Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1872-09-19
The Stutp Teller.
HALF AN HOUR WITH A MADMAN.

in room alone with violent madman, espe
cially if he should happen to be armed with
long sharp knife, and you yourself are alto
gether destitute of means of defense. Yet
such was once my case and the reader may
perhaps, be somewhat interested in learning
how such an awkward adventure came tt
pass.
In the year 1859, had great deal o1
professional business to transact in Bermond'
sey, district of South London, and had oc
casion to spend many hours every day among
the not very pleasant streets and lanes of thai
locality. Not far from the old church, there
is sort of very narrow street or lane called
Grange Walk.
1t was in summer time-I think about July
or August-when one evening I received 9
message which made it needful for me to call
in person, the next morning, at certain house
in Grange Walk. A letter and some books
were to be left for me at the house of man
named Smith; and as I had some calls to
make close by, it would of course cost me
little time or trouble to fetch the parcel my
self.
Now, Grange Walk is not very pleasant
street, althoug gh it is by no means so bad as
manv others near to it. There are not so
many dirty, halfnaked children playing in
the cutters, or so many untidy, slipshod women
leaning at the door-ways or gossipping on the
sidewalk, as in some other streets hard by ; in
fact, for the neighborhood, it is very respect
able street in its way. I should not have ob'
iected to pass through it at midnight; and in
the daytime no one would certainly expect it
to be the scene of any unpleasant adventure.
So thought little about the matter until the
next morning, when having completed the
other business which I had in hand, l turned
my steps toward Grange Walk.
The first difficulty which I experienced was
in finding the house. The gentleman who
had written to me was q clergyman, and, as
every one knows, the clergy, in common with
other professional men, often write very bad
and indistinct hand. The gentleman in ques-
ton was no exception to this rule His let
ters always looked just as if he had fished
large spider out of an ink-stand, and had al
lowed it to crawl over clean sheet of paper.
You could just make out one or two letters in
most of the longer words and as I was accus-
toned to read bad writing, and his in partic-
ular, 1 generally contrived, with the aid of a
little guessing, to make out the sense of what
he had written. In the present case the name
"Smith" was pretty clear, but the number OF
Mr.. Smiths house was no means so. 1t might
have been intended for II, or 81, or II, or in
fact almost anything. Still, as Grange Walk
is not very large place, I anticipated less
trouble in discovering the abode of Mr.. Smith
than I actually experienced. The houses
were old rickety affairs, many Of them being
built of wood; and as most of the doors had
for many years been innocent ola new coat OF
paint, it was no easy matter to find what the
numbers were which had originally been
painted on them. Besides which, by new
postal arrangement, they had all been newly
remembered, and the numbers all ran the
wrong way-100 being where 4 originally
was, and next to 100 came No. SO, and so on ;
while on most of the doors two or three very
different numbers were marked in chalk, as if
the people living there had been accustomed
to alter them every few days, without taking
the trouble to obliterate the old ones. I saw
that it was quite useless to try to unravel the
difficulty myself, so I applied to some of the
natives for assistance. This seemed only to
make matters worse, for while one would
strenuously assert that such house bore such
a number, another as stoutly maintained an
opinion Numerically opposite. Then too,
the name "Smith" was such very common
one, that almost every one asked seemed to
know an infinite number of persons bearing
that designation, all Of whom were living in
or about Grange Walk; and the difficulty
was to choose from among such conflicting
claims the proper person-to find, not Smith
for the street appeared full of them, but the
Smith. However, after exercising no small
amount of patience, and calling at the houses
of half dozen gentlemen of that name, while
a dozen or more of people, chiefly women
whom I had asked to direct me, were watching
me from as many open doors, from whence
they sometimes shouted to me across the street
to try such or such house, at last, by dint
of great perseverance, I arrived at the house
of him whom I believed to be the true and
vertable Smith-the real Smith! Knocking
with my stick at the open door Of very old
wooden house of three or four stories height
I asked dirty, slovenly woman who made
her appearance after the fifth knock, whether
Mr.. Smith lived there.
"Oh !yes," she said, "Mr. Smith, poor man,
he do live here"
I stated that 1 wished to sea him, and after
hesitating few moments, and cycling me all
over, she said, in peculiar way, and with a
sort of smile which did not understand:
"Well, sir, he lives, do Mr.. Smith, on the
third floor in the front room, but it's seldom
he do see any one at all"
"Oh! never mind that" I answered. "I'll
60 up and try, for I think he has something to
say to me-"
then ran up stairs, little noticing the look
of interest with which the woman looked after
me, and understanding it still less. I had
supposed from the letter that Mr.. Smith occu
pied the whole of the house but this Smith
if the true one, was evidently only lodger
living in one room, and I rather wondered
that my friend should have left the letters
and books there The front room on the third
floor was very readily found, and I tapped al
the door. 1t was opened by a tall, gaunt, but
powerfully built man, whose appearance was
certainly very wild-such man as you would
not care to be with in the dark. But it was
broad daylight, and when he asked me, with 9
strange, almost angry voice, to "walk in,
certainly expected nothing more than perhaps
a few rude words, if had mistaken him fol
the Smith of my search.
"Sit down, sir" he said. Take chair,
and he pointed to rickety old stool quite al
the other end of the room. Taking off my
hat, did as he said, and then politely intro
duced the object of my visit.
"Your name" interrogated, "is, I believe
Smith, and was informed by Mr.. Marshal
that you had small parcel for me-"
"What's in the parcel ?" he demanded, rath
er than asked.
Books and papers, I believe" ~