Louisiana capitolian., 1881-11-05
HOW THE ACCIDHuf CAUcmr
THE CAPTA1N.
psok'a Sun.

feOk D CUAs
There IL no man In this western COUNT
~ that likes to look well any better
than Cap, Noulton, Of La Crosse. Hsis
ono Of the jollisst, best hearted, good No
'tured meil in the world, and yet he likes
to look spruce. The captain and his
wife were in the rear sleeper Of the tram
that was wrecked At Pewaukee. .Nednes-
day morning. When the Captain goes
to bed in s:sleeping car he takes of ev-
erything but his red flannel undershirt
and drawers, and when he treads the
Quarter deck Of q sleeper in that cos
tune he looks like a British red coat
grenadier. On this occasion q few mo-
ments before the accident happened, the
captain was taken with desire to get
up and get drink Of water II Is q
habit he contracted when ho was d
steamboat captain on the upper Mlssisip-
piriver, to take n drink Of water at 2
O'Clock In the morning. He got up and
pranccd along the car to the front end,
and was standing there with his barc
feet on the oil cloth floor, trying to draw
water from the faucet that always run
slow, owing to the ice in the tank clog
ging the cold fluid. He stood on one
foot then on the other, wondering why
in thunder - railroad company always
covered the floor Of the end Of the car
whore q man always stood bare
footed, with oil-clotl or zinc. He
had finally persuaded the tank to
give him down cup full Of water,
and he looked down tile aisle over
his shoulder before he drank, to sec that
there was no female in sight, that had
been taken the same way he was, with
thirst ut such an unreasonable hour,
when he felt the almightiest thump and
bump that ever was. The silver cHp
was knocked down amongst his back
teeth, the cold water was thrown down
his neck. inside his shirt, and SEEM
cd to be flooding tho whole adjacent ter
ritory foated of everything that was
not tied down.
His head struck the little room IN the
corner where the porter keeps his clean
sheets and pillow cases, and his feet
flew against an upper berth, while the
middle Of his body lodged across q step
ladder. He got up, said, "Limping Je-
hosaphat," and opened the door and
looked out. In the dim light he could
see the wreck, and the screams Of the
women ndchldren froze the blood in
his red flannel drawers. He rushed back
to what he supposed was his berth and
reached for his pants, shouting, "Great
heavens, Hammer, we are all killed. The
train is tied IN u double bow knott He
was just getting into the pants when the
man in the berth opened the curtains
and said rs he looked at the red flannel
clad citizen, ''Say, look-a.here, Mr..
fireman, them's my pants" Cap. said
that was talk enough between gentle
men, and gave them back, and after o
little skirnishing he found his own berth,
but before he could get any clothes on
the aisle ofthe car was full Of women,
covering themselves with curtains, and
praying the bold man to spare their
lives and they would give up their
money. With one leg in his pants, the
Captain told them the train was wrecked,
and he was no James Brother, and to
get their duds on mighty lively. There
was nobody hurt in the car, but the Cap
tain nsays he shall remainder how cold that
water was to his dying day.
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