Dodgeville chronicle. [volume] (Dodgeville, Wis.) 1862-current, 1867-01-17
PictOriaHzing Language.

81 take my tea barefoot" said a back
woodsman, when asked if he would have
cream and sugar. Il find barefoot, by the
way, in the Coventry Lays) A., speaking
to me once Of very rocky clearing, said,
Stones got a very heavy mortgage on that
land;" and l overheard q guide in the
woods say to his companions who were
urging him to sing, 8 Wal, | did sing once;
but toons got invented, and that split my
trade"
Whoever has driven over a stream by a
bridge made of slabs will feel the pictur
esque force of the word slab-bridge, applied
to a fellow of shaky character. Almost
every county has some good die-sinller, in
phrase, whose mintage passes into the cur
rency of the whole neighborhood. Such a
one described the county Jail (the one-story
dwellings are of woody as the house whose
underpinin' come up to the caves, and called
he'll "the place where they didn't rake up
their fires at night" l once asked a
stage-driver if the other side of the hill
was as steep as t he one we were climbing.
"St6ep! chain lightnin' couldn't go down
it 'thout putin the shoe on ~ And this
brings me back to the exaggerations of
which Il spoke before. TO me there is
something very taking in the negro SO
black that charcoal made a chalk mark on
him." and the ''shingle painted so like mar
bic that it sank in water" as if it's very
consciousness of its vanity had been over
persuaded by the painter. heard a man,
in order to give a notion Of some very cold
weather, say to another that a.certain Joe,
who had been taking mercury, found lump
of quicksilver in each boot when he went
to dinner. This power of rapidly drama
I'M, I,.vrf .,rfui into o1,I
the vivid conception of Joe as a human
poetic sense that may be refined into
faculty. aIa., ,..-.t s..t = =,
Copt. Basil Hall denied that our people
had any humor, deceived perhaps by their
gravity Of manner Perhaps Capt. Hall
had no humor himself and if so, he would
never find it, Did he always feel the point
of what was said to himself? | doubt it
because happen to know chance he once
had given him in vain The captain was
walking up and down the verandah of a
country tavern in Massachusetts, while the
coach changed horses. A thunder storm
was going on, and with that pleasant Euro
pean air of indirect selfcompliment in con-
descending to be surprised at American
merit, which we find so conciliating, he
said to countryman Longing against the
door, Pretty heavy thunder you have
here" The other, who had OWNED at a
glance his feelings Of generous concession
to the new country, drawled grayely,
oval, we du, considerin' the number of
the inhabitants This. the more | analyze
it, the more humorous does it SEEM
The same man was capable of wit, also,
when he would. He was cabinet maker,
and was once employed to make some
commandment tables for the parish meet
ing house. The parson, a very old man,
annoyed him by looking into his workshop
every morning, and cautioned him to be
very sure to pick out 2" clear mahogany
without any knots in it," Atlast, wearied
out, he retorted one day." WAL Il guess,
DR.. b., i'll were to leave the nots out o.
some o the Commandments, 'twould SCOT
Won 81 rrrnll .