The Andrew County Republican. [volume] (Savannah, Mo.) 1871-1876, 1873-08-15

| "iohouo! AAc WHISKY Wltnln was PROOF
against watery PARTICLES, and iefed
them in any shape SO, taking another
drink to make sure had not served on,
short measure on the previous occasion,
logged on, sometimes tnusing on my
past, sometimes specializing as to nv
future, refreshing my memory and spur.
ring my hopes with spirits of the Elixir,
until in due course arrived at the Red
Dragon, at Chester, full of my usual
spirits and with an empty flask.
By the time hissing.hot rump steak
was ready for absorption into my sys-
tenn, I had duly sent OFF my dispatches
to our house. Business first, pleasure
aftefxard; so I sat down TO my dinner
pint of sherry, then had drop of
brandy to assist digestion, and then my
us'.al forty winks.
1 considered 1 had now fairly got
through the business of the day, and
frightening up, 1 called for my pipe
and jorum of toddy, and, resigning my
self to the soothing influence of the
weed and whisky, waited patiently for
an arrival to spend the evening with /;
for was alone in the commercial room,
and the only sounds cognizable to my
senses were those of the rain peltibg
away at the window. and the hollow
rumbling of stray vehicles over the
paving stones.
l did not COUNT never dp=but I
believe I had arrived at my fifth grog
and pipe, when, feeling chill, 1 drew
the heavy armchair closer to the fire !;
this little act occupied sevend rainhtes,
for the handy legs of the stupid old
chair would make for themselves a
place under the hearth-rug. tried to
circumyent the awkward limbs. and
temporized with my toe bnt the more
L kept on wanting to get them righted,
tho more they kept on not
wanting to be righted, and, being
fidgety in all little matters of
personal comfort, I was positively
obliged, at the risk of rush of blood
to the head, to lift the club-footed old
chair with one hand, and to lay the
refractory corner of the rug with the
other.
When, by this effort of exhausted
nature, 1 had accomplished my object,
1 took stiff pull at my replenished
toddy, filed my pipe and lighted it,
and, with the feelings of man who has
obtained victory, 1 threw myself into
my late enemy's lap, pinched his
mahogany old arms with my elbows,
stretched out my feet upon the fender,
and laughed outright ut my triumph,
with my usual jolly Ha! ha I! till the
room rang again.
"Ha ha ha! hal" till the room
rang again, followed like an echo the
Ha ha! that originally belonged to
me.
To my surprise and delight, I found
an arrival had ensconced himself in the
fellow-chair to mine, had his jorum of
toddy on the other corner of the mantel,
his pipe in full blast, his elbows on the
mahogany arms of my late enemy's own
brother, and his toes almost touching
mine on the fender !
I looked at the arrival, and the
arrival looked at me. bowed to him,
and received a courteous bend in
return.
"Wet night" said I.
"Wet night" said he.
And cold," said I.
"And cold" said he.
"Nice fire." said 1.
Nice fire." said he.
He seemed to try to give his words my
exact intonation.
He was mocking me
damn it !" said I, and laughed.
damn it said he, and laughed
laughed so much like me that could
not distinguish any difference, either in
quantity or quality; he was right to a
single Ha!
1 took another pull at my toddy, and
so did he! Ismoked my pipe serenely,
and made very deliberate survey of
my friend. He became Immediately
engaged in the same interesting occu-
patton with me. He was man about
my own age, and evinced his taste by
adopting a style of costume closely re-
sembiing my own. I noticed particu-
larly that his feet were incased III
French cloth boots, with marrow tips of
patent leather at the toes, like mine
in fact, 1 felt tempted to offer him con-
siderable odds that could name the
maker and number of the lasts upon
which they were made. His face, too,
seemed to be very like my face; there
was the noble brow, the partially bald
pate, the expressive mouth, the mag
nifcent teeth, the chiseled nose-the-
no, not the eloquent dark eyes-the
same sort of eyes, though differing only
from mine in one little particular fea-
ture. His eyes had a red ring round
each, caused perhaps by cold or grief;
nor could he boast of rosy, fresh COM
plexion such as mine his was most de-
cidedly choleric-blue as indigo. / con-
cluded at once that he travelled for some
dry-salter, and had been fidgeting with
his samples-perhaps had received a
parcel of blue stuff in bulk TO save car
riage which he had heen weinhinn ont