Cinder Path Tales

CINDER-PATH TALES enough, andhe finally cleared his throat, and made a short speech, of which I could dis­ tinguish nothing but the last words, as he gave a comprehensive sweep of his gloved hand, including our whole company, and yelled, " An' ivery wan a winner."He would have spoken longer had not the manager, with rare presence of mind, dropped the curtain in front of him. Johnson had come to himself very quickly with the assistance of his handlers, and now stepped up toPaddy with very honest congratulations, and the contestants shook hands with mutual respect and no ill will. We were delayed a few minutes by our inability to get the boxing-glove off of Paddy's bigright hand; the left he had re­ moved himself on receipt of the bill. We finally cut it offhim, formedin line of march, and threading our way through the wings, joined the last stragglers of the audienceas they filed out. I tried hard to subdue the spirits of my companions, but with little success. Jim andHarry weregreatly elated, and Tom (who of all men enjoys winning) was now as bad as the others, and deserting me, left the conservative vote in a very decided minority. There was certainly nothing lacking inthe perfect success of the evening but the fact