St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1880-07-10
A ROUGH STORY ABOUT A
NEW HAT.
little Rock Gazette.1

was played last week in this city,
and the fact that there is no Vigi-
lance Committee here is the only
reason the perpetrators of the trick
are alive. A business man had pur-
chased a new stiff hat, and he went
into a saloon with half a 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
county Office went to the bartender
and had thin slice of Limberger
cheese cut off, and when the party
were looking at the frescoed ceiling
through the beer glasses, the wick
ed person slipped the cheese under
the sweat-leatEer of the hat, and
the man put it on and walked out.
The man who owned the hat is
one OF our 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 OH the table, and proceeded to
answer some letters. He thought
he detected a 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 that
somebody's feet needed washing.
The man turned pale, and said he
guessed he would 60 home. He
met man 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, and asked him if he had
just come from Chicago. The man
with the hat said he had not, when
the stanger said they were having
a great deal of smallpox there, and
he guessed he would get out and
walk, and he pulled the bell and
jumped off.
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, and he came near
fainting away. He got home, and
his wife met and asked him what
was the mater. He said he believed
modification had set in, and she
took one Whit, rs he took off his
hat, and said she should think it
had. "Where did you get into it?"
said she. Get into it," said the
man. Il have not got into any
thing, but some deadly disease has
got hold of me, and shall not live"
She got his clothes off, soaked his
feet in mustard water, and he slept.
The hat was lying on the center
liable, and the children wonld come
in and get a smell of it, and look at
each other with reproachful glances
md go out to play. The man slept
md dreamed that a smallpox flag
vas hung i'll front of his house, and .
hat lie was riding in a butchers |
wagon to the pest-house. The I
woman sent for doctor, and when
he man of pills arrived .he told {
linn all about the case. The doc
or picked up the patients g hat, tried
t on, and got sniff. He said the
lat was picked before it was ripe. I
The doctor and the wife held a
,Ost-mortem examination of the .
lat, and found the slice of Timber
,er. Sew and short were the /
prayers they said" /,
They woke the patient, and to I
'repare his mind for the revelation =
hat was about to be made, the doc !
or asked bim If his worldly affairs