the marvelous feats of the strong man had no in
terest for him. At last came the crowning feature
of the evening—the great cannon act.
Chester watched from his perch the preparations
with intense interest and saw a medium sized man
in magnificent tights prance into the ring and by
means of a suspended rope draw himself up to the
highest part of the tent and seat himself lightly
upon a trapeeze. Then a large cannon was rolled
in and carefully aimed at him. All was ready.
The band played a slow melody, while the whole
audience held their breath expectantly. Suddenly
there was a flash, a loud roar and out from the can
non's mouth shot the beautiful Madame Perkin-,
straight at her awaiting husband. Frederick Chester
saw her and in all her fine flummery he recognized
his Maggie Murphy. Strange to say as she shot
through the air she saw him ; their eyes met in the
longing glance and she knew all.
In the twentieth of a second her mind was made
up—the next instant she reached the Monsieur,
grasped his foot with one hand, the bar with the
other, gave a sudden jerk, closed her eyes and at
the next instant was wildly hanging to the trapeeze
At the same time a groan of horror issued from
the audience for Monsieur Perique lay a lifeless
mass in the sawdust below.
Frederick Chester had fallen from his seat onto
the rocks beneath him and lay unconscious. For
twenty-four hours he knew nothing. At length he
awoke to find his Maggie watching longingly over
him. Instantly he recovered his old dislingue
"Madame Perique, what means this intrusion,"
he exclaimed
"It means," she replied, "that I have come to
you as a graduating present."
"A.h, Maggie," he said softened, "you are very
nice."
But little remains to be told. Madame Perique
explained that while in France she had in despair
wed the great gymnast, and that for the last year
they had been traveling in America in the
cannon specialty. Six weeks later Frederick
E LANCE.
THE FRE
Chester and his restored Miss Murphy stood befoi e
'Squire T—, and were married. For years they
lived happily and prosperously; he making his
livlihood by teaching elocution, often giving re
citals in the towns surrounding his home, his great
piece being, f'Alphonso's Last Waltz with Imo
gene," 'a graphic recital which never fails to bring
down the house. Besides this he often takes trips
as endman on sonic traveling minstrel troupe, and
occasionally .he and his wife perform for some large
circus the great cannon act to which they owe their
H. H. H.
happiness
"All the world is queer but thee and me,
Rachel, and thee is a little peculiar," said an old
Quaker to his wife. The goOd Friend, with the
shrewdness of his sect, and in its quaint simplicity
of diction, formulated a truth as universal as it is
practically unacknowledged.
We all know peculiar people, and wonder at
them, and in our own little private courts ofjudg
ment pronounce a verdict against them. There
is the woman who, never having seen you before,
gives you in five minutes after introduction a
rapid and comprehensive sketch of her career, past
and present, with future expectations and plans
added thereto ; and the man who airs his pet the
ories, rides his religious or political hobby, and
dogmatically prescribes adhesion to his views as
the one thing requisite to make all mankind per
fect. Then there are those who are color-blind,
mentally as well as physically, and whose inhar
monious ideas are as discordant as the glaring in
congruities of their attire.
But it is not those whom many join in con
demning, not the truly eccentric, the grotesquely
odd, of whom we are now speaking, but rather of
those who differ from our preconceived notions of
their characters, or from our own standards of
propriety and conduct. Intimate friends and ad
mired acquaintances often startle or wound us by
PECULIAR PEOPLE