The Lambertville record. [volume] (Lambertville, N.J.) 1872-1968, 1875-04-28
PIONEER FUN.
PRACTICAL JOKES N THE "nARrr DAYS.

/ PRACTICAL JOKES IN THE EARLY DAYS.
From one of Olive Harper's "reminiscences,
in the St. Louis Globe, we clip the following
good story
In one OF the mining camps Of California,
in the good old days, happened one colnical
incident, which was not altogether joke, at
least to the recipient. There was 4 g hotel y
in this camp, and it was kept then, as now, by
the genial landlord named Sperry. There was
young Englishman very i'll at the hotel, of
brain fever, and Sperry took the best care Of
him. He was quite delirious and very III al
together and the doctor had enjoined upon
Sperry that the medicine must be given reg
ularly, or the patient would succumb.
There was one other odd character in the
| same camp who went by the name of Colonel
Lovelacc, though whore he won this title do
not know.
! One night he came in, and Mr.. Spcrry, be-
ing weary of watching, asked Lovelace to sit
up, and at precisely four o'clock give the sick
man the medicine. Sperry was very sleepy,
but just as he started for bed, said
You will be sure not to fail '"
Certainly" said the Colonel.
I" lie is delirious and he will tell you he is
not i'll, and don't need the medicine, and don't
it, you must give it to him, and make him
take it,
"Trust me-" said the colonel and SO Mr..
Sperry went off to bed and soon fell asleep,
certain that the big colonel would not forget.
Soon after he had gone, the colonel turned
to one of the men in the bar-room and said !:
There !! Sperry never told me where that
fellow isl
Another man said
''He is in No. 4. 1t is that cranky little
Englishman that came up on the stage to-
night, with the curly hair, the billed shirt and
stovc-pipe hat Y
"Why, he must have been taken very sud-
denly"
"Well, he was" said the man, and he got
up and went out very soou after.
At four o'clock Lovelacs carefully mixed up
the dose in a spoon, with molasses, and taking
up the lamp in one hand and the spoon in the
other, went stamping up stairs, waking half
the people in the house. He entered the room
which, he supposed, contained the sick man,
and set the lamp down on the table, took
match from his pocket, and commenced STIR
ring up the medicine. The young fellow, who
had excited the envy of the roughly dressed
miners by his 'sstove- pipe . hat and faultless
attire and curly hair awoke, seeing the light
and burly man standing over him thus in
the middle of the night, and was naturallya
little uneasy, and raised up In bed, saying
"Now, then, who arc you9 and what do
you want here ?"
BE quiet,' said the colonel, In his very
gentlest accents, which, however, resembled
those of a wild bull. "Be quiet; I'm not
going to hurt YOU"
But what do you want in here ~
80, nothing rest easy. I've got little
medicine here for You to take" Still stirring
the dose, and advancing to the bed.
The little fellow edged over to the back
part, as he said
But, my friend, don't want any medi-
cine.'
Eyes, you do ; and this is not bad to take,
stirred up with molasses. Come, now, take
it, like good little fellow, and you will be all
right in the morning"
But l tell you 1 amt i'll; | won't take
your medicine you want to poison me am
not i'll at all. Now get out of here you bloody
rufian, you ~
81 knew you would say that" said the col
onel CHOW come over here and take it, :"
and with that he took the poor young fellow
by the curling hair, pulled him over to the
foreside of the bed, and forced the medicine
down his throat
The uproar brought in half the boarders,
who enjoyed the thing thoroughly.
The young fellow who took the forced dose
is q jeweler there now but the other one, for
whom it was intended, has slept long under
the madrona tree that stands over his grave.
Dir. Jones attended the sick In that camp
for several years. He had left college to travel
to California in his earliest days, and, unfor-
tunate for humanity, before he completed his
medicinal education. He doctorcd, as he said,
promscuously " that is he only knew the
names of ten different kinds of medicine, and
he gave them in succession, SO that if one did
not cure the other would.
/" But" he would add, with long sigh,
"most of them died before he had chance
to cure them, and before he had given them
more than half the medicines"
Practical jokes were not enjoyed alone, but
were rctailed to the whole community. When
one person arranged a practical joke, the en-.
tire neighborhood heard it before it came off,
if it were possible, or had not been gotten up
on too short notice. But in any case it was
told Of Immediately 1t was consummated.-
Some of them were not remarkable for delica.
cy or refinement, but all were remarkable fol
originality and drollery.
1t is astonishing to what an extent theiI
love of this sort of amusement led them to
exercise their bodies as we'll as brains. One
time, in one mining camp in California, old
DR.. Jones took it into his head to visit the
schoolmaster regularly every night, with three
friends, to read over a peach-basket full Of
sheriff's reports, which they had come across
by some means. He was tone of them" SC
he knew there was no use of rebellion, but he