“Nope,” said the mountaineer.
“Perhaps your people are seeking to lynch somebody?” suggested the Northerner.
“No, ’tain’t that neither.”
“Then may I ask what is the purpose—the intent—of this chase?”
“Well, mister,” said the native, “it’s like this: County Judge Sim Hightower’s oldest boy, Simmy Junior, comes of age to-day and they’re runnin’ him down to put pants on him.”
§ 24 A Radical Difference Noted
A friend of mine has a friend who went abroad while Victoria the beloved, was still on the throne of Great Britain.
In London one night the traveler saw Madame Bernhardt play in “Anthony and Cleopatra.”
The scene came where Cleopatra receives news of Mark Antony’s defeat at Actium. Bernhardt was at her best as Egypt’s fiery queen that night. She stabbed the unfortunate slave who had borne the tidings to her, stormed, raved, frothed at the mouth, wrecked some of the scenery in her frenzy and finally, as the curtain fell, dropped in a shuddering, convulsive heap.
As the thunderous applause died down, the American heard a middle-aged British matron in the next seat remarking to her neighbor in tones of satisfaction: