Connecticut western news., 1882-12-13
THE MOURNFUL MAN.
How the Oshkosh Boys Enjoy n Bit of Fun.
rom Peck's Milwaukee Sun. l

From Pecks Milwaukee Sun.l
 A few weeks ago a man registered at an Oshkosh hotel, and was assigned room, and everybody noticed that he was Q most mournful looking man. He never said word, but there was that about his face, and his actions that showed he was laboring under some great sorrow. He had his supper taken to his room, and the waiter said the man never spoke, and seemed to be the saddest looking man he ever saw. The guests all talked the matter over, and they decided that the man was going to commit suicide. A travelling man who had a room next door to the solemn man, and who had pre- viously occupied adjoining rooms in diff ferent hotels to three men who had com mitted suicide, felt that he was about to experience a fourth shock of the same kind, and he laid in his bed all night and never slept wink, believing that the next moment he should hear revolver shot or the death struggle of his neigh bor. from poison.
 He never heard sound all night, and when he got up in the morning he told the clerk that he was sure the man was dead. They passed the room and listened but could here no noise, and it was de- cided to look over the transom to see If the man was dead. It is not @ pleasing thing to look over transom into mans room, not knowing whether your eye will fall on 0 corpse or live man with a revolver pointed at you, so nobody seemed to yearn to be the first to climb the stepladder. Finally it was decided to throw cat over the transom, onto the bed, and if they did not hear any noise it would be certain that the man was dead, and they could go on with the funeral. A cat was procured, and the porter, who knew just where the bed was located. was detailed to toss the cat over.
 He went up the ladder few steps, not enough to look over, because he was not prepared to look suddenly upon @ corpse, and taking the cat in both hands, by the legs, he gently tossed her, or him, as the case might be, over the transom on the bed occupied by the mountaineering man. The cat was heard to fall with dull thud, there was sound as of scratching and ripping, { heavy form was heard to strike the floor the cat purmeoud'' and "spit," an6 the half dozen people out in the hal looked at each other wonderingly, wher suddenly the door opened and the mad dest man that ever was seen in Oshkosl came out in the hall in his night shirt his arm and face bleeding on to the white night shirt. He had the cat by the hint legs with one hand and @ revolver in the other, and as he struck at the assembled multitude right and left with the cat there was the worst getting down stairs
 that ever was, and the cat was thrown 8
 the last person who went down stairs and the man returned to his room.
 He dressed himself, went down to tn,
 office and paid his bill, and took the frs train south, never having spoken wore while in Oshkosh, and the people are t.
 this day wondering whether he was prohibition speaker, g travelling man fo
 corset factory, or an agent for dea and dumb asylum. The travelling mal
 who was so nervous for fear his neighbo was going to commit suicide, wishes h had, the landlord fears that he has dis pleased guest who might have remaine longer, and the porter who threw tn cat says that it is the last time he wi | ever try to find corpse by the aid of