The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1883-08-31
A Curious Incident.


It was very wet evening and TOOK
shelter in doorway in the Edgeware
road. Policeman XII. soon joined me
there. Now, l never let an opportunity
slip when there is the least chance to
obtain information, so l quietly COM
menced a conversation with XI.
.'What is the curiousest thing l ever
came across?n said he. "Well, sir,
that amt question as is very easy to
answer, especially on night like this, y
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 at
titude of deep thought.
''Well, sir, I've been pleeSeman. six
years, and last Saturday night, in this
ere very street-it was not murder or
robbery, nor nuthin' spicy of that sort,
but the curiousest thing as ever come
across.
ut was ten o'clock fine and clear,
when l see a crowd, that is my place.
and I'm allus there. 1t was too late for
Punch, and too early for fighting, so l
thought it might be serious.
''When l got up, it was only re-
spectacle old party who had lost her
way. Thought at first she was fur
riner by her talk, but at last | found out
there was some English in it, and |
managed to find out that she came from
Devonshire, where she said they all
| spoke like that, which seems ridiklus,
don't it sir?"
''Ridiklus indeed" returned I.
''Well, there she was, y said he, hale,
active old party, with an immense night
| cap on her head, her sleeves tucked up
to her shoulders, and 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 an hour or more. And as most
of the people could not understand
what she said, they took her for mad
woman, and well they might
Well, now, my good woman, said
/, what is itp'
"Then she told me her story, and,
though l could not understand all she
said, l managed to pick up that she
| lived in Deeplane, Devonshire, and had
come up the day before to see her mar
ried daughter Sally. 1t was the first
time the old soul had ever left Deeplane,
and Sally's husband met her at Pad
dington Station and took her home, but
where that home was now she had not
the faintest idea.
cit was her daughter Sally's, No. 8,
and that was all she knew. What was
her husbands name? 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
90. She had been to the grocer's with
Sally, and could find her way again. So
off she started, and, after some difficult
ty, found the shop, bought the soap,
and was returning, but now other shops
were closed, all looked different; she
was in dilemma; she had even forgotten
the grocer's name, who was now closed,
and SO she wandered up and down ask
ing for her daughter Sally's No. 5.
Il was puzzled what to do. Had it
been poor child lost, there would have
been no difficulty; it would have been
as easy as lying"
Chow sop said I, 81 should have
thought it would have been more diff
cult with child than an adult, even
though she came from Devonshire. :"
mot poor child, sir In this case
we allus says: Where does your father
get his beerP' and out like winkin'
comes the name of the public house.
| gGINo1l +NNI1 bo,. mn first ono e4roo+
and then another, thinking she might
identify the right one; but she identified
'ena aU-they were all alike to her. So
in despair / gave it up. She would not
go to the station-house, and she would not
go to the workus, and what was [ to do
with the old partyP
&" I've got my Sally's directions writ
down, said she at last, in one of her
letters
81 was just going to let fly, and call
her a, but thought of my own old
mother being in such fix, and the old
party added: Not in my pocket, Mr..
Pleesman, no, not in my pocket wish
it was-but in my bakky box (she rnent
her snuff-box) that | 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. 3.
We'll, says I, my good old lady,
you must just go back to Deeplane and
look for that ere letter.
$50, bare arms, soap, and all, off she
trudged to Paddington Station with one
of our men, and heard that the railway
company took her to Deeplane and back
for nothing, and SO l 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 letter in her hand, and reached
her daughter Sally's and No. after all,
having gone around about 500 miles;
and that the curiousest thing / ever
met on my beat. Tales By James
| PGuaa.
|