, 1886-01-16
FIVE MINUTE TALKS
With All Sorts of People on vari-
GUS Topics,
On the Streets, at the Hotels and
Elsewhere.

and that would start the second man off,
and the third would come in with a wind
up. 1t was just like a barber shop. 1t
was next, as soon as one story was
ended, another one was started. | sailed
down two Of the stories in my bari. |
salted them, because | was afraid they
wouldn't keep. Both stories were told by
Laramie men who have a reputation here
for yarns. Talking of rats, - said No. l.,
you ought to see mountain rats. Why,
I've seen them as big as cats, and twice
as hungry. | remember going out with a
party in Nevada, prospecting. One night
we camped near an old deserted miners
hut. 1t was full of rats, but we chased
them out, and the tenderfeet among us
took up their quarters there for the first
night, and that night only. We old chaps
flung ourselves down in the grass by a
stream just outside. IR5 the night we
were wakencd by a chofasofx cf1Aand a
torrent of oaths proceeding from the
cabin. In less than a minute our Eastern
friends came diving out, and when we
asked them what the trouble was they
said; TROUBLED by thunder, the hut is just
alive with rats; they've gnawed my toe
nails off.
'Tocnailsl' exclaimed another, L
wouldn't have minded that, but they've
nipped a piece out of my nose at the
same time feeling of that member very
tenderly."
There's a chunk gone off my car, -
said a third. and | don't propose to go
back in that place again, and one couldn't
get them to 90 near it after that.
That makes me think said No. 2,
''of the rats in our cabin at Carson's, in
Nevada, in GA. They were the biggest
thieves | ever saw. If we missed our
socks, we knew the rats had taken them.
Finally they built a nest under the hearth
stone, and when we wanted any onions or
potatoes, all we had to do was to raise
the stone and borrow a few from our
friends the rats, who always managed to
have a stock on hand. Vegetables were
rather silvery in price, at that time, only
81 a pound. They helped us out all win
ter, in our housekeeping, but moved in
the spring. | always thought, because
they got tired of furnishing our grub for
us. The one thing those scamps are
fonder OF than anything else, is a candle.
They used to snatch them u of the
brackets in the mines, and scamper of
with them, holding them in their teeth
all afiame. We had a lot OF Irish miners,
and they were as supcrstitious as women.
When their lights commenced to walk off
by apparently invisible means, they
dropped their picks, and skipped out OF
the mine as though the devil was after
them. and wouldn't go back until we had
explained to them the agency by which
the lights moved off.
81 have had enough of new towns
said John Chase yesterday, when some
body told him hat Laramie county was
going to be divided and a new town
started on the Northwestern. Every
body to their liking, but | shall stick to
Cheyenne. Some Of the chaps that are
so hot to skip to the new town, will come
back with a flea in their ear. Oh, I've
been there, and | don't take any more
new towns in mine. Excuse me, Chcy-
enne is new enough"
Tom Sun, whose ranch is on
Sweetwater, sixty miles north of Rawlins,
arrived in Cheyenne yesterday, and viii
stay a day or two. Weather couldn't be
fner," said he, 'if ! had fixed it myself.
The streams are all open, so that Their,
has been no scarcity of water for stock,
and the grass was never better. Their
are plenty of fat beeves on the range.
This is the best winter for stock that ha.
struck Wyoming since 1874.
| was in the Phoenix block yesterday
talking with three gentlemen, when all al
once 1 became aware that a most peculiar
odor was filling the room. | glanced Al
my companions and found hal they wer,
regarding each other IN a questioning sor
Of way. Instead Of growing less, the odot
no, | will call it stink-became eacl
minute more pronounced. The man near
est the window hastily threw it open 70
fresh air; another opened the stove dampe
and shut the draught, | started for tn
door. All looked at me reproachfully
and with one accord said, "Wayfarer, VIII.
didn't you 90 before2' To this | mad
no reply, but hurrying across the hall,
opened the door leading into Prof
AugheJ's office. The room was file,
with vapor fumes and through the mis-
! could sec the territorial geologist an,
Assayer Wood bending over a shoulder
ing cauldron. The cat was out of the bag
| went back and brought my friends Il
take a sniff in order to recover my reputa
ton, and make them recall their unius
insinuations. | then returned to the pro
| lossor and | said to him, Professor, yoI