American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1864-1890, 1872-06-08
THE FAT MANS STORY.
BY RALPH Keller.

The old fellow had glazed carpet bag.
He seized by the button hole a man whom
he called George, and anchored him only
a length or two to the windward of me,
SO couldn't help but hear. There they
pulled and tugged and bobbed about the
| glazed carpet bag, putting and wheeling
in an indescribable manner, had spoken,
as nearly as l can recollect, to the follow
ing effect;
New York; came by Sound steamer, and
1 haven't Slept much, 1 can tell you.
What's the matters Well, I'll tell you.
In the first place, George, do look like a
man that would take advantage of fel-
low with one leg? Don't l have trouble
enough getting my two hundred and
seventy pounds along on two legs? OF
| course do. Well, now, George, am
just the same toward married people, or
people going to be married, as 1 would
be to that one legged soldier over there
on the other side of the street grinding
The Battle Cry of Freedom and l wish
he would move the war into the next
street. No, sir, might have been a mar
ried man myself once. but am not, for
reasons best known to a lady who
but pshaw! that was all thirty years ago,
and was going to tell you about last
night. I've noticed, by-the-way, George,
that young people aoiW get married
on any provocation whatever, anal don't
object to it, mind, unless they sit up all
night and court afterward, and rob me of
my sleep. But what shall say about
that couple last night ON the Sound? l
turned in about 10 O'clock. They hadn't
even the excuse of being married. They
werejust counting, and it was the most
tiresome piece of business you ever heard
of-that fellow, that IDIOT, saying the same
thing over and over. They were seated
on the guard, plump against my state
room door. Well, George, it was awful
l came near getting asleep about II
o'clock, and really believe if he had only
changed the PAGES of his story, if he had
only trotted in a few lies, just for variety,
might have slept through them. Now,
imagine, if you can, George, the sort of
talk l am going to rehearse to you strik.
ing. in endless repetition against the thin
wall of your state-room, just where your
bare feet necessarily touch it, for your
berth is always too short. The pine
board tingles with the sound, and-and
the sentiment, George, and that tingles
your feet, and SO it tingles all the way up
to your ears. Now you know yourself,
George, that's no way to take your court
ing. oh, how l did love Caroline p said,
for the twentieth time, that wretch of
fellow just outside my state-room. 'Oh,
now L dld love Caroline ut was his
deep chest tones that were SO aggravating
to my toe nails-'a and how Caroline
said she loved me! Then to think of her
perfidy! l never knew anything $3.50
perfidious as her perfidyr What an ass
he was, George, to be sure!-'She was
very beautiful, Mary he went on, Mary
being, | hope, the only other person who
shared with me the wretchedness of
listening to these things Caroline was
very beautiful, Mary. She looked Just
like you. She was good girl, but so
perfdious / want you to be all she was
to me. l want you to take her place in |
my heart. want you to be Just like her
We were engaged for year. said he, in
one of his idiotic rounds, and then i in |
sisted says he, still aggravating my feet |
through the thin pancling, and then |
insisted that Caroline should not only |
cut the acquaintance of that spruce young |
Ransom, the leather dealer, but also !