Springfield daily republic. [volume] (Springfield, O. [Ohio]) 1887-1888, 1888-04-21
rsess yAnNs ros a pnlzs,
whoppers Told at Blizzard Time In the
Vicinity Of Gotham.

A phy sician in Ya keTs, who is also some
thing Of politician, has comfortable place
at Fork river, Barnei,at bay, which is open
the year round TO his friends for sport or
recreation The late blizzard caught some Of
them down there unprovided with means of
indoor amusement They were imprisoned
nearly week, during which time a small ale
house was their only change from the soli-
tude of the lodge One day the crowd was
yawning in the ale house. All things had
become clestnufs
''I can tell YOU a story about my dog that's
new, anyhow" gasped Charles Parker.
II can beat it for prize said Ebenezer
De Witt
"You fellows don't know how to lie.n put
in A J. Prime. 1T takes lawyer l sell
dom lie myself, but if theirs prize in it, go
ahead
well, this dog. gentlemen,r began
Parker, loftily, beat any rabbit dog that
ever lived He was faster than the wind
Once. on a hot trail, he ran nose up against
scythe, which had been left blade upright
in field He was going at a terrible pace,
and knew what would happen; so stopped
down by the scythe in preparation. Sure.
enough, the blade parted him down the mid
die, dividing even his tail in equal parts. As
the two parts tumbled over | clapped theEl
quickly together and bound them up in a
hunting coat He was going SO fast that the
blood hadn't had time TO spill, and, nf coursc,
the halves grew together. But somehow one
half had Topped over Just before | Joined
them, and when Jack got well be had two
legs on the ground and two sticking up in
the air He was a curious dog after that.
When he barked half bark would come
and the other half came from the part that
opened down. Thisdefect annoyed him, and
he practiced to remedy it. He got so after
while that, after choo-choolng for a minute,
like locomotive getting under way, he
could run his half barks together into a con-
tinuous note like fog horn. made money
out of him by hiring him out mornings to a
box factory for steam whistle The most
curious thing. though, was to see him eat. |
cut his food into tiny pieces He would take
one morsel with the half of his mouth that
opened downward, and then turn a sort of
handspring sideways to his other legs and eat
another morsel with his other half mouth.
When real hungry he turned SO fast he
looked like 200 revolution fiy wheel in mo-
ton. He never wagged his tail. The reason
was that the muscular efforts at wagging, be-
ing equally balanced on each side, counter
acted each other. He was better rabbit dog |
than ever, for when he ran himself of one |
pair Of legs, he'd simply turn sidespring |
and go il on the other pair. You couldn't
tire him out. 1t was u great blow TO me |
when he died.
Mr. Parker stroked his chin confempla- |
lively. and E5enezer De Witt said slowly:
Your dog was truly wonderful, but be |
can't compare with my rawhide traces. |
bought them new in Jersey. and first used |
them to cart a load of wood up half mile |
hill 10 my house. Ii was raining dismally |
as loaded the wood on the wagon, and the |
rawhide traces got thoroughly soaked. When |
all was ready mounted one of the horses |
and drove TO the house When got there l |
found that the wagon hadn't budged. The |
wet traces had stretched the whole half mile |
Here was u bad fix, and as the sun came out |
just then, | sat down to think about it. Then |
the sun got so hot | went indoors leaving the |
horses standing.
When L came out a minute later the
horses were straining 70 keep from being
pulled down the bill Looking down, saw
my load Of wood rumbling up the hill at a
jolly rate. | was puzzled at first to under
stand what was pulling them. but soon saw
that rs the sun dried the traces they were
CONTRACTING at the same rate they had
stretched when wet, and as the horses held
the ground at the top of the hill the wagon
had to come UP TO the horses. | afterward
formed a company for lifting safes 10 tenth
story windows JAY Gould put in the money
aud put in the traces. We both got rich.
The way lost those traces was in irving to
sound the bottomless spring in Pennsylvania.
We tied a weight to one end and dropped it
in the spring. As the weight sank into the
depths those traces spun out till at last they
became so fine a thread that a butterfly
CHANGING to fit against one end, it snapped
short off,
Everybody cried "ChestnutI- at the con-
clusion of this story When the uproar sub
sited Al Prime began.
Gentlemen be said, "I have had no
thrilling experiences such as yours But / |
testei some gunpowder once that proved
rather remarkable. / am something of a
SPORTSMAN. as you know, and fond OF expert
menting with new brands of powder. On
+l,iS oc..,sion I r,rt IL, n fair ,,,a roa of tho |
~ ,lo,,,,- 81 sbo, 81 ~ p,
AT NniVe sN se' aoous NV ieet away