Washington telegraph., 1854-08-30
A Hard Yarn.

An Englishman who was travelling on
the Mississippi river. told some rather hard
stories about London thieves. a Cincin.
natl chap named Case, heard these nara
tives, with silent but expressive humph and
then remarked that he thought the western
thieves beat the London operators all hol-
low.
How so?" enquired the Englishnan.
with surprise. Pray sir, have You lived
much in the west ?''
"Not great deal | undertook 10 sci
Up business at the Desmoines Rapids while
ago. but the rascally people stole nearly ev-
erything had, and finally, a Welch miner
ran of with my wife"
Good God" !" said the Englishman.-
And you never found her ?''
Never to this day. But that was not
the worst of it."
Worst Why, what can be worse than
stealing a mans wife ;"
Stealing his children, I should saw
said the implseable Case.
Children III
es, niger woman, who hadn't any
Of her own, abducted my younger daughter
and sloped and jined the lniuns.."
Great heavens did you zee her 90 it,"
See her YES, and ske hadn't ten rods
the start Of me, but She plunged into the
lake and swan like duck-and there was
not canoe to follow her with
The Englishman laid back in his chair
and called for another mug Of af-aud-aif.
while Case smoked his cigar and biz incred
ulous friend at the same time most rcmorse-
lessly.
Il shan't 20 any further wcst-I
think" at length observed the excited John
Bull.
II should not advise any one 10 co.
said Case quietly. ',My brother once lived
out tlere, but he had to leave the country"
What business was he in ri
'Lumber-had saw MILL
And they stole his lumber? ?'
Yes, and bis saw-logs too
"Saw-logs 2"
Yes whole dozens Of fine black walnut
logs were carried off in a single night
True upon my honor. sir He tried every
way to prevent it: hired men u watch his
logs but it was al no use, They'd whip
EN- away as easy as If there had been no
one there. They'd steal en- cut Of the riv-
er. out Of the cove and even out OF the
mill
Good gracious ~
Just to give you an idea how they can
stea! ont there, continued Case, sending
Ny wink to the listening company, "jpst 70
give you an idea did you ever work in
saw mill p
Never"
"Well, my brother one day, bought a.
ALFRED fine black walnut log. four feet three
at the butt, and not a knot in it. lie was
determined to keep that log, any how. aud
he hired two Scotchmen to watch il all
night Well, they took snail demiiohn
of whiskey with them. snaked the log UP
the side Of the hill above the mill sud then
sat down On the log to play kerds, just to
keep them awake, you see. Twas mon
strous biz log-bark two inches thick
Well. as | was saying they played keerds
and drank whiskey all night-and a. il be-
gan to grow Light they went to sleep astrad-
die Of the log. About a minute after day
light my brother went over to the mill TO
zee how they got on, and the log was gone"
And they sitting Oh it,
Sitting on the bark The thieves had
drove 40 iron wedge into the Lut end which
pinted down hill, and htched yoke If ox-
en to if and pulled i out, leaving the shell,
and the scotchmen setting as traddle Of il
fast asleep"
The Englisbman here rose, dropped his
cigar into the the spittoon. and looked at biz
watch, said he thought be wculd 20 on deck
and see how far we'd be down the river Be-
fore morning.