Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1883-10-04
THAT BAD BOY.
He Breaks His Pa of MASKING Female
Clerks-The Minister Explains Daniel
i'm the Lions Den with a Dog.


i'm the Lions Den with a Dog.
Peck's Sun.
''What is this hear about your father
creating panic in a dry goods store%'
said the grocery man to the bad boy, as he
took butter fryer and run it into a
pumpkin few times ''They tell me he
had about hundred female clerks freed
on the shelves and on the counters,
and all OF them screaming bloody murder,
and that a flOor-waIker hit him over the
head with roll of paper cambria, and
somebody turned in a fire alarm. How
was it,"
"Well, if you will keep watch for pa, at
the door, | will tell you all about it, said
the boy. somebody has told pa that l
was at the bottom of the whole business,
and when a man loses confidence in his
boy, and rolls up a trunk strap and car
ries it h3bitually, it stands boy in hand
to keep his eye peeled. You see, pa has
been in habit lately of going to the store
a good deal and lallygagging with the girl
clerks. Any girl that will smile on pa,
and look sweet, catches him, and he
would sit on a stool in front of the counter
10 hours a day, pretending to want to buy
some kind of fringe, or corsetS, or some
thing, and he would fairly talk the arms
off the girls. Ma didn't like it at all,
and she told pa he ought to be ashamed
of himself, cause the girls were only
making a fool of him, and all the people
in the store were lafing at him, but
pa said for her to shut her yawp, and he
kept on trying to find excuses to go to the
store. Ma told me about it, and she felt
real sorry, and, by jinks, it made me mad
to see an old man, old enough to have govt
or paralysis, going around MASKING clerks
in a store, and | told ma if she would let
me | would break pa in that sort of bust
ness, and she told me to go ahead and
make him jump like a box car. So 'tOther
day ma gave pa a piece of ribbon to
match and a corset to change for a
larger size, and pair Of gloves to return
because the thumb of one of 'em ripped
off, and told him to buy four yards of
baby flannel, and see how much it
would cost to have her seal-skin cloak
refined, and to see if her new hat
was done. Pa acted as though he didn't
want to go to the store, but ma and
me knew that he looked upon it as a pic
mic, and he BACKED his boots, and changed
ends with his cuffs, and put on his new
red necktie, and shaved himself, and fixed
up as though he was going to be married.
/ asked him to let me go along to carry
the packages, and he said he didn't mind
II did go. You have seen these ingy
rubber rats they have at the rubber store,
haven't you. They look so near like a
HAUL Ill az IlldJ GudJ YOU Cdu OClI buc
difference, unless you offer the rubber rat
some cheese. / got one of those rats and
tied a fine thread to it with a slip-nOOSe
on the end, and when pa got into the store
/ put the slip-nOOse over the hind button
of his cOat-tail, and put the rat on the floor,
and it followed him along, and | swOw it
looked so natural | wanted to kick it. Pa
walked along smiling, and stopped at the
ribbon counter, and winked at a gill, and
m ygh 20 no uva
then she saw the rat, and she screamed
and crawled up on the shelf where the
boxes were, and put her feet under her,
and said, Take it away, kill it, and she
trembled all over. Pa thought she had
gone into fit, cause she was paralyZed
on his shape, and he turned blue, and
went on, cause he didn't want to kill her
dead; and as he walked along the rat fol-
lowed him, and Just as he bowed to four
girls who were standing together talk
ing about the fun they had at the eX-
position the night before, they saw the
rat, and they began to yell and climb up
things. One of them got on a stool and
pulled her clothes tight around her ankles,
so live rat couldn's have gOtin her stock
ing, let alone arubber rat, and the girls all
squealed Just like when you tickle them in
the ribs. Pa he looked scared, as though he
was afraid he was breaking them all up
with his shape, and he kept on, and an
other flock of girls saw the rat, and they
jumped up on the counter and sat down
on their feet, and yelled rat Then the
others yelled rat and in minute about
hundred girls were getting up on things,
and saying 'shOO,' and one of them got
on pile of blankets, and the~pile fell
of on the floor with her, and the men
had to dig her out. PAS face was
study. He looked at one girl, and then
another, and wondered what was the
matter, and finally the floOr-walker came
along and see what it was, and he took pa
by the collar and led him out doors, and
told MN IL ne ever came in there again he
would send the police after him. | had
gone by the time pa got Out on the side
walk, and he picked up the rubber rat and
found it was hitched to his coat, ana
lac went right home. Ma says he was so
mad that he suffered, and she thinks |
had better board around for day or two.
She tried to reason with pa that it was
intended for his good, to show him that he
was making a fool of himself, but he does
not look at it in that light. Say, do you
think it was wrong to break him up that
way? He was going wrong entirely"
80, don't know. You and your ma
are the best judges. But | would have
liked to see them girls climbing up the
side of the store. But what is the trouble
with the Minister" said the grocery man.
'He was in here this morning with the
tail of his black coat seWed up. and when
l asked him to set down he said he was
standing up almost entirely now, and
when ] asked him if he had seen YOU
lately he said he had, to his sorrow. and
he never wanted TO see you again. hope
you have not done anything you will be
sorry for.'
ut wasn't me at all. 1t was Duffy's
dog" said the boy, as he broke out with a
=
though he had been cross to me, when |
asked questions of him, and he met me on
the street and apOlogized, and said here
after he would try to show a Christian
spirit, and would answer any questions |
might ask him. So | began to ask him
how he thought it was that Daniel had
such control over the lions, when thew
cast him into the den. ] told him thought
Daniel had chlOrOfOrm on his handker-
chief, and when the lions got sniff of it
they didn't want any Daniel in theirs,
bnt he said that wasn't it. He said
1t was the power of man over the
brute creation, and showed the efficacy
of prayer. He said Daniel PRAYED
three times every day, and then looked
the lions right in the eye, and lion
wouldn't have gall enough to eat man
that looked straight in his eye. To illus
trate, he said he could look a vicious dog
right in the eye, and the dog would turn
tail and run, and just then we passed
Dufy's, and the dog parked and grOWled.
and the minister said he would demon
strate to me the power of the human eve
over the brute, and he went right into
Duty's yard. Well, l knew that dog.
cause Duffy used to raise melons, and |
went right up tree. / didn't want that
dog to think | was trying to play any
Daniel business on him, because every
little while Duffy has to take file and PRIV
pieces of pants out of that dogs teeth. so /
got up on limb. The dog looked at the
minister minute, and the minister looked
at the dog, and when the dog began to
lick his chops | says to myeelf, Daniel,
you better be getting hence but Daniel
didn't get hence till it was everlastingly
too late. But ! guess he would have
saved his coat if he hadn't tried to pull
the dog over the picket fence. The minis
ter is usually very deliberate man. but
when the dog began to tangle his teeth up
in his cOat-taii, he felt that it was good to
be somewhere else. and he begun to 90
away to look some other dog in the eve.
guess Dutfy's dog is not the right kind
of dog to look in the eye. | think some
dogs is different about being looked in the
eye. The minister looked like a flying
trapeZe performer when he came over
that fence. They needn't tell me our
minister never belonged to Il gym
nasium, cause he couldn't get over a
fence that way, and always have been a
good little boy who never stole melons. I