The Cheyenne daily leader. [volume] (Cheyenne, Wyo.) 1870-1884, 1883-09-30
A ROUNDABOUT TRIP.
a Five Hundred Mile Ride to Find q
Home Three Blocks Away.


1t was a very wet evening and I took shell
Yer In a doorway in the Edgeware road. Po-
heeman XII soon Joined me there. Now, i
never let an opportunity slip when there Is
the least chance to obtain information, so
quietly commenced a conversation with XI.
"What is the curiousest thing / ever came
acrossf said he. "Well, sir, that amt a ques-
ton as is very easy to answer, especially on a
night like this, ~ he added.
well, here is a shilling for you, my good
friend, to keep out the cold, and to assist
your memory"
Then, sir, in course I'll do my best" and
he at once placed himself in an attitude of
deep thought.
wen, sir, I've been a pleeseman six years,
and last Saturday night, in this ere very
street--lt was not murder or robbery, nor
nuthin spicey of that sort, but the curiousest
thing as ever I came across.
ut was 10 O'Clock, fine and clear, when I
see a crowd; and where there is a crowd, that
Is my place, and Pm allus there. 1t was too
late for Punch, and too early for fighting, so
L thought it might be serious.
when got up, it was only a respectable
old party who had lost her way. 1 thought
at first she was a furriner by her talk, but at
last l found out there was some English in it,
and l managed to And out that she came
from Devonshire, where she said they all
spoke like that, which seemed ridiklus,
don't 1t, sirY'
'Ridiklus indeed, ~ returned l.
well. there she was, ~ said he, "a hale,
active old party, with an immense nightcap
on her head, her sleeves tucked up to her
shoulders, and a bar of yellow soap in her
hand.
"She had been asking her way to her
daughter Sally's' of every one she met for
half nm hnuF mr. morn AID ~. -.-% A..
people could not understand what she said,
they took her for a mad woman, and well
they might.
"'Well now, my good woman aid 1,
what is itP
''Then she told me her story, and though
1 could not understand all she said, 1 man
aged to pick up that she lived in Deeplane.
Devonshire, and had come up the day before
to sec her daughter Sally. 1t was the first
time the old soul had ever left Deeplane, and
Sally's husband met her at P~addington sta
ton and took her home, but where that
home was now she had not the faintest idea
ut was her daughter Sally's, No. 8, and
that was all she knew. What was her hus-
bands namel 'Tom,' she said; she knew no
more.
"She had lost herself in this manner: She
had helped her daughter to wash, and the
soap ran short. The shops were about to
close. So she volunteered to go. She had
been to the grocer's with Sally, and could
find her way again. So off she started, and,
after some difficulty, found the shop, bought
her soap, and was returning, but now other
shops were closed, all looked different; she
was in a,dilemma; she had even forgotten
the grocer's name, who was now closed, and
so she wandered up and down asking for her
daughter Sally's No. 8.
81 WINS puzzled what tn do Had IL haan n
poor child lost, there would have been no
difficulty; it would have been as easy as
lying"
How soF' said /, 81 should have thought
1t would have been more difficult with a child
than an adult, even though she came from
Devonshire.n
mot a poor child, sir. In this case we
allus says, where does your father get his
beerP and out like winkin' comes the nance Of
the public house.
well, l took her up first one street and
then another, thinking she might identify the
right one; but she identified 'em all-they
were all alike to her. So in despair 1 gave
it up. She would not go to the station.
house, and she would not go to the work
house and was 1 to do with the old
partyF'
GIVE got my sally's direction writ
down. said she at last, in one of her let
ters.' =
81 was just going to let fly, and call her a
-, but thought of. my own old mother
being in such a fix, and the old party added,
Not in my pocket, Mr.. Pleeseman, no, not
in my pocket-I wish it was-but in my bak-
ky box (she meant her snuff-box) that 1 left
at Deeplane, because | knew there was
plenty of snuff in London, in the right-hand
side of the bottom drawer in my bedroom
"How very particular she was as to the
exact locality of her box, and yet there she
was in Edgeware road, with nothing but
Sally. No. 81
"'Well,' says I, my good old lady, you
must just go back to Deeplane and look for
that ERE letter.
80, bare arms, soap, and all, off she
trudged to Paddington station with one of
our men, and l heard that the railway com-
pany took her to Deeplane and back for
nothing, and so 1 says, Heaven bless that
company and increase its traffic
"And so she came back in about eight-and-
forty hours, with her bar of soap and the let
ter in her hand, and reached her daughter
Sally's and No. 8 after all, having gone
around about 500 miles; and that's tho Curl
ousest thing ever met on my beat"