Ashtabula telegraph. (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1874-1880, 1879-12-12
BOUND TO HAVE A SEAT.
Pul HIs Feet on De vErong Yal,.s.


Put His Feet on Ihe Wrong VaIise.
Burdette, the HauEeye man, is ''down
East, and this is taken from his last let
ter to his paper:
At South Acton the man got on the train,
walked down the aisle until he came to me,
and then he paused and glared at a valise
on the floor
Take away that valise, he said grufly,
''or I'll put my feet on il"
Down he went into the seat beside me,
and up went his feet on the valise. Pres
emily the mud and snow on his artics be-
gan to melt and run down the sides Of the
valise in ugly little streaks. The man from
South Action seemed to takea savage de-
light in scraping his feet around and max
ing the havoc as great as possible.
'Tollable nice valise," he presently
grOwled; ''shOuld think ye'd rather put it
away than have it tramped onto"
GOOD land, I said little testify, 81
can't take care of all the baggage in the
car. It's all l can do to look after nv own. !"
The man from South Acton stared at me
with a changing eountenanee as he half
lifted his feet.
eye amt agOing to tell me this amt
your valise, be YEP he asked anxiously.
"0f course it wasn't, :" said; would I let
anybody ruin my valise in that wayY'
"Well, then," he wanted to know,
"whose in thunder was itY'
Belonged to a gentleman who had gone
forward into the smoking car, said.
"And if he doesn't thump you when he
comes out, said the fat passenger cheer
fully, 'Pm most awfully fooled"
The South Acton man took his feet of
the valise and looked at it ruefully.
"Who is he?" asked he with visible anx-
iety.
>"ColIege chap, said the tall, thin pas
senger.
''BOss kicker in Harvard foot ball team,"
said the sad passenger; ''has a leg like
boom derrick"
81 know him, said the passenger with
the sandy goatee, 'he's a raging tornado
of wrath when he's walked"
''Bad man, said the fat passenger; 'I
don't want no business with him. :"
The man from South Acton looked at
the valise with glances of concern and ap-
prehensiOn, and then turned on me some
what Indignantly.
"'Gaul durn ye, he said, with a subdued
sniffie, while he took out his handkerchief,
and began repairs on the yalise; ''gaul
durn ye, why didn't ye tell me this seat
was occupied?"
Not possessing the physical powers of the
Harvard chap, meekly said, Because he
didn't ask me. he only said if did not
take away that vslise be would put his feet
on it, and l told him didn't care and I
didn't"
He growled and whirled alternately while
he ruined every handkerchief he could find
in his pockets, cleansing and polishing that
vslise, and every time the car door opened,
he started nervously and looked to see if
the "kickern was coming in. Bye and bye
when the valise was restored to its primi-
tive neatness, the fat passenger laughed, a
ohGokling, smothered kind Of laugh. I
bent over my tablet and scribbled away
like mad. The passenger with the sandy
goatee, said, ooh dear, oh dear" The tall,
thin passenger whistled a bar from 1.-THE
babies on our block, and the sad psssen-
ger looked out Of the window and sighed
as though his heart would break.
The man from South Acton glared
around the car and light dawned in his
face.
''By gol, " he said, ''you fellows hez been
lyin' to me, and l know il"
And then the genial howl went all along
the line, reaching the climax as the man
from South Acton gave a savage kick at
my innocent valise, and slammed the door
after him like a fit Of wooden profanity as
he got of the cars at Waltham.
MoRAL-This would be a sad, dreary,
desolate world il there wasn't any fun in
it