The Evansville journal. [volume] (Evansville, Ind.) 1866-1870, 1866-07-26

market / brought home half a dozen
hams and hung them up about the
door, more for show than ANYTHING
else, for hams were a grand holiday
dinner In those regions, and not an
everyday affair [ can tell you. They
went off slowly, as [ thought they
would Now and then some one
would come In for a pound, and once
| sold half of the smallest one to q
woman who wanted it for her Sunday
dinner. She was. to pay me on Mon
!, day morning, but she never did, for on
Sunday night her husband killed her
with rum bottle, and they took her
body past my shop with its poor head
all beaten out of shape and bloody.
And so the hams hung there
through the summer and through the
fall, and quite on into the winter.
It was just as the December nights
| began to grow long and dark and cold,
that | noticed a new policeman on
our beat-a very young, handsome
looking fellow, with very bright eyes,
but with such thin cheeks and hands,
although he seemed to be powerfully
built and made for rather a stout
man, that could not help watching
him, and wondering whether he had
been i'll or not The first time that
noticed him was about sunset, and he
passed and re-passed my window a
dozen times, looking all the while
straight at those hams which dangled
from the, frame of the awning [
hope he means to buy one, I said to.
my wife, as we sat together over the
ea-table and [ shouldn't wonder if
he did, for he seems to have taken
quite fancy to them
But the evening passed, and
though | saw him every now and then
on the other side of the way, looking
across with his bright eyes straight at
the hams; he did not come in or
speak to me on the subject. And so
| made up my mind that he would
send for it In the morning, and some
how made so sure of it that whenever
| saw a decent looking woman go by
with a basket on her arm | said,
That's the policeman's wife coming
after the ham, | was mistaken, how
ever; and after the street lamps were
lighted that night [ began to see the
man pacing up and down, up and
down, with his eyes still fixed as they
had been the night previous, upon the
hams. Once he caught me peeping at
him, and then he turned so red and
looked at me with such a glitter in his
eyes that | grew angry, and said to
myself It's well that keeping unsafe
able articles isn't a crime in this
country, for if it was | should expect
to be arrested. So / gave him back
his look, turned on my heel and
walked back into the shop. | did not
see him again that night; but long
after everything had been taken in
and locked up, and / was snug in bed.
| heard tramp, tramp, tramp, upon
the pavement, and knew it was the new
policeman, and that he was looking
at the hooks where the hams hung, as
well as though | had seen him.
" On the third evening he was there
again; that, you may say, was no won
der, for it was his duty to be upon
that beat and no other; but it was Gu
rious that he should keep on staring
at those hams with those bright, wolf
ish eyes of his. [ didn't like it,
though / could not have said why. A
vessel had been wrecked at sea about
that time, and an extra, with the
latest news of the disaster, came out
that evening. bought paper and
sat down behind the counter to read
it. 1t was a stormy night and but few
customers came in, and those were
easily served, and somehow, between
reading and thinking, time passed on,
until the clock struck eleven, and / |
had not yet taken in my goods or put |
up my shutters.
just as L was about to do so, Gin |
fact, | had already put my hand upon |
the first piece of the shutter), my door |
opened and an old woman came in.
She was a scottish, miserable creature, /
known about the place as Irish Kate, |
and with her red nose and bleared |
eyes and bloated limbs, was as ugly a |
figure as any one ever cast eyes on
Another dram, [ suppose, I said to
myself going behind the bar at once,
for | wanted to get rid of her as soon
as possible. But she, to my surprise,
came close up to me, and put her
great red paw upon my arm.
I've made diskivery, mister, she
said. you have not been keeping as
bright lookout as We should there's
been a thafe at work widout, this
blessed night"
What thief?' I asked.
'More than / can tell ye;" she an
swered, but | think it's policeman,
no less, the BLACKBOARD"
"A policeman" | cried, and my
thoughts few at once to the man had
seen staring at my hams.