The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1886-12-12
Mr.. Sweeney's Cat.
By Bill Ny

Robert Ormsby Sweeney is druggist OF St
Paul; and though a recent chronological record
reveals the fact that he is direct descendant of
a sure-enough king, and though there is mighty
good purple, royal blood in his veins that dates
back where kings used to have something to do
to earn their salary, he goes right on with his
regular business selling drugs at the great sacri-
fee which druggists will make sometimes in or
der to place their goods within the reach of ALL
AS soon as | learned that Mr.. Sweeney had
barely escaped being crowned head, l got &C
quainted with him and tried to cheer him up,
and told him that people wouldn't hold him in
any way responsible, and that, as it hadn't
shown itself in his family for years, he might
perhaps finally wear it out
He is mighty pleasant man, anyhow, and
you can have just as much fun with him as you
could with a man who didn't have any royal
blood in his veins. You would be with him for
days on a fishing trip and never notice it at ALL
But was going to speak more il particular
of Mr.. Sweeney's cat. Mr. Sweeney had large
cat named DR.. Mary Walker, of which he was
very fond. Dr. Mary Walker remained at the
drug store all the time, and was known all over
St. Paul as ia quiet and reserved cat If DR..
Mary Walker took in the town after Office hours
nobody seemed to know anything about it. She
would be around bright and cheerful the next
morning, and attend to her duties at the store
just as though nothing whatever had ever hap
pened.
One day last summer Mr.. Sweeney left large
plate of fly paper with water on it in the window,
hoping to gather in a few quarts of flies in a de
ceased state. Dr. Mary Walker used to 60 to
this window during the afternoon and look out
On the busy street while she called up pleasant
memories of her past life That afternoon she
thought she would call up some more memories,
so she went over on the counter, and from there
jumped down on the window-sill, landing with
all four feet in the plate OF f1y-paper.
At first she regarded it as joke and treated
the matter very lightly, but later on she OBJ
served that the fly paper stuck to her feet with
great tenacity OF purpose. Those who have
never seen the look of surprise and deep sorrow
that a cat wears when she finds herself glued to
whole sheet of fy-paper cannot fully appreci-
ate the way DR.. Mary Walker felt She did not
dash wildly through $3.50 plate glass window
as some cats would have done She controlled
herself and acted in the coolest manner, though
you could have seen that mentally she suffered
intensely. She sat down a moment to more
fully outline plan for the future. In doing so
she made great mistake The gesture resulted
in gluing the fly paper TO her person in such a
way that the edge turned up behind her in the
most abrupt manner and caused her great incon-
venience
Some one at that time laughed in n coarse and
heartess way, and l wish you could have seen
the look of pain that Dr. Mary Walker gave
him.
Then she went away. She did not 60 around
the prescription case as the rest of us did, but
stroed through the middle of it. and so on out
through the glass door, but we found pieces of
! Ay paper auu Lux On VIC EaRsou ousos VI large
aperture in the glass, and we kind of jumped at
the conclusion that Dr. Mary Walker had taken
| that direction in retiring from the room.
DR.. Mary Walker never returned to ST. Paul,
and her exact whereabouts are not known,
though every effort was made to find her. Frag-
mehts of fly paper and brindle hair were found
as far west as the Yellowstone National Park
and as far north as the British line, but the Doc
tor herself was not found. My own theory is
that, If she turned her bow to the west so as to
catch the strong easterly gale on the quarter,
with tho sail she had set and her tail pointing
directly toward the zenith, the chances for Dr.
Mary Walkers immediate return are extremely
slim.