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Show VOICES OF THE STREET- A beer keg is a very insignificant looking uffair, viewed from an architectural archi-tectural standpoint. In fact, it has an appearance bordering closely upon mediocrity. True, it is modest as the adamantine countenance of a ward politician on trial for iuifdline the bal- lots on election day. Hut, like its political po-litical associate, it' oftentimes gets out of its sphere, In its own precinct the beer keg is quite a necessary articl. and its taciturn nature is commendable. As a successful adjunct to the accumulation accumu-lation of a "jag" the beer keg plays almost a . leading role. Hut when it gets out on the sidewalk and blows its fetid breath into the nostrils of the passerby, and breathes up what pure air there is on the street it is trampling upon the rights of mankind and becomes be-comes an unmitigated nuisance. The corpulent figure of the beer keg should be banished to the augean realms of the saloon cellar or the stygian borders of the back alley, The fact that "salvation is free" must certainly account for the presence of so much clieap humanity in the "army." Did you ever stand on the cornep of Main and First South streets at raid-night raid-night and watch the tide of humanity flow by? There is a fascination in so doing so irresistible that every student of humanity has at some time or other made a sentinel of himself and watched the ebb and flow of "life" in its various phases. In the confusion of the hurrying hurry-ing feet upon the pavement may be traced more realistic dramas, curiously interwoven with phases of pathos, melody mel-ody and humor, than tho gilded pageant page-ant of the stage ever produced. Individuality Indi-viduality seeps through every pore of mankind after the goddess of night has wrapped her fleecy blanket around the light of day. Dr. Jekyl assumes as-sumes tho mask of Mr. Hyde, the store clerk rinses his perplexed soul into l'or-getfulness l'or-getfulness of tho worrying, peevish customers of the day iu five-cent beer; the plain, uuu.ssuinfng man of business takes a spin out with the boys to relieve his "grey mutter" of business responsibilities; responsi-bilities; the loud-voiced hack-driver assumes as-sumes the title role of a Sullivan, and keeps his eye open for a midnight customer cus-tomer who has become too overloaded to successfully navigate homeward; home-ward; the "rounder" searches out the unwary sucker to fleece of the price of a ham sandwich or a more substantial meal. But when the pale light of the stars is succeeded by the more refulgent glow of the sun. the old town resumes its wonted appearance, Mr. Hyde comes forth as Dr. Jekyl and business begins anew. Thus runs the world away. I found a portion of a life romance on the sidewalk the other day. It was in the shape of a torn and crumpied bit of letter paper, on which a masculine fist had given a transcript of his mind and revealed his heart, which was indeed in-deed sore and heavy. There was not much of the- letter, yet there was enough to allow the imaginative mind to read between the lines and stumble through a labyrinth of matter weaving out a romance iu which two lives blended so olosely for a time they almost al-most seemed as one. Then in a bewildering bewil-dering haze of doubt comes a shock that tears Ihem apart and the sequel to the deneuiuent is swallowed up by an invisible something which strenuously resists all endeavors to coax it to come forth aud reveal Itself. Hero is the first portion of tho letter: Your letter that yon wrote me to Denver wan forwarded me here to Salt Lake City today, to-day, and of course, just as I thought vou would do. you deny everything. I told you I knew about you Iu - Here the letter breaks off. and very provokingly, too. What was it he hail told his fair, false friend? Did he tell her that he knewshowaslickle?or was it that he knew she would prove untrue? un-true? Did he go ou aud accuse her of nil the crimes lu the catalogue? or did he merely upbraid her and then implore im-plore her to return to his sheltering bosom? Ihe reverse side of tho torn aud crumpled sheet would indicate that he still loved her with that fond and consuming passion which stretches its weary length throughout the length and breadth of the Bertha M. Clav uov-elette. uov-elette. It begins: to uie ; why It hums me up. You aro the oni y onk In the world, man r woman, th-it evt made a fool of me. No'jody ever made litt'e of me before sn4 just to thiuk of a worn-n whom I always took care o'. and resperte should do me the way you did and you maki' mutters worse by trying to still pull the wo; 1 over my eyes and tell me you are-It are-It is evident that this mysterious "she" had been playing with her husband? hus-band? Decidedly no. Her lover.then? Perhaps. Certain it is she had it in her prpvince to "make a fool of him," and woman-like, she did it to the queen's taste yes, to tho tasle of the whole pack. And, ninn fashion, he begins to kick. He says "she" has made"a fool of him, when his loiter clearlv proves that nature kindly relieved her of that pleasure and all in the world she had to do w as to begin where nature left off As the miners say, "she struck a rich lead aud worked it." 1 think I see her now a demure, sweet little thing, with a pair of as bewitching brown eyes as ever shone from beneath long pensive rushes: a dimpled mouth and a ravishing ravish-ing smile, and any mortal resident of this rolling ball of clav who would not follow her beckoning glance has no business busi-ness to stay on earth, and he would be sadly out of place in the salubrious climate cli-mate where harps are free and gold is so cheap they use it in preference to cedar posts, or asphaltum on tho pavements. I neVer hear of man. proud man s "downfall," but what I think of the curious admixture of the poets' laneies made by an exuberant Scotchman Scotch-man who Pr '-.irored to offer a toast to 'Woman." ilesaid: "O, woman, lu thin hours of ease l neertain. coy and hard to please:" w!fn.,oooft'' fmilir wuh thv face. Kirst w e pity, then endure, then embrace' Celbe Clare. |