Eaton weekly Democrat. [volume] (Eaton, Ohio) 1866-1875, 1873-04-10
THE sTORY.TELLER.

Can 1@Slt With you
Certainly, sir. !"
&C. Nice weather"
"Splendid, indeed"
Crops growing finely ?''
eyes, couldn't do better"
I was sitting in q passenger coach, on
a Wisconsin railroad, one day, years
ago, when a good-looking, pleasant
spoken man came along, stopped at my
seat, and the above conversation took
place, the latter part of it after had
given him part of my seat.
Now, am regarded as a social man.
like joke, good bit; and think
sour, morose man, who uses his tongue
only when forced to, is bound to die of
some terrible disease, and to go to some
place of red-hot punishment.
On eutering railroad car / always
look about for talkative man, and then
get as close to him as possible, and
. drain him dry, if the journey is long
enough.
And 1 want to state one thing more ::
Left an orphan before I could realize
the event which made me one, I got
kicked here and cuffed there, and 'tgrew
up between folks, ;" as they say, ought
to have had, at the time of which I write,
a pretty thorough knowledge of human
nature, and have been enabled to read
In mans face if he intended me evil.
I did not pride myself on being over
keen or extra sharp, but the knocking
around among strangers ought to give
any one good experience.
Well, the stranger and I fell into an
easy train of conversation as we rode on
together, and in ten minutes I began to
enjoy his company. He was well-made
fellow, finely dressed, and he wore fine
watch and simon-pure diamond ring.
never saw man who could talk SO
easily and pleasantly. 1t seemed that
he had but to open his mouth and the
words fell right out.
I had travelled in the South, so had
he. I had heard the loud roar of the
Pacific he knew all about it. 1 had
been up in balloon, down in mine !;
been blown up, smashed up, and repaired
again my new friend had experienced
all these things, and was waiting for
something new to turn up of q more
startling nature. We agreed on politics
neither had any religion, and I had
never met such railroad companion.
Did you ever meet a man, who,
though stranger to you ten minutes
before, could wrest from you secrets
which you'd sworn to yourself not to re-
veal? Well, he was just such man.
1t was not long before he commenced
dSh1uB IuO duSSb1OuSs ac Oud uOb ScSLu
trying to quiz or draw me out, but he
asked me questions in such sly, round
about way, that before I knew it was
giving him my history.
1 was at that time Just on the point OF
being admitted to the bar of Wisconsin,
as a student of Law & Law, of Brier-
vile. The firm were old lawyers, with
lucrative practice, and it had been
talked over that in about a month
should become the eco" of the firm
A year before farmer named Preston
down about four miles from Grafton
had died, and his matters had beer
put into the hands of Law & Law fol
settlement. Preston had died rich. Ht
had money in the bank, railroad stocks
mortgages, ETC., and everything was set
tied up to the satisfaction of the relic
and the fatherless.
About year before his death, being
pinched for money, and not wishing t.
sell anything at sacrifice, Preston hat
given a mortgage on his farm for thre'
thousand dollars. While the paper
read "one year from date" there was
verbal agreement that it should be lift
ed any day when Preston desired. 1
month after, when, having the money t.
clear off the paper, the old money bag
holding it refused to disgorge, wishing
to secure his interest for year.
I was on my way to ascertain the dat
of expiration. A fire among our offic
papers had destroyed the memoranda
and must go down and get the dat
from old Scrip, who lives south OF Grat