Cedar Falls gazette. [volume] (Cedar Falls, Iowa) 1860-1895, 1867-04-26

Our Savior dear!
We lay in silence ut thy feet
This sad, sad year,
A Clear Case of Luck.
IA good many singular things hap
pened during the war, said ohm, as
he lighted his after.dinner cigar, shut
somehow / consider my own case about
the funniest thing of all" asf
Z ."Ah!' said I, "how is that?r
| "Did Ii never occur to you that 1t
was little odd that i'm so short time
/ should have got to be a partner in
the firm, and married man, and all
that sort of thing 2"
"Oh! you speculated."
"Not a bit of 1t; or, rather, did,
and didn't; for you know that de-
test speculation. I've even made old
Mitraille swear off. ~ - tfNes- w
$50 far it's very clear; but IL you
have secured French wife, and rich
one, could understand a little plain
English"
Before went to the war John Deve-
lin and had been fellow clerks in the
New York. A slight lameness prevent
ed John from going into the army !;
and an utter absence of capital prevent
ed him from proposing for the hand Of
the pretty Lucille, though always be-
lieved uhat he had more to fear from
the gruff old papa than from the young
lady herself.
Poor as he was, and on q moderate
salary, when l returned at the end of
the war-a good deal lamer than John
had been before it'll found my chum
i'm the full enjoyment Of all he had
longed for, and with brown stone
front to enjoy it in. So when he vol
unteered something which promised to
explain the mystery, my curiosity was
on fire i'm a moment. John was right
good fellow, and l did not envy him a
particle; but l must say that | was Gu
rious about 1t.
WELL" said John, "the way of 1t
was this: Have another cigar? You
know good deal what l was after
when you went away; and my chance
of getting ii then seemed about as far
off as the Presidency. 1t was a clear
case of luck, tell you, and very little
pretty well, though l was hardly the
man he would have chosen for SON.
in law and I kept his private books
you know. You know all about the
unbounded gold speculation i'm 1862
and 1858; well he somehow got into IL,
steady, old bard. headed banker as he
Is. Almost everybody went IN more or
less.
"The old man had rather missed it
once or twice, and got hit pretty hard,
though no one but myself knew any,
thing about it-so hard, in fact, that l
was more than little alarmed for the
result.
IT got it into my head about that
time that I would like to run down to
Washington and take look at the
forts and camps. Somehow 1t always
CALLED me q good deal that could not
take my part with the rest, and want
ed to have look at the thing anyhow.
So called at the house to see Lucille
and got short furlough, and succeed
ed surprisingly well. That is, didn't
see as much of Lucille as / wanted,
but the old gentleman gave me leave
of absence readily, and added:
Suppose something may happen,
somewhat, whiles you are dare, eh ?
You send me telegram, quick ?'
"Yes, replied, "but you know the
to send over the wires just what he
wants to.n tH gA
"Oh, never mind all dat" said Mi
traille, 'just you send something good
or bad, no matter Just the words.
understand mighty quick, ha! ha!
Never do you mind de War Depart
ment.n
"And so,n continued John, "off /
went without very clear idea of what
was expected of me, or how ! was to do
it.n
"And now the rest of 10 sounds tre-
mendously like page from Munchau-
sen, bat it'a all n clear historical fact
Mitraille wrote q letter which got to
Washington about as soon as i did,
urging me to keep my ears and eyes
open, and promising that If / sent him
anything of importance he would
halves with me on the profits. / saw
by that how terribly nervous be was
getting, and concluded that affairs
must be even worse with him than /
knew of. Nevertheless, began to be
a triHe excited myself, and though I
had q sort of horror Of speculation,
especially gold gambling, 4 Icommenced
to look around me pretty sharply for
items. Among other. adventures fell
i'm with old Sam G0rham, of Cincinnati,
one Of our correspondents, and q neph-
ew Of his. queer, awkward spoon OF a
fellow, aud we went around sight see-
INK III CSVn YsAuys
''Nothing would do for either uncle
or nephew but h continual succession
Of cock tails, and had to leave them
i'm their rooms soon after dinner, some
what the worse for wear, while con-
tinued my search for information un-
der difficulties. 5 s. tsle
"I didn't find out anything in partic-
ular all that night or the next forenoon,
but saw the sights pretty efectually,
and about noon I went into my friends
room to stir them up. found the
nephew Iolling disconsolately on a
chair, and tie uncle in bed with high
fever, the natural result Of his k,plish-
ness the day before. The hopeful youth
began the story Of his tribulations by
stating that he had expected his aunt
there that day, but had received a let
ter from her saying that she had been
delayed and could not come on at
once.
IT arked him what the doctor had
said about his uncle.
"'Oh, the old mans right sick, and
reckon I'D better telegraph To Auat
Sally to come on right off.
ss0n the plea of a splitting headache,
he begged me ia send his message, and
/ thought would send one at the same
time to Mitraille e. Co. Well, histele-
- on..a thx diros.fsnv, rnaA.