Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1878-09-27
The Boy Who Wanted Drink.

Bob Burdette, the Hd1Cb-E Eye man,
has been travelling some recently, and
he writes about some characters he has
met on the cars, among them the boy
who is continually thirsty. Every par
ent will bear testimony to the truthful
ness of the description:
Moreover saw the boy who wanted
a drink. A restless, questioning, uneasy,
thirsty boy. He let the window fall on
his fingers before the train had gone a
mile. He stood out on the platform
until he was encrusted two inches deep
with ashes and dust and cinders. He
went to the water cooler and got a
drink, then he came back and told his
mother he was hot and went back and
got another drink. He drank about
four times per mile, seldom oftener, I'M
less he was seized with sudden un-
controllable spasm of thirst. If he was
drinking and somebody else came after
drink, the boy would suddenly seize
the cup he had Just set down and refill
it and drink as though he had wrapped
his stomach in the desert of Sahara,
glaring suspiciously over the top of the
cup at the waiting passenger as he
VI tIhhs w W % III ITO oCuJ llC
watched the aisle narrowly, and if he
saw any passenger get up and move to-
ward the water cooler he would jump
and race for it. If he got there first he
would drink and snore over the cup un-
til the thirsty traveller forgot what he
went down there after. People began
to wonder how much the boy was
gauged for, and if he wasn't rath-
er straining his capacity. The re-
motest hint or suggestion was enough
to send him to the cooler. When the
train ran over a creek the water made
him think of his thirst. When it
ratified over a long stretch of dry
prairie, the absence of water drove him
mad. was afraid the supply of water
would give out before the boy was filled
up, and he was rather small boy, too.
His interior circumference, l think,
must have enclosed an area double in
extent to that enclosed by the exterior
belt. Near Waseca, we run nearly a
mile without the boy making a stop at
the tank. l grew very nervous now
for l was fearful that during such an
unheard of abstinence from water, his
pumps would run dry, rust out, and he
might blow up. So l leaned over the
edge of the scat and said, carelessly;
"By George, but | am thirsty.
wonder if there is any water on this
carp"
You want to understand me now, al
recording very plainly, and without any
mental reservation, the fact that thai
boys mother, sitting beside him was nC
fool. Her eyes snapped when she heard
my careless and innocent remark, she
took in every syllable of it, and she
turned on me in flash with:
~ wish you would mind your owl
business and leave my boy alonep'
A low, mocking murmur of applause
went through the car, little of it fOl
the indignant mother, some of itfor thu
charity boy, but most of it for me, She
suppressed yours truly very success
fully, but it was too late. Long before
she finished that brief sentence, hel
boy was down at the water cooler
holding his eyes tight shut to keep tn,
water from running out of them, while
he flooded his system as though he ha.
taken contract to keep up perennial
Baptist revival inside of himself.