Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1859-10-27
. 9tl 9uutlsiir1!g / R&aaing,
A STREAK OF LIGHTNING.

A STREAK OF LIGHTNING.
The Doctor thus fervently appealed to lai
down his hand at euchre, pushed his specta
cles up to his forehead, gave his half empt
tumbler an intense look, and grati6ed on
curiosity as to the origin of the cant phrase
"boys, did you see that streak of light
ming 2"- a.:
r"You must know, my dear young friend
that St. Louis was not always as big a plac'
as it now is, and Accommodations for man ant
beast were not fifteen or twenty years ago a
they are now.
.tsAbout those days the tavern at which
stopped, and it was the principal one in the
town, contained one long room, like the cab
in of steam boat, which served in the va
rious capacities of a ball room, hall Of JUS
tice, q common council room, theatre, and
when the town was full, for sleeping a.
partment for such of the surplus population
as we're not lucky enough to get accomoda'
ton in more limited space.
=, aWell, business once carried me there In
midsummer. As the town was thronged, l
was put with thirty or forty others in the
great accommodation room, and consigned for
the night to my pallet of straw. came in
late that night, for had met some acqualnt.
anees, and we had made rather fast time OF
it.. so that I found all the mattresses occu-
pied, save the one reserved for me, and each
occupant fast asleep. The landlord had CIV
en- me small piece of candle, about an inch
long, to. light me to bed, and as he was too
sleepy or too lazy to get candlestick, l
took, the tallow in my hand and marched
up to my dormitory. 1t was fearfully hot
night, and the temperature, of course, not
much lessened by the heat radiating from
the carcasses of thirty or forty sleeping men.
ri soon found my bed, and forthwith
proceeded to "unshuck." Sticking the can
die on the edge of my chair, I carefully laid
my clothes on the back Of it, so as to guard
as far as possible against all probability of
their contact with the tallow, and l was pro-
ceediug to blow out my light, when in my
anxiety to save nv clothes, the only suit |
had with me, the thought occurred that |
had better remove the candle altogether
After glance around the room, I found this
to be a matter of some difficulty. l saw that
every chair was occupied. 1 was afraid to
setit on the floor, and the fire place was too
far of to justify even the remotest hope of
my ever regaining my couch, once away from
it in the dark. While I was in this quan-
dary my eye fell upon the form of large
man, who was sleeping at tremendous rate,
about ten feet off. From the excessive heat
that prevailed. he had thrown off every un-
necessary article Of clothing. He was breath
ing at the same time as hard, and snoring as
loud as if he were determined to extract eve
ry possible article of enjoyment from those
musical accompaniments.
"Quietly advancing towards my snoring
neighbor, soon found firm and perma-
nent Judgement for my piece Of candle, now
conconsiderably reduced, upon very prom
inent and very exposed portion of my fat
friend, and he was so profoundly asleep that
I had no difficulty in fixed basis for my
burning tallow. As soon as had, by actual
experiment, satisfied myself that my ''illu-
minator" would in its upheavings turn Meth
er to the right nor the left, but would burn
steadily where I had set it. I stole back to
my place in bed as quietly as possible, and
soon tried to get up small gamut Of extra
noises with my nose and throat, but it was
no go. Every iucipient effort at snore was
sure to terminate in litter, and so | just
lay still and watched the course of events.
ri never saw piece of candle take so
much time to burn half an inch. thought
it had the lives of nine cats, but burn on it
did, and still snored on my fat neighbor.-
The light gradually approached the period of
its extiDguishment. I confess that it was
about the most exciting moment of my life.
At last, to my iuexpressible delight, l saw
the sleeper give twitch, and then for
moment all was still; then followed spas
modic action little more violent; calm
of an instant succeeded, when the candle
permed circle in the air, expiring as it
reached the floor, and the fat man wide a.
wake and perfectly erect was heard to ex.
claim, "boys did you see that streak of light
ming? Anybody dead? I'm hit; don't you
smell scorched meat ?-Erchange paper.