Eaton weekly Democrat. [volume] (Eaton, Ohio) 1866-1875, 1873-08-28

mad planted neQSe around the CUCKOO
to keep spring all the year, and to him
he propounded this question
How can a man who has been hung
escape from rope by which he is sus-
pended ?''
The wise man from Gotham took
three weeks to study up1 this grave
subject, and gave this answer, "He
cannot"
Then the lord of the castle put this
question
GA thief who could not steal when
he is alive, being condemned to
death for stealing-can he steal after he
is dead?"
The wise man sat with his chin upon
his hand, and looked as wise and old
as anything except the difference be-
tween right and wrong, and replied,
eyes"
The lord of the castle asked him,
How %
He said he could not tell and he was
the wisest man of his time.
They sent him home, and began
to think that the thief was a sorcerer,
and ordered masses to allay his vindic-
tive spirit, for they believed that he
would take speedy vengeance on the
lord of the castle and all Who helped to
hang him.
And the lord of the castle wan
dered about asking for his armor from
man, from woman, and from the devil,
who he now believed had personated the
thief.
Nothing came of it.
At last, he was just about to give
it up, when one morning as he awoke
great noise and shouting reached his
ears, coming from the direction of the
public square.
His servants raped hurriedly upon
his door, and, as he opened it, they
screamed out together: "My lord,
my lord, do you know what has hap
pened ?'
"No; but if you will hold your
tongues long enough, am going to ask.
What is it ?'
GA miracle -
Really %
eyes the crimina1-he is there
dead r'
"Dead?"
"Quite dead Only
Well
"Did he have spurs on when he was
hung? Steel spurs, my lord p
"But he has them now,' cried the
men, their eyes rolling wildly with
fright and then they gasped out in
awful whispers, &c And his helmet, my
lord His helmet is not on his head.
He has taken it off. He has placed it
carefully on the ground, and he hangs
bare-headed ~
The lord of the castle turned pale.
There was nothing like it in "Sqeeky
not even pumpkin ghost or a paste
board bogy to be scared at. 1t was con-
trary to nature for a dead man to come
| back and hang himself again-contrary
to nature in every sense ; and in those
medieval ages there were no foxes to
say and geese to believe that spirits
came back. It must be the Monarch of
Evil himself But the Baron himself
had never been afraid of man, or the
potentate Just mentioned, and he was
not going to begin now; so with a deep
returning flush on his face, the express
sion of which grew firmer every moment,
he dressed himself quickly and ran
down to the square.
| It was even SO. The thief hung bare
headed, the spurs on his feet, the he'll
met on the ground beneath him and
everybody shouting, CA miracle a
miracle p
/" He has repented, % cried some, ''and
come back and rehung himself r.
He has always been here" cried
the others, "only his sorcery concealed
him !''
"But why those spurs? He must
have been gone away on some unfin-
ished business. What a fool to come
back at all p
AS for the Baron, surer than ever of
the inestimable, ife-preserving tails
man which he who wore the armor
would possess, he carried off his prop
erty triumphantly. He took the spurs,
too, which was practical justice, per-
haps, but not exactly apointof honor.
The Saturday Review" of those me-
dieval days gave three versions of this
strange story.
The wise man of ancient Gotham de.
clared, through the pages of the Re.
sufferer had will enough, he might alb
sorb his body into his aOiII, and, as the
will is invisible, the body would be in
visible likewise but the body reap
peared at the end of a month becaus,
his will suddenly GO tcaved in, % SO to say
This was capital theory, and might b.
essayed by all the poor dear murderers
if they could see that it led to anything
at all satisfactory in the end, which 1
don't.
The next version was offered by DIR
Phthisgig, who was then delivering
lectures in the Center of Creation
| OGl6rW1Se CdlIeu Liz huD LII
"Review had just reported a remarka
BILE one, in which the learned Docto
!. , proved inductively, deductively, pro
ductively and seductively, that spider
carried their ears on their legs. Thi
profound philosopher maintained tina
the animal on the gallows escaped, bu
being pursued by an awful phantom
; called Remorse, he could not endure hi
life lenger than a month, and had com
. back to be pious and good, and to d
! Justice on himself. Dear old Phthisie
: I honor him for believing that there
something divine in the worst natures
True, when his wife puts her boots O.
of morning, she finds little snake
! squirming up, which the good man ha
!. tucked up in the boots to keep safe an
e warm over night. But never mind, hi
=! heart is all right, and he is the simplest
g pleasantest, kindliest old Domini
S Sampson of a philosopher in the Hub
s which is saying octave volumes, wher
+ so many good, and pious, and learne
d philosophers do congregate.
But thirdly, and finally, medievs
reporter, who had I" interviewed" every
:. body upon whom he could lay hands
= declared that those country fellows &C
It ino homa at nioht DaSsed the QallOwS O