Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1875-04-22

| far in the rear, Vixen, fat and painting,
coming loyalty after him. Vixen sur
viz, him but little while. Her no.
rizon had been bounded by the circle
of the Captains daily life, and, when
he was gone, she, poor old relic who
!. had already filed up the measure Of
a dogs days, soon quietly breathed her
last.
These three, taken hap-hazard from
memsry, may stand as specimens of
queer people, but queerer than any Of
these was Miss Betsey Hayes Miss
Betsey, when knew her first, was in
that stage of life which might be called
fifty "the sere and yellow leaf" Her
height, length and breadth, indeed every
thing about her, were dimlnutive, ex
cept, perhaps, her neck and her nose.
The former was long and thin, and
seemed too slender to bear the weight
of her head. The latter was Napoleonic
in appearance and was indicative of
great firmness and decision, if the physi-
ognomists are to be believed. Miss Bet
sey's head was adorned by ringlets of
natural hair, snow-white and very beau
tiful. AS she tripped down the street on
the tiniest Of tiny feet her curls tloated
and danced merrily in the breeze. Be-
hind her you would have thought the
lightly balancing figure that of merry
schoolgirl Before her, you would have
been amazed, stricken dumb with aston
ishment at seeing the withered features
and wrinkled skin that might easily &C
company sixty. Miss Betsey never
walked Her customary gait was hop,
skip and jump. She was tiesh-and
blood anachronism, and the more you
studied her the more you grew
puzzled to place her where she
belonged Usually her restless little
hands carried an immense reticule, in
which Miss Betsey's work was stuffed,
for the cheerful woman, as chic and
chirping as q sparrow, made her living
by plain sewing. II now and then the
crumbs were scanty and the plain work
brought only the pla:nest fare she bore
it stoically and 20 murmur nor weak
begging for help ever came from her res
olute lips. In fact, it was not till l had
known her for some time that / discov-
cred that brave Miss Betsey had to do
for two, and like many another woman
was denying herself for thankless some
body, who took all that she could give
her without much feeling of obligation.
In the days of their girlhood there had
been two sisters, of whom one was
beauty and belle, and that one was not
Miss Betsey Miss Angelica had been so
used to homage that she could not live
without it, so accustomed to idle and
useless fine-ladyhood that she consented,
when poverty came to them, to loll in a
rocking chair all day long and let Betsey
support her. Not content with this she
managed to scold and complain the most
of the time because she could not ride in
her carriage and because Betsey would
work so hard. "But Betsey had never
been really refined" So whined the
sham refinement shamelessly.
Floyd Augustus julius Caesar George
Washington Napoleon Bonaparte Mar
shall was another oddity of my acquaint-
ance. Need Say chat Floyd Augustus,
ETC., was a person of color-of ebony
complexion--and wore his hair curled
tightly, not to say kinked. The style
which our pretty girls so laboriously af-
feet. by means of crimping pins and pa
pers, came naturally to Floyd. His
sable wool was mass of fluff In his
ears were gaudy loops of gold, or what
looked like it. His dress was a perfect
nondescript, consisting of various odds
and ends, the salient points Of which
were huge and very stiff shirt collar
and pair of red slippers. Floyd's
clothing had come from many sources,
and was complacently esteemed by him
self, though it was ludicrous in the eyes
of others. His business was to wait in
the house anu at the table, and, never
having served an apprenticeship to 1t,
his manner was original and novel OF
spittoons set a Ia vase on the mantel, Of
chairs stacked, one inside another, Of
wonderful feats in busting and sweep
ing, it is not worth while to tell, for not
in these did Floyds queerness lie. 1t
was revealed in othe. ways. One OF
them was a confirmed habit of listening
at the key-hole, under the window, any
where, for remarks that might be made
concerning himself One of his employ
ers, divining this popularity, derived
some fun from it one day by deliberately
describing Floyd's sins and shortcem-
ings, till Interrupted by the startled ap-
partition Of the person mentioned, who
burst in on all tours, exclaiming: +" Dat
am not de trufe. Dat am not de fac.
Still l seem to see him, wide-eyed and
Mortified at the number of plates he
would have to wash, following his hand
into trumpet shape, and whispering
audibly to the cook down the passage,
They've taken another PLATED" empha-
sis crescendo to "another" and then
the falling infection.
Are we perhaps as queer to other peO-
pie as they sometimes seem to us? We
may be.-The Mstrop3litan.
Mirth at Meal Time.