News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1886-12-16
MR.. SWEENEY'S CAT.
STORY OF LIFE IN THE NORTHWEST
TOLD BY BILL NYE.

Robert Ormsby Sweeney is druggist
of St. Paul; and though a recent chron-
illogical record reveals the fact that he
is a direct descendant of 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 10 earn their salary, he
| goes right on with his regular business,
selling drugs at the great sacrifice which
druggists will make sometimes in order
to place their goods within the reach of
all.
! As soon as l learned that Mr.. Sween-
| ey had barely escaped being a crowned
head, | got acquainted with him and
tried to cheer him up, and I 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 fishing trip and never notice it at
all
But was going to speak more in par.
ticular about Mr. Sweeneys cat Mr.
Sweeney had a large cat named DIR.
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 a 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 happened.
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 deceased state.
DIR. Mary Walker used to go to this win
dow during the afternoon and look out
on the busy street while she Gale I'D
pleasant memories of her past life. Thai
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, land
ing with all four feet in the plate of fly
paper.
At first she regarded 1t as joke and
treated the matter very lightly, but
later on she observed 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 cat wears when she finds herself
glued to a whole sheet of f1y-paper can
not fully appreciate the way Dr. Mary
Walker felt She did not dash wildly
through $3.50 plate glass window, as
some cats would have done. She CON
trolled 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 make great mistake. The ges,
ture resulted in gluing the fly paper to
her person in such way that the edge
turned up behind her in the most alb
rupt manner and caused her great incon.
venience.
Some one at that time laughed IN a!
coarse and heartless way, and | wish
you could have seen the look of
pain that DIR. Mary Walker gave
him.
Then she went away. She did not 90
around the prescription case as the rest
of us did, but strolled through the mid
die of it, and so on out through the
glass door at the rear of the store. We
did not see her go through the glass
door, but we found pieces of fy-paper
on the ragged edges of large aperture
in the glass, and we kind of jumped at
the conclusion that DIR. Mary Walker
had taken that direction in retiring from
the ROOM
DR.. Mary Walker never returned to
st. Paul, and he exact whereabouts
are not known, though every effort |
was made to find her. Fragments 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 Doctor 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 her
quarter, with the sail she had set and |
her tail pointing directly toward the
zenith, the chances for DR.. Mary Walk
er's immediate return are extremely
slim.