American essays -- 19th century; American fiction -- 19th century; American poetry -- 19th century; Short stories, American
"Don't make any mistake," he said. There was a blue gleam in his eyes
exactly the color of the shining metal of his weapon.
"Gentlemen," he said, "I invite you all when in New York to call at my
joint, at 2508 Bowery. Ask for Diamond Joe, and you'll see me. I'm
going into Mexico for two weeks to see after my mining plants and I'll
be at home any time after then. Upstairs, 2508 Bowery; don't forget
the number. I generally make my traveling expenses as I go. Good
night."
Mr. Simmons backed quickly out and disappeared.
Five minutes later Captain Richard Saxon Clancy, paymaster (?) for the
M. K. & T. Railway Company, and member (?) of the Dallas Young Men's
Christian Association, alias "Jimmy," stood at a corner bar and said:
"Whiskey, old man, and--say get a bigger glass than that, will you? I
need it."
(_Houston Daily Post_, Sunday morning, April 12, 1896.)
An Unknown Romance
The first pale star peeped down the gorge. Above, to illimitable
heights reached the Alps, snow-white above, shadowy around, and black
in the depths of the gorge.
A young and stalwart man, clad in the garb of a chamois hunter, passed
up the path. His face was bronzed with sun and wind, his eye was frank
and clear, his step agile and firm. He was singing fragments of a
Bavarian hunting song, and in his hand he held a white blossom of the
edelweiss he had plucked from the cliff. Suddenly he paused, and the
song broke, and dropped from his lips. A girl, costumed as the Swiss
peasants are, crossed the path along one that bisected his, carrying a
small stone pitcher full of water. Her hair was of the lightest gold
and hung far below her trim waist in a heavy braid. Her eyes shone
through the gathering twilight, and her lips, slightly parted, showed
a faint gleam of the whitest teeth.
As if impelled by a common impulse, the hunter and the maiden paused,
each with their eyes fixed upon the other. Then the man advanced, and
doffing his feathered hat, bowed low and spake some words in the
German language. The maiden answered, speaking haltingly and low.
Then a door opened in a cottage almost hidden among the trees, and a
babble of voices was heard. The maiden's cheeks turned crimson, and
she started to go, but as she went, she turned her eyes and looked at
the hunter still. He took a step after her, and stretched out his hand
as if to stay her. She tore a bunch of blue gentians from her bosom
and threw them towards him. He caught them as they fell, then ran
lightly and gave into her hand the edelweiss bloom that he carried.
She thrust it into her bosom, then ran like a mountain sprite into the
cottage, where the voices were.
The hunter stopped for a while, then went his way more slowly up the
mountain path, and he sang no more. As he went he pressed the flowers
frequently to his lips.
* * * * *
The wedding was to be one of the showiest, and the society of the
metropolis was almost begging for invitations.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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