Mexico weekly ledger., 1883-03-08
SMALL TALK.

who are bent IN business. Extra
clerks are kept busy from early morn
till late at night. The streets are
filed with vehicles of all kinds and
animals of all characters and the side
walks are crowded with pedestrians.
At one orne of the square u large
crowd is being entertained by a blind
soDgster who does anything but look
at you for a nickel. At another corner
is a blind fiddler who does anything
but play for a nickel, and the crowd
grows thicker as rents in that vicinity
go down. Half way down the block
an auctioneer. in %stentorian tones, is
offering bargains in household goods
and makes people deaf. At the next
corner a travelling sharper is selling
as many lead pencils, shears, boxes
of corn medicine or silk 60 handker-
chiefs, ETC.. as you want, and the
voice, with which he proclaims that he
is ''giving goods away is the ''son
of a rich man and is travelling to
spend his money and wear out his
clothes and cheek" makes the local
auctioneers pale with jealous wrath.
Across the Street another au~ctioneer
is selling 100 head of yearling steers
to the highest bidder. You elbow
yourself a few feet to the right and
you find a lot of fine mules going at
a bargain. Right under your NOSE is
another auctioneer selling a fine span
of horses. Over by the court house
fence is Tom Jones trading his horse
for Dick Smiths mule. A little
further up is a large drove of sheep
which are going to the highest bidder,
! while behind you is an old plow nag
bringing a good price. In fact, you
are in the midst of trade. On the
left, on the right, behind you, in
front of you, in all the stores, in ev-
cry office, on every street corner and
even on the housetops you find nothing
but business-red-hot, live, healthy
business. Everybody is in a hurry.
Everybody is in a good humor. Ev-
erybody crowds everybody and still
everybody smiles. Everybody is in
town. 1t is stock sales day. 4
II.
Here he comes, madden than a wet
hen. He has hay on his horn and
wool in his teeth. He enters the
door of the Office with a book agent
style. He frowns worse than a grave
digger as he advances to our desk and
says ''Good morning sir."-he usual
ly says ''How are you, Bob" We
glance up knowing that he had a hot
box about something. We make no
reply, but quail in our boots as we
remember past experiences with
men in his state of mind. He takes
a seat without being asked. He.
draws the chair uncomfortably close
and, with dreadful dramatic effect,
pulls out of his pocket a copy of last
weeks "Great Religious Weekly and
places one finger on a paragraph
that we had intended to be funny,
but which contained his name, and
with his finger pointed at us like a
loaded Krupp gun, makes his speech.
His speech is short but very pointed.
His name must never be put in our
paper again in this way or we will
lose his patronage, and then the pa
per will have to suspend.
III.
The Office door is opened softly.
One of our patrons pokes his head in
to see if we are in and then withdraws
it as though be had forgotten to bring
his club Or dog. Only a second
elapses before his whole body looms
up majestically as he comes forward
and with a bow takes the proffered
chair, which has neither back orcush-
ion. We know by his looks that the
shorter his stay the longer our life.
He looks like a condensed thunder
storm, Oh a furled up cyclone, Or a
canned food, as with a grand elo-
quent voice he asks, ''Do / owe you
anything" When told that he was
paid a year in advance and was so
marked ON our books and was so re-
membered in our prayers he replied
as to the first, Il thought So" AS to
the last, ST am sorry" After a mo-
ment of silence-awful, terrible, al
most fatal silence-he adds: II went
on a visit last week to see my daugh-
ter. I am a patron of your paper.
1 don't know whether you knew l
went or not !; that is none of my bust
ness, but you did not give me a local
in your paper. If l go away again
and you don't put my name in your
paper, whether you know I go or not,
l will stop your paper and you will
have to go west Or live On wind"
".
Here is the place to learn a good
lesson which should be learned. The
boys are fixing up the fence, the old
gentleman is mending the harness,
the hired hand is cutting up the wood,
the girls are shelling seed corn, the
housewife sorting the garden seed,
the plows r being sharpened and the
| harrows repaired, the corn is al
gathered and housed, the stock is in
good condition, the oats have beer
sown and everything is ready for ear
~