Des Arc weekly citizen., 1868-11-10
A Practical Joke.
From the Toledo R1ad.

Tn an interior town of this State, stop. ped, as many do, weary and travel stained, at hotel in this city. He sr- rived on the 8 80 train from Detroit, having come from some point far to the westward that day, and tired, weary. dusty, sore, fatigucd and dis gusted, registered his name, had 8 room assigned him, and proceeding thereto sought quiet repose in the arms Of Morpheus. dreaming. if he dreamed at all, of the trade he should drive with the thrifty merchants of the Corn city on the morrow.
 A merchant of this city, who was a patron of the house to which this par ticular traveller belongs. happened to be in the hotel that evening at about 9 o'clock, and his eye falling upon the register it alighted upon this particu- lar name. Unfortunate look! urhap- py circumstance! For this merchant was of jocose turn of mind, a wag, q joker-one of those men who do all sorts of absurd things. hoping that amusement of some kind will follow. He did an absurd thing to this name. theugh the occurrences that followed were anything but amusing. What did he do? Why. he seized a pen, and in the same handwriting, as near as poss- ible, he added to the name of the com mercial traveller up stairs, the words. s'and lady, Two small words; but small things arc often productive ot great results. IL ia said that a dispute about hog-trough set in motion the succession of events that made Martin Van Buren president, and it is we'll known fact that wcll-bucket caused one of tic largest and bloodicst wars that every afflicted Europe. These two words, and lsdy," added to the name cfa sleeping commercial traveller was the occasion of an unpleasantness not ns terrible to humanity in general as war, but quite as disagreeable to this one member of the human family.
 For, as the fates would have it. brother-in- n-law of this commercial trav- e!er, the only brother of the idolized wife of his bosom--also q traveller for New York house-had been that very morning at his Che first commercial travelers) house in the interior, where he had seen his sister. Anxious to see her husband, he had ascertaincd that hn h. ol,l, hn nf Tplpnn night, snd as fast as steam could carry him he sfcd hiiher, arriving on the I0:3o P. N. train of the C. X T. He went to one hotel, and then to another. and finally struck the right one. He looked al the register, he saw the name, and he saw, alas! the added words, "and lady." And iadyf What la dy? Not tie lady who had rishtto travel with him, for that lady, his sister, he left at her home in the pleasant interior town that morning, and. as she did not come with him, il WAS morally impossible that it could be she. The brother-in-law knew all about it at once, and being a bigger man than the wretch who was thus shamefully abusing the confidence re- posed in him. he determined to sur prise him in his sin, and with his good right hand, or rather both hands, and feet il need be, to chastise him. Boil ing with rage, he mounted the stairs and, without waiting to announce his presence by the regular knock, he ap- piled his foot to the door, which, una bic to stand the pressure, as J. N. has it, yielded. In he went and the sleep ing traveller awoke to find himself in the embrace of a strong and angry man.
 The commercial traveller was some what as.onished, as may be supposed. He had no time to think he was as- sailed SO terociously as to leave no doubt that the assailant meant to take his life. He resisted. Though small he is a remarkably active man, and not at all cowardly. and he sailed in. The fight was rather pretty one. Now one was on top ard now the other Now the commercial traveller was un- der. and anon the brothcr-inlaw. Now the brothcr-in-law had the com mercial travellers ear between his teeth, and then again the commercial traveller was industriously tearing away small but savory bits of the hrother-in-law' E cheek. Chairs were smashed, stands and tables were upset, and groans, and screams and wells, enough to furnish an ordinary luuatic asylum, proceeded from the room.
 There was never such fight. with the exception, perhaps, of the famous free fight in Arkansas, of which 1t is recorded that an hour after its close q bushel of noses were picked up.
 Finally the clerk heard the rumpus and proceeded to the room. It was lucky that he did so, for they had each other by the throat with such a vicious grasp that both must have died in a momept more.
 He tore them apart
 "Where is she?' grasped the broth er-in-law, spiiting out three teeth which, knocked out, were of no use to him.
 s.She 2" asked the commercial travel ar as well as a man could whose uppel lin was split. "Who is she!'
 Why the woman registered Wi'i you.v multered the brother-in-law tearing away a bit of his lett ear and