The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1881-11-18
Parting with the Family Pet.
MARI MOUNTAIN LION,

steps of the Russ House, q tall, sun
burned, bald-headed man, with pine
burrs In his clothes and q stick of sassa
fras in his mouth, approached and said;
"Be you the wild.animal man, mis-
ter?"
The proprietor of tho circus admitted
that such was the fact.
"Then," proceeded the man fir ON thu
mountains, al think I'll get you tC
make me an offer for a large-sized Cali
fornia lion I've got"
"Good specimen, eh?" asked the cir
Gus maR.
"Good? Well, l should say so
Measures eleven feet from the tip of hi
nose to the tip Of his tail. Caught hin
myself when a cub. just four year
old Tomorrow"
"Hum appetizer"
"AppetiteY Great Scott-appetiie'
Hell l should smile-that's just thu
point-that's Just why l am parting
with JAY call him Jay Gould because
he takes everything in. lift wasn't fol
his appetite aud the queer little things
it makes him do, / would not part will
Gould for q fortune"
"Savage, eh2" ..
"Well, no; l don't know as l would
call Jay savage exactly-sorter nibblisf
though, no may be. Has q kinder habit
of gnawing up things, so to speak. III
fact, the ncighbors Il live up in Blad'
der's Peak-have gotten to be so fussy
and particular of late that l can't SO
much as unchain j. g. for q little fresh
air without their getting grumpy about
i'll"
"Thers's nc pleasing some people"
said the hippodromer.
~ should say not. Now, f'%rinstance,
bout three months after Jay got to be
as big as a boarding house sofa, l came
home one day from a picnic and found
he had eaten MP Aunt Maria, who had
been left at home to mind the house
leastwise she was nowhere to be found
and as Jay Gould seemed sorter bulgy
like and kept coughing up hairpins and
false teeth for a day or two, we kinder
suspicioned the whole thing"
"Maternal auntr" inquired the show.
man, thoughtfully.
Exactly. My wife took on dread
fully at first, and wanted me to shoot
Jay right of. But l told her that he
had probably suffered a good deal as it
was, and that as it was most likely he'd
catch rheumatism and things from the
remains we'd better call it square,"
"And she didr
"Well, she kinder got ~reconciled after
a while, especially as Jay seemed fond
of the children. One morning soon
family lived with me, you see-didn't
false hair hung owe q chairback, and
Gnnld ~ vula1 n,vt frarn INDIAN thn ba1
licking his chops, and with his tongue
a good deal OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES was
always taking things for the liver COM
plaint-we saw at once it wns another
visitation q Providence, and that the
heavy hand Of affiiction was again upon
u.s."
"Looked that.way, didn't itY"
We'll, as you may suppose, the old
lady that's my wife-pranced around
good deal then, and got down the
breech-lOader right away. But Just
then arrived a gold medal from the s..
p. G. A. Society awarded on occount of
my forbearance in the Aunt Maria
business, and 80 l got her Gained down
after a while."
"Tacified her, ell"
eyes; l managed to arrange a re.
prieve for Jay somehow. You see l
was always fond of pets, and tender
hearted and all that,y understand. /
argued that the poor animal didn't know
that he was doing wroDg-merciful
man is merciful to his beast, etc. That
smoothed the thing over for another
MONTH"
"What happened thenr
swell, n day / sent Johnny, our
youngest boy, down to the store for
some sugar, and he took Gould along
for company. Now, whether it was
because Jay was fond of sugar or not,
l dQs't know, bnt he came home alone,
and soon we noticed a peculiar kind of
bulge on his ribs, about as big as
Johnny, and we concluded tho dread
archer had marked another Skidmore-
my name is Skidmore for his own,
The whole family took on like mad,
and Mrs. Skid was about to shove the
powder keg under Jay Gould and touch
1t of herself when l pointed out that il
wouldn't do to desecrate our offspring's
tomb in that way. So l just had the
lied Grape ; Fund his neck for thirty
days. How does that strike your"
after that you kept the animal
"Well, no. The fact is l set out to
get q chain several times, but one thing
and another prevented, until one dav
last week l actually missed the old lady
herself. l looked around for O couple
Of days, when somehow Of q sudden l
sorter intentioned where she was, III
gave Gould abOnt half a pound of
emetic right away, but all we could get
out Of him was a a pair of high-heeIed
shoeHand q chest-protector, It was toe
late too, late. We put the shoes and
things in a coffin and had Jay led behind
the hearse to the. cemetery. Wanted
TO have as much of the corpse present
as p~ossible-don't you see? We had
the animal all decorated with flowers
and things, as fine as you please. Folks
said 1t was the touchingest thing that
ever took place In them parts :" and the
bereaved husband sighed heavily.
DOM wonder you want to sell the
beast" remarked the menagrie man,
after q pause.
"VeH, l sorter do and and sorter
DON'T" said Mr.. Skidmore, a~bstracted-
~. "There's SO many memories and
things clusterin around j. G.-seems
kinder like parting with ones family
burying lot, as it were. On the other
hand, though, now that the old lady's
gone, l sorter feel as II the old insect
had eorter outliyed his usefulness, so TO
speak. So suppose ! Just have this box
around to your show after The
this afternoon, and sec if
can't strike a bargain"
IAN right" said the mag "Pm |,
going mn Sail I.aka NAV affair a xubila