American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1864-1890, 1872-07-27

~ as Can rcCollcCt, 10 inc IOuoWlnS Ell
feet:
Eyes, George, I just got home from
New York; came by Sound steamer, and
l haven't slept much, l can tell you
What's the matter? Well, I'll tell you.
In the first place, George, do look like
a man that would take advantage of "a fell
low with one leg? 'Don't have trouble
enough getting my two hundred and sew
enty pounds along on two legs? OF course
1 do. Well, now, George, l am just the
same toward married people, or people
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, l might have been married man
myself once, but / am not, for rea-
sons best known to a lady who
but phsaw! that was all thirty
years ago, and I was going to tell you
about last night. I've noticed, blythe
married on any provocation whatever,
and 1 don't object to it, mind, unless they
sit up all night and court afterward, and
rob me of my sleep. But what shall 1
say about that couple last night on the
Sound? l turned in about ten o'clock.
They hadn't even the excuse of being
married. They were just 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 get
ting asleep about eleven o'clock, and l
really believe if he had only changed the
PAGES of his story, if he had only trotted
in a few lies, just for variety, 1 might
have slept through them. Now, imagine,
going to rehearse to you striking in end
less 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 counting ooh,
how did love Caroliue!' said,
for the twentieth time, that wretch
of fellow just outside my state
room. ooh, how did love Carolnei-it
was his deep chest-tones that were SO ag-
gravating to my toe nails-'and how Car
oline said she loved me. Then to think of
her perfidy! l never knew anything so
so perfidious as her pertidyr-What an
ass he was, George, to be surei-'She was
very beautiful, Mary he went on, Mary
being, l hope, the only other person who
shared with me the Indebtedness of lis
tening to these things-'Caroline was
very beautiful, Mary. She looked just
like you. She was a good girl, but so
perfidious / want you to be all she was
tc me. l want you to take her place in
my heart. l want you to be Just like her.
We were engaged for year. said he, in
one of his idiotic rounds, and then / in
sisted, says he, still aggravating my feet
through the thin panelling, and then !
insisted that Caroline should not only cut
the acquaintance of that spruce young
Ransom, the leather dealer but also write |
him n letter and tell him she believed him
to be a villain, and wanted nothing more |
to do with him. she asked me why | /
didn't write the letter to Mr. Ransom
myself if | wanted it written | told |
her, of course, that Mr.. Ransom was no
friend of mine, as he was of hers, and | !
thought it was her duty to write the let
ter, and, just because | insisted she went
of and married that fool Of Il young
Ransom himself. Oh, she was so per
Well, George, coughed, but the story
went on. | upset IA chair, but still the
story of Caroline's perfdy never stopped,
except to repeat, She was so beautiful
just like you, Mary, and want you to be