SAME OLD THING.

Evening Post, Volume XXXIV, Issue 68, 17 September 1887, Page 1 (Supplement)

SAME OLD THING.

" They keep on writm these yellow kiver'd novels, I see. " The speaker was a quaint old man , from the country, who stood iv front of the counter of an old bookstall, re- , garding a lot of cheap romances that •was displayed there. j " Used to read 'em as fast as they | come out when I was a boy," mused | the old man. j ". Hain't tackled one in about forty j year I guess. Gittin' marrid raisin' a hull passle of children, sort o' knocks the romance oulen a feller, dont it 1" | The boss, to whom his remarks were directed, said he supposed it did. I " I used ter sit up till long arter mid-night," continued the old man, " redin' ' Ogarita ; or the Tragedy of the False Eyebrow,' ' Mysteries of the Castle of Saa Juan del Fiootjack,' and things like that. But say, do the novels continue to run as they used to?" " Pretty much the same old thing, I guess." " Pshaw ! You don't say ? Then the herowine cries, ' Unhand me, villain ! or by me father's great horned spoons, I'll throw meself from the summit of ' yonder cliff ! ' hey 1 " " That's the way it goes." " Well, I declare. . And when the villian, who isn't in the unhandiDg business, refuses to release her on her own recognizances, she shrieks the name of ' Gonraldo,' wiio is her lover, and he flies to her lescue." , " You have got ifc down pat." "I thought so. And the pirate yarns, too. Do they still skim the bright blue sea iv rakish lookin 1 . schooners (five cents a schooner) hull painted black, with a narrer fctreak of red runnin' arouud the sides 1 " " I guess so." " And the pirate's bride — methinks I see her now, standing- at the door-of the powder magazine with a lighted torch in her hand, which she threatens to apply if her husdand. the captain, makes the handsome captive walk the plank. 'Hold ' Gomez de Rutabaga', blio cries, ' touch but a hair of that' fair youth's head, aud I will blow thee and thy murderous crew to the weepin' stars, and send thy cruel bark to the shriekin' winds !' " " What a memory you have got !" " And the pirate's cave. Same old cave, I suppose 1" 11 Pretty much. But they light it with electricity now." " You don't aay ! Street cars runnin' betweeu the cave and the dock, perhaps V tl Yes ; and a telephone connects the cave with the signal station, to warn them of approaching danger." "Well," said the old man, "we must expect some changes in forty years, but I guess the novel is about the same old thing's nigh as they can get at it." And with a lingering, saddened look at the " yellow kivers " that had called up visions of a romantic past, the old man jogged along.