n as though some
premonition of impending disaster touched with flaming wings the
sleeping carcase of his talent he sat down and wrote his soul-searching
national appeal "Hist." This he completed on his thirty-first birthday.

For a true and sincere description of that last tragic night we must
turn to Richard Floop--whose love for Spout has lent his pen so much
glamour and poetry.

"Dusk was falling when Jake stole softly out through the scullery door
and clambered on the char-a-banc for Coney Island. On arrival at that
home of gaiety and irresponsibility he forgot his troubles--his sordid
domestic upheavals--even his talent he suppressed and merged himself
like an ordinary human being into the mad spirit of carnival. With
boyish shouts he rolled on the joy-wheel; with childish gurgles he
bestrode strange and jolting painted horses and waved his hat daringly
when the merry-go-round was at its fastest. His excitement on the
helter-skelter knew no bounds--while his delighted screams in the river
caves called forth many appreciative raspberries from the friendly
crowds. With no presentiment that this evening of unadulterated ecstasy
was to be the culminating and final sensation in his eventful life he
stepped into that fatal compartment on the big wheel--from which a
quarter of an hour later he hurtled when at an enormous height from the
ground!"

There ends Floop's beautiful and heart-breaking picture of the death of
a great and wonderful man. Some say it was suicide--others that he was
merely leaning out too far in admiration of the view. Who knows what
really inspired that sudden fierce rush to death? But whatever the cause
there is one fact that remains--shining like a star above the squalid
wreck of his latter years--he died happy. The indisputable proof of this
can be obtained from perusal of the first line of a poem which was
discovered in his breast pocket:

"All Hail to Fun and Merriment--"

The less widely-known works of Jake D'Annunzio Spout are as follows:

"Sun-dappled Dreams," a book of poems.
"Through Bavaria with a Note-book."
"The Sin of Pharoah Bubster."

and:

"With Lincoln in Calcutta," a Fantasy.

Fountain-pen pieces and ever-sharp pencil in collection of H. Mackenzie
Kump.

DONNA ISABELLA ANGELICA Y BANANAS

[Illustration: DONNA ISABELLA ANGELICA Y BANANAS

_From the portrait by Baloona (early Spanish)_]

Spain has ever been the home of romance and beauty