The weekly miner. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1878-1881, 1880-06-22

1AoUouiy tHC luCdilCoG LIlCh GudJ was ever
played on white man was played last week
in this city, aud the fact that there is no vigi-
lance committee here is the only reason the
perpetrators of the trick are alive. A busi-
ness man had just purchased new stiff hat,
and he went into saloon with half dozen
friends to fit the hat on his head. They all
took beer, and passed the hat around so all
could see it. One of the meanest men that
ever held a. county office went to the bar
tender and had thin slice of limberger
cheese cut of and when the party were look
ing at the frescoed ceiling through beer
glasses, this wicked person slipped the cheese
under the sweat leather of the hat, and the
man put iton and walked out. The man
who owned the hat is one of your nervous
people, who Is always complaining of being
sick, and who feels as though some dreadful
disease was going to take possession of him
and carry him off. He went back to his place
of business, took off his hat and laid it on
the table and proceeded to answer some let
ters. He thought he detected smell, and
when his partner asked him if he didn't feel
sick he said he believed he did. A clerk said
it was evident thai somebody's feet needed
washing. The man turned pale, and said he
guessed he would 60 home.
He met asman on the sidewalk who said
the air was full of miasma, and in the street
car man who sat next to him moved away
to the end of the car, ana' asked him if he
had just cone from Chicago. The man with
the hat said he had not, when the stranger
said they were having great deal of small
pox there, and he guessed he would get out
and walk, and he pulled the bell and jumped
eff. The cold perspiration broke out on the
forehead of the man with the new hat, and
he took it off to wipe his forehead when the
whole piece of cheese seemed to roll over and
breathe, and the man got the full benefit of
| it, aud he came near fainting away. He got
home, and his wife met him and asked what
| was the matter. He said he believed morti-
ticatjon hal set in, and she took one whiff as
| he took ofihis hat, and said she should think
| it had. "Where aid you get into it?" said
she. Get into it?" said the man, g have
not got into anything, but some deadly disease
| has got hold of me, and shall not live."
! She told him If any disease that smellel like
| that had got hold of him, and was going to
| be chronic, she felt as though he would be a
| burthen to himself if he lived very long. She
| got his clothes off, soaked his feet in mustard
water, and he slept. The hat was lying on
| the centre table, and the children would
come in and get smell of it, and look at
each other with reproachful glances, and go
out and play. THE man slept and dreamed
that smallpox flag was hung in front of his
house, and tha; he was riding in butcher
wagon to the pest house.
| The wife sent for doctor. and when the
man of pills arrived she told him all about
the case, The doctor picked up the patients
new hat tried it ON aud got sniff, He said
( tie hat yxs5tpicked before sit was ripe. Hbe
doctor and the wife held post-mortem ex-
animation of the hat, and found the slice of
| limberger. " Few and short were the prayers
they said" They woke the patient, and to
prepare his mind for the revelation that was
about to be made, the doctor asked him if his
worldly affairs were in satisfactory condi
ton. He gasped and said they were. The
doctor asked hlm if he had made his will.
He said that he had not, but that he wanted
a lawyer sent for at once. The doctor asked
him if he felt as though he was prepared to
shuttle of. The man said he had always
tried to lead a different life, and had tried tc
be done by the same as he would do it him
self, but that he might have made misdea
some way, and he would like to have a minis.
ter sent for to take an account of stock.
Then the doctor brought to the bedside the
hat, opened up the sweat leather and showed
the dying man what it was that smelled so
and told him that he was as we'll as any mar
in the city. The patient pinched himself tc
see if he was alive, and jumped out of bee
and called for his revolver, and the doctor
could'4't keep up with him on the way dowl
town. The last we saw of the odoriferou.
citizen he was trying to bribe the bartender
to tell him which one of those pelicans it wa
that put that slice of cheese in his hat lining
-Peck'S San.