The Opelousas courier., 1868-11-14
a Wonderful Liar.

| An Englishman travelling on the Mis-
sissippi told several rather tough stories
about some London thieves. A Cincin-
natl chap, named Case, heard these mar
ratives with a silent but expressive
| '.umph," and then remarked that he
| thought the Western thieves beat the
London operators all hollow.
"How so?" inquired the Englishman
with surprise. "Pray, sir, have you lived
much i'll the West - II 4.... ..esgvs ..
Not great deal. I undertook to set
up business at Des Moines Rapids while
ago, but the rascally people stole nearly
everything had, and finally a Welsh
miner ran off with my wife" t'
9"Gracieus!n said the Englishman, land
have you never found herr" r.
s 'sNever to this day. But that was not
the worst of it, -5&
''Worst! What could be worse than
stealing mans wife z" svz.r" ~f7,s>
Stealing the children, / should say,n
said the implacable Case
''Children!"l .t.-
"Yes. A nigger woman who had none
of her, own abducted my youngest daugh-
ter, and sloped and joined the Injuns."
did You see her?n
sSee her? Yes, she hadn't ten rods
the start of me; but plunged into the
lake and swan off like duck, and there
wasn't a canoe to follow her with" s#za-
The aEnglishman leaned back in his
chair and called for another mug of 'alf-
| and-'alf, while Case smoked his cigar.
81 shan't go any further west, / think" !"
at length observed the excited John
Bull. 9,. s..51" II .....=a .4@.sY NIB i
| 81 81 should not advise any one to go,''
/ said Case, quietly. my brother once
lived there, hut he had to leave, although
his business was the best in the country. ;"
e"What business is he in. pray p 81
Lumbering- had a sawmill." IT. f;z
,I@' And they stole his lumber!" @
,s.Ye es, and saw logs, too" 2gae a3ef. .ae
Saw logs 2"3 .f#a a@ ta 1s-.
.sYes; whole dozens of black walnut
logs were spirited off or carried away in
a single night. He tried every way to
prevent it; had men hired to watch his
logs, but it was no use. They would
whip them away as easily as if there had
been nobody there. They would steal
them, out of tile cove and even out of the
railways" 5ea a5 % It# ai@s - +. ~. ...-.
s"Good graciousn' '1ssa 1
'Just to give you an idea how they
steal out there-did you ever work IN a
saw mill n. :.... ,a-.sss4s..s N. s-
| Never 4Fs #s.a,. %4G s1 sss
a""Well, one day my brother bought an
aH-fred fine. black walnut log-four feet
three at the butt, and not knot in it.
He was determined to keep that log any
how. and hired two canny scotchmen to
watch it all night. Well, they took a
small demJohn Of whisky with them,
snaked the log up the side of the hill
above, the mill, built a fire, and then sat
down to play keerds, just to keep them
awake you see Twas a monstrous big
log bark two inches thick. Well. as
was saying, they played keerds and
drank whiskey all night, and as it began
Ito grow light, went asleepsa straddle of
the log. About, q minute after daylight
! George went over to the mill to see how
Hthey We're getting on, and the log was
/ gone!!p s5a N eass 9sa H t1sss
/ -4asNhat were the Scotchmen doing7
eiSitting on the bark. The thieves had
drove an iron wedge into the butt-end
which pointed down hill. and hitehed a
yoke Of oxen and pulled it right out,
leaving the shell, and the Scotchers sit
ting a-straddle of it fast asleep!"
( The sEnglishman here arose, dropped
his. cigar-stump into the spittoon, looked
at his watch, and said he thought he'd
go on deck and see how far he'd be down
the river, before morning. &tfEH