorgnette "I fancy that is
ehe," replied the Eye Witness severely
There is nothing more dillicult than
tho adjusting to an easy, graceful condi
tion of affaire the intercourse between
relatives who have not been together
familiarly for somo yours. They ought
to have interests in common, but the
chances are they find they havo not; if
one has been more successful than the
other, has more monoy or better clothes,
it immediately eDgendeis an antagonism
that, like Bauquo's ghost, "will not
down." In the case of women, if one
looks critically at the other, the gazee
imagines that the gazer is trying to dis
cover more gray hairs or wrinkles than
her own portion; or one sa)s innocently
to the other, "I wonder you wear
green, my dear, I should think blue
might be more becoming." The posars
eor of tho blue gown, if Bhe is not already
turnip colored, becomes so exasperated,
without any escape vulvo.that tho over
flow of bile would bo warranted to ruin
the complexion of Eve. The Eye Wit
ness tells me that it was really amusing
to watch the effortB of the cousins to
assimilate.
Miss Omaha did eeem tired out and
professed a dif position to tako it easy
for a few days, which she was permitted
to do. "She actually makes me t.red,"
confided Mies Chicago to her guardian.
"She Hops herself down on the divan in
that tailor-made gown of hers as if eho
wished me to understand she bad clothes
to burn, and she digs her head in my
embroidered cushions, Ugh!'' with a
shudder, "I wonder if Bhe uses pork
grease on her hair." Omaha, who has
not been napping, a9 supposed, over
heard. "Chicago is certainly becoming
catty' in her old uge," she remarked
sweetly to their mutual friend later.
The visitor after a few dajB was suffi
ciently recovered to do a little sight
seeing, but after all there was not much
tosbowhtr. The Eye Witness, whom I
regard as a perfectly just and reliable
man, told me regretfully that ho re
garded it aB unfortunate that one so
young should be so blase. Architecture
did not interest her; the splendors of
International hall still before her, brie-a-bruc
and china failed to convinto; she
reeled off the names and makes of
placques. statuary and glass with a dizzy
glibnees which betrayed the newly made
connoisseur. "Wo thought she wbuld
all but have a spa6tn the day wo sug
gested taking her into a Mirror Maze."
"Now, do not be too severe," I muttered
soothingly, "she breakfasted, lunched,
dined and supped off Mirror Mazes for
six months; thero wasn't a decent look
ing glass outside in the town; if sho
wished to see how her skirt hung bqo
had to pay ton cents and go into a Mirror
Maze.
The day after this wo took her over to
tho lake front. Tho wind diovo inland
smartly and milled tho water to tlio
base of the pier and tossed tho draperies
of MisB Omaha and blew her loosuned
hair until she looked a veritable etching
against tho misty day. "O," sho mur
mured dreamily, aB if sho gazed upon a
vision, "I wish ou could have Been our
lagoon this summer." "Chicago's lip
curled impatiently, as BhuiiHhed: "Ah,
was it largor than this? ' "No;" roplied
this wild rose as sho turned her eyes, in
whose dcptbB Boomed still reflected tho
windswept spaces of her prairies, "no;
but it was so much bettor lighted."
"Omaha," Bald tho Eye Witness lator(
"tho forcing process which your educa
tion has undergono recently, while it
has advantages in some respects, in
otheie it is unfortunut; you havo buret
into bloom to bo Bure, but the (lower is
a little heavy yet for the stalk." Omaha
oed tho tip of her tun boot relloctively,
as sho said,"0, to bo sure, wo might
havo continued to run along tho ground.
I BUppo'o pumpkins have their use."
"Don't bo flippant, my dear; I am your
friend, and jou aro young to assume
such bLiBo airs; does nothing interest
you any more?" "Yes,,' sho responded
with asperity, "but it is not miles of
asphalt, nor high buildings nor yot lako
fronts; I was brought up on view, now I
want to study people and conditions, I
am interested in 'types.'"
The Eye Witness Binilod indulgently
as ho turned to Mibb Chicago; "1 wonder
bow she would like to rueol 'Billy' " he
aBked.
"Who is Billy?" inquired tho little
visitor with interest.
"Well, he is a person, si type, and has
represented many conditions in his
time; to be more explicit, he was for
twenty years a boot black belonging to
Chicago, and at present manages the
two largest boot blacking parlors bore;
will you go with us to call on him?"
She not only would, but seemed anx
ious, so the matter was speedily ar
ranged. "I think," Baid tho Eye Witness in
telling of the visit, "that Omaha wan
distinctly disappointed to And Billy as
well groomed with his head checkid aB
high as any other man of business who '
is able to afford a white collar, hut when
he greeted her cordially and insisted on
shining her shoeB himself bIio began to
recover. As Billy was busy arranging
his cleaner, rags, sponge and paste,
Omaha tried her 'prentice hand ut the
interviewing of a ''type." She did it
awkwardly enough; iudood, had not
Billy's normal state been vith his mouth
in action she might have fared badly.
"Yes," he began in answer to some in
quiry, "this has been my business all my
life since I was knee high, 'copt a little
while when I was cash boy at Marshall
Field'; that was pretty slow and I eooo
took to the btreet; it wat-n't no big busi
ness in thi m days; tbis is some differ
ent," as he wavjd his Bponge to indi
cate the pretentious parlors, ''from tho
timo wo went a hull day and never got a
shine; why the day before Easter we
took the rakc-otl from 1,507 pairs of shoeB
and wo averago between 700 and 800
shines a day; courso this buBinesa wasn't
no bed of roses to start on; wo took it
hot or cold as it came; you see that cor
ner acrost there," pointing to the oppo
site sido of the stroot, whero a tall build
ing rose, "well, twenty yearB ago there
was a man had a grocery store there and
in the winter ho had a big 6tovo going
and ho used to let us kids come in and
get warm; we could stay if wo didn't
make no noise, but if we squealed wo
hBd to git. Ono awful cold night
'Sooty Dick' and 'Scrappy Mark' got
down there ahead of the gang and when
we come along they was nice and warm
and ready to vamoose; tboy didn't do a
thing Lut get to shooting off their
mouthB just to aggravate the man; be
wouldn't liston to no explanation, but
just Hhoved tho hull push In'o tho
Btreet; you hot wo made it lively for
them UiiU for awhile; it's slow working
up in this job, but onco I had $'2,100
Biivod up and I didn't do a thing but get
stuck on some kind of n high-toned cinp
gamo and blow tho hull thing in a few
nights."
Billy was warming to tho work and
Omaha's feet wero beginning to t-hino
like rising sun stovo polish. "My parl
or In'fl a topnotoher, ho was fetched up
in a cradlo and a baby carriage, but he's
all right and we'ro going to mnke a go
of this thing. You ought to seen ub the
night wo knowod we'd got tho "froo
chinos" knocked out. We had 700 boot
blacks in lir.c, with a float in tho middle
drapod in crape and an empty chair on
top saying, ''Free Shines Died Tonight,''
on it. Ed, that'e my partner, ho headed
tho perceEBion and I como along behind)
an.l when wo rounded thorn up for a
speech tho boys kept up such a racket
my pardnor couldn't bo heard. It made
mo hot an' I jumped up on tho ntand
and I hollered, "Let up, kids; Ed's got a
h I of a cold and ho can't talk loss you
keep yor mouths shut."
"Billy looked perfoctly innocontof any
idoa that this was not just exactly tho
stylo of conversation MIbs Omaha had
boon U6cd to," tho Eye Witness chuckled
at tho remembrance, "but sho wished
tho opportunity to study 'typo' and
Billy was affording her tho chance with
a generosity that was prodigal.''
"No," Billy continued again in rosponso
to an inquiry, "wo ain't oo union; wo
can't make it go. Tho American boys
don't liko the dagoes, and tho dagoes
doti't liko the niggers, and there you
aro. I ain't no cause to complain. 1
got some of the beet people hero as cus
tomers Mr. lliginbotham comes here,
and Mr. and Mr. , mention
ing several well known names, but I
wouldn't take no mure interest in shin
ing them than I would you, M'ss."
"How beautiful aro tho feet of them
from tho sand hills," murmured Mies
Chicago as Omaha roBO from tho chair.
Billy, flushed with bis proud iloou of
recollection, would oo doubt havo tnm
bleu on ad infinitum, but it was getting
late and we had anothor call to make, so
wo drew Mits Omaha roluctantlj from
her contemplation of class and condition.
An hour later wo were seated in the
protty parlor of Mrs. M , on tbo
south side, chatting informally of
"things" rather than people. The call
proved unusually interesting, as Mrs.
M is a cousin of Mrs. McKinloy,
and it was at her home the president
and hiB wife stopped during the recent
peace jubilee. She naturally, since wo
made curious inquiries, gave ub some
concoption of how tho ordinary pulses
of lito are quickened when royalty traits
its purplo across tho threshold.
"Fancy us, a quiet, law-abiding fam
ily, being compelled to keep three police
men in the yard and two in tbo Iioueo
continually; and then being almost un
able to keop the crowd at bay. We hud
a tolephone operator in tho bouse niht
and day, and wore literally buried in
fluwore; some of the boxeB we were un
able to open for lack of timo to do it and
space to put any mure; ono morning a
largo box was brought in for Mrs. Mc
Kinloy, and on opening it, it appeared
to be a collection of hugo yellow roses
embedded in smilax; a closer ii.vestiga
tion uhowed tho roses wero made of
butter delicately moulded as a flowon
with tho compliments of tho
Dairy company. Our luncheon hour
seemed a matter of supreme momont to
tho caterers, who continually begged
tho priviledgo of sending in some dainty
for the consumption of President and
Mrs. McKinley. On tbo ono occasion
whon we weat for a drive tbo waiting
crowd made grand rushes for tho car
riage, climbing to the wheels or steps hb
they could; the president shook us many
bands ad possible, since he is only pro
vided with two himself, and thou iih Dim
driver urged bin horsoH forward lie
called: "Down carefully. Look out my
man, do not got hurt." The last moin
in.; of their v i h ; t a policeman came t
him and Haiti: "Mr. Prohilont, it looks
aB if they would mob tho house; they
art determined to sue jou." Mr. Mc
Kinley nropo with Iii'h fine smile, ni.tl
turning to the olllcer of tho peace, (-aid.
"Open the doom." Ho then took Iiih
stand in tho parlor and tho crowd poured
in, and with a "Hail tt tho Chief" ex
pre hIol grasped bin extended hand and
passed quietly out tho side door and
dispersed.
"They wore not olllco Backers, I sup
pose," Hiiid Mihh Omaha "No, they
wero not," laughed Mih. M , "they
were simply the people to whom the
priHidont belongs."
Tho day following hutono Miss Omaha
set for her letuin home; wo could not
prevail on her to remain longer; sho
evidently thought the pendulum had
swung as far both ways as possible and
when tho limit had boon played the
game for her was over. We checked
her lugiriigo, saw her sufely located,
handbiiir, umbrella and nuigazinoH, in
"lower No. 10 of the sleeper Itosomont,"
then, as we turned to go; alio extended
her hand t her cotiHin, that great royal
creature with her heart of store, and
Buid cordially, "I hope you will come out
somo time and make us a viHit."
"Thank you," ropli-d Miss Chicago,
"I shall ho glad to, some timewhen I
need a roBt."
"O, tho.so dear womon," sighed the
Eo Witness, as he carefully wiped and
readjusted his spectacles.
foraTvalentine.
What shall I send as a valentine,
Mating the one she sends?
Love that I hold in my heart's closed shrine?
Tender longings that ne'er can tine?
Happy dream of her hand in mine,
While above her my fond love bends
Ever till being ends?
What shall I send her? my heart to lay
Down at her feet in tears?
All of myself as I am today
All unworthy? Perchance I may
Thus in the giving of self away
Grow more worthy a love that "eers
None in the passing years.
Lewis Worthington Smith.
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