The native Virginian. [volume] (Orange Court House, Va.) 1867-187?, 1868-02-28

advisers, and he has the nerve and don't
mind shedding blood" Herehe mused.
raped with his fingers on the crystal
serpent, and said, as if to himself, Il
think we can manage it.
At this juncture little black imp ap-
oroached with silver waiter on which
was golden tankard; he took the
tankard, saying, 81 always take night
cap before retiring-this is some of
Stearns & Brtmmel's best, sent down
to me rs present by John Minor
Burts it is dashed with little boiling
sulphur and aquafortis to give it "a bet
ter flavor. viii you join me?' offering
me the cup smilingly. begged to be
excused, on the plea of being teeto-
taller, "And pray" said he, "what is
that q explained that teetotalers were
society who were pledged not to
drink any ardent spirits. us it possi-
ble," said he, ''that there can be such
people? l must see to them, If they
are allowed to flourish they will deprive
me of half my custom" He then emp
tied the tankard at draught, wiped his
lips with q white eambric handkert hicf,
and appeared to be refreshed and ex-
hilarated. He invited me cordially to
spend few days in his kingdom; said
he would like to take me around and
show me the sights which would fur-
nish me some good ''items," especially.
the new reservoirs, (which, by the by"
he said, .were designed by q country
man of yours-Colonel Ellet-a man OF
genius; what do you think he proposed
to me lately? nothing less than to bore
tunnel through the earth to the At
lantie Ocean, and let in the waters OF
the ocean, to extingllish the fires OF he'll
"a magnificent scheme truly. but told
him that thought that the meeting OF
the two elements in such large quanti-
ties would generate sufficient gas to
blow up the whole world. He said he
could regulate the water, and by means
of another tunnel to terra tirna let oil
the gas as fast as it was generated =
But | told him I did not like that sum-
mary way of dispensing with hell and
so dismissed the subject. The fact is,
Mr.. Spike, hca Is necessity; what would
become of such people as Browniow,
Stevens, Wade, Butler, Stanton, SUM-
ner & Co., if there was no help lie
then made me polite bow of dismissal,
and offered me his hand which courtesy
compelled me to take. lie gave me
hearty shake, which caused tingling
sensation as if thousand ants were
running up MY arm. Tom also made
his congo, and we departed. Tom ac-
companied me part of the way to the
river, then stopped, and said he must
tell me goodbye, as he had to attenda
ball at at the Duchess de Pompadour's.
/ attempted to shake hands with him,
but found that my arm was paralyzed.
Tom broke out in a great laugh, so
much,'' said he, ssfor shaking hands with
the Devil. He did that because you
said that your were a teetotaler."
"But am not IL teetotaler, and only
said so to get rid of drinking his infer
nal compound of whisky and sulphur"
s.Oh." said Tom, che knows that as we'll
as you, and he was, sgreening" you when
he made out that he didn't know what
a teetotaler was. l tell you, there's
nothing going on in the world that he
doesn't know all about, and have fin
ger in it, too. Good-bye!'
babe him goodbye with my left
hand, and, hurrying down 10 the river,
took the next train for home, where
arrived about day-break, glad enough
to set my foot upon this upper crust
once more, aad vowing never to go to
hell again. If can help it.
| forgot to state that there were three
mysterious looking passengers oil the
train, and one of them hal on long
cloak and Scotch cap. l know by that,
that they were the Infa'nal Commission
erS.
Your faithful Reporter.