Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1886-08-05
Train Talk.
Chicago Herald.

mo I'm not feeling very yell,n said a
drummer in the smoking car. THE fact
is, I've been losing too much sleep of
late. What doing Scheming. Yes, I'll
tell you what I'm scheming on. You
know how it is in the country towns, boys
where the fellows who loaf around the
hotels are always trying to play jokes
and sells ON travelingmen. As rule the
| travelling men more than keep even with
tho boys but of course they are caught
up once in awhile | was never badly
taken in bst once. That was last week,
out in Northern Missouri. | pride my
self on being pretty good pedestrian,
and when the fellows in the hotel Office
got to talking about fast walking of
course | was in my element. / made my
brags as to what l had done and could do
in the walking line. and W as surprised TO
see one of the fellows stand up and make
fun of me and insinuate that ! was ly-
ing Why says this fellow, you can't
walk n mile in ten minutes, aud III bet
you $50 you can't, Now, have often
walked a mile in nine minutes, and as
this challenge looked like a picnic | &C
cepted it, pulled out my money and said
| was ready to perform the feat The
other fellow produced his money, too,
greatly TO my surprise, and then,
to avoid the possibility of any
catches or Misunderstanding insisted
upon having written memorandum of
our agreement. This he acceded to, and
we agreed TO post the money with the
landlord that the time was to be taken
10y the regulator clock which stood in
the hotel office, that no watch time was
taken by other parties was TO influence
the referees decision, and that was to
walk to a certain corner, which the county
atlas showed to be Just half mile away,
and return. The wager was to accom-
pany me with his horse, and for extra
precaution | stipulated that If there should
bc any unusual obstruction on the road,
or any one should interfere with me, the
bet was to be OIL. | also tested the clock
for few minutes by the second hand of
my watch and found that it was all right,
and engaged friend of mine, another
commercial traveller, 20 see that the clock
was not fooled or tempered with, In
fact l suspected that they had some
scheme for beating me and determined
that | would not let them do IL. After all
the arrangements We're made and the
memorandum signed | started on my
walk. The way was clear and | made
good time, Everything seemed all right.
according to lay watch made the first
hat mile in a little more than four min
utes, and easily covered the return in less
than four minutes, giving me u whole
minute to spare. Imagine my surprise
ON entering the hotel To have my friend
,vl me that | had lost and inquired what
the matter was ! looked at the clock.
and, sure enouch. had been twelve min
utes on the trip. asked him if any
body had tempered with the clock, and
he said, no, nobody has been near it.
Again | compared 1t for a few minutes
with my watch, and it WAS running right
60 the very fraction of a second, This
was a puzller. The money was paid over
and the town fellows had jubilee with
it. But | was just as certain MS could be
that they had swindled me i'm some man
uer, and determined to find out how
They had done their work very
sleekly, that must be admitted, but
this only excited my curiosity the
more.
THAT night. when everybody was
asleep, | slipped downstairs and climbed
up and made an examination of the regu.
lutor clock on which | had lost my money
and toward which my suspicious had been
directed. | had no idea what the trouble
was, and went about IL in blind sort of a
way. | knew nothing about clocks and
the chances were that would be unable tt
discover the nature OF the httle trick that
had been played ON me ! fumbled and
fooled with the clock for ter or fifteen
minutes, and was just abou' 20 give NJ