Port Tobacco times, and Charles County advertiser. (Port Tobacco, Md.) 1845-1898, 1875-11-26

GlllS OllC -nctNoulSt UCOduSC AC puiio
and blows, and you would think he
was pulling all creation; but he don't
pull pound unless You continually
stir him up"
Mr.. Potts Story.
Max Adeler has the following:
While | was over at Pencader, the
other day, called on the Potts. Mr..
Potts is liable to indulge in extrava-
gance in his conversation, and, as Mrs!
Potts is an extremely conscientious
woman where matters of fact are con-
cerned, she's obliged to keep her eye
on him. Potts was telling me about
an incident that occurred in the town,
a few days before, and this is the way
he related it:
Potts-"You see old Bradley over
here is perfectly crazy on the subject
of gases and the atmosphere, and such
things-absolutely wild; and one day
he was disputing with Green about
how high up in the air life could be
sustained; and Bradley said an animal
could live about forty million miles
above the earth, if"
Mrs. P-"Not forty million, my
dear, only forty miles, he said
P.-"Forty, was it? Thank you.
Well, sir, old Green, you know, said
that was ridiculous; and he said he'd
bet Bradley couple of hundred thou
sand dollars that life couldn't be sus-
tanned half that way up, and So"
Mrs. P.-"William, YOU are wrong;
he only offered to bet fifty dollars"
P.-"Well, any how, Bradley took
him up quicker'n a wink, and they a.
greed to send up a cat in balloon to
decide the bet. So what does Bradley
do but buy balloon about twice as
big as our barn, and begin to-"
Mrs. Pit was only about ten
feet in diameter, Mr.. Adeler; William
forgets.'
P.-'Begin to initiate her. When
she was filled, it took eighty men to
hold her, and
Mrs. P.-"Eighty men, Mr.. Potts
Why, you know Mr.. Bradley held the
balloon himself"
Pile did, did he? 0, very we'll.
what's the odds? And when every
thing was ready they brought out
Bradley's tom-cat, and put it in the
basket and tied it in so that it couldn't
jump, You know. There were about
one hundred thousand people looking
on, and when they let go you never
heard such a"
Mrs. P.-"There were not more than
two hundred people there. ! counted
them myself"
20, don't bother me. | say you
never heard such a yell as the balloon
was scooting up into the sky, pretty
near ont of sight. Bradley said she
went up about 1000 miles and-now
don't interrupt me, Henrietta; | know
what the man said-and that cat, mind
You, a howling like a hundred fog
horns, so You could a heard her from
here 10 Peru. Well, sir, when she
was up SOS she looked as small as a
pin-head, something or other burst.
| dunno how it was, but pretty soon
down came that balloon a Pickering
toward the earth at the rate of fifty
miles minute, and old"
Mrs. P-"Mr. Potts, you know that
the balloon came down as gently
as"
P.-s.O, do hush up! Women don't
know anything about such things
And old Bradley, he had a kind of a
registering thermometer fixed in the
basket along with the cat. Some sort
of a patent machine; cost thousands
of dollars, and he was expecting to
examine it, and Green had an idea
he'd left out a dead cat, and scoop in
the stakes. When all of a sudden as
she came pelting down a tornado
struck her-now, Henrietta, what in
thunder are you staring at me in thai
way for? Itwas tornado-a regular
cyclone-andit it struck her and jammed
her against the lightning-rod on the
Baptist church steeple, and there she
stuck stuck on the spire about SOC
feet up in the air"
Mrs. P.-"You may get just as mad
as you please, but | am positively Ger.
tain that steeple's not an inch over 95
feet
P.-"Henrietta, I wish to gracious
you'd go up stairs and look after the
children. Well, about half minute
after she struck, out stepped that old
tom-cat onto the weathercock. 1t
made Green sick. And just then the
hurricane reached the weathercock,
and it began to revolve six hundred
or seven hundred times minute, the
cat bowling until you couldn't hear
yourself speak. (Now, Henrietta,
you've had your put, you keep quiet. }
That cat staid on the weathercock a.
bout two months
Mrs. P.-"Mr. Potts, that's an awful
story; it only happened last Tuesday"
P. (confdentially) mind
her. And on Sunday the way that
cat carried on, and yowled, with its
tail pointing due east, was so awful
that they couldn't have church. And
Sunday afternoon the preacher told
Bradley if he didn't get that cat down
he'd sue him for million dollars
damages. So Bradley got gun and
shot at the cat fourteen hundred times.
(Now you didn't count EN-, Henrietta,
and | did, And he banged the top
of the steeple all to splinters, and at
last fetched down the cat shot to rags;
and in her stomach he found his ther-
mometer. She'd ate it on her way up,
and it stood at eleven hundred degrees,
so old"
Mrs. P.-''No thermometer ever
stood at such a figure as that"
p. (indignantly)-"O we'll, if you