Wichita eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1886-1890, 1888-03-16


man alive! thought she died! know she
1 did, for they sent me paper containing an
account of the funeral"
why, yes, Maria died." says Parks, look
| ing hard at me- You know she did. Wells"
ooh, yes, of course she did" says l. ''Yes,
! Maria's dead She's gone poor thingf' And
| l tried to look sad over it.
''Evhat in thunder do you mean by saying
she was well and happyF demanded Bangs,
suspiciously.
She's better off than if she was here, )" says
/ /, solennly. WED all be better off"
Il am not so sure Of that" says he, laugh
! ing. But, perhaps that's the way you look
at it."
| About that time Parks and changed our
seat On account Of the draught, ard when We
! got away from that fellow we had good
( laugh over it. For days after that Parks
would have spells of asking me now Maria
! was.
We didnt meet any more old friends. We
went to New Orleans and looked around
| awhile, then went up into Georgia.
! The Georgia people are right cordial folks.
| The conductor looked quite impressed when
we let on who we were and pretty soon he
! came back and said:
4
! road and couple OF superintendent On this
train going up the road apiece They're out
in the smoking car. | told them there was a
president and secretary of a Northern road in
a car back here, and they said they'd be right
glad to meet you. They'd like to have You
come out and smoke with them"
Well, l don't smoke" says Parks.
There was a cigar sticking out of his pocket
. II H. I
Of Parks you've got TO get up early in the
morning.
Perhaps Mr. Wells does" says the con-
| ductor Now l really don't, you know.
But they'd like to have talk with you,
any way. Our president thinks he met Mr..
Hayward once up north.
That settled Parks.
I'm much obliged to the gentlemen for
their po!iteness," he said, "but the fact is l
amt feeling real we'll, and cigar smoke al
ways makes me faint"
I'm sorry" says the conductor. They'll
be disappointed You'll come, Mr.. Well5?n
followed him out into the smoking car,
but tell you / felt shaky. The conductor
introduced me to the president and the super
intendents They were prominent men from
Atlanta Any other time I'd have been glad
They wanted TO know all about our road,
and they asked the most outlandish questions
about things | didn't know anything about
! had to make up facts and fg1(res as / went
along: but | wasn't going to let them think
the north was running behind, SO generally
put them high. @. -
TIE president asked if we'd built any new
road this year. M
"Ah, yes" saysI.
How many miles have you builtF' says he.
hadn't the faintest idea, but l said:
about 5000 miles
~ want to know" says he, and they all
looked pretty well laid out at that.
After whce the president asked:
Between what points did you build this
new road you speak of"
Between kalamazoo and Schoolcraft,"
says l.
l remembered, as soon as I'd said it, that
those places weren't more than twelve miles
apart But had to think quick. and gave
the first names that came into my head
They were just getting out a map to look
up the route, when in comes the peanut boy
and says:
is Mr. Wells in herel Cause if he is
there's man in the other car wants to see
him right away
l went back and found Parks reading a
paper. He showed the paper into my hands
and said:
"Read that"
read:
SPECIAL DIsPATcH-A warrant is issued for the
arrest Of Giles Hayward, president of the Lake
Shore road, and Hezekiah Wells, secretary Of the
same, they having skipped the country with large
sums of money belonging to other parties. a re-
ward Of $500 is offered for information Of their
whereabouts.
| looked at Parks and Parks looked at me.
What does it meanm gasped l.
at means that we've got to get out of this
mighty quick" says he.
We got out Of that.
We shot OF the train at the west station,
just as the real presidents gray hat was seen
coming through the car door.
Twas little place called Dusenberry
Corners We hung around for couple Of
hours till the inhabitants began 70 take us
Cor suspicious characters. So we made out
that we were going to start real estate
boom, and then they took us in a carriage
and drove us all over the village. We as
well as bargained for haG the corner lots in
the place.
At last freight train came along, and We
got on ana went baCS 10 Atlanta
We were dumbfounded that Hayward and
Wells should cut such a caper. Parks said
they might at least have waited till we got
back But he said:
at shows that you can't trust anybody
nowadays"
We struck out for home after that. and you
can bet we paid our fare the rest of the way.
We bought a couple of new hats in Atlanta
50 That we should not be recognized by any
body that met US going down. And we
packed Hayw4Tds vahse III box and sent
1t home by express, for fear it should be
found in our possession. /
But, would you believe it, the first person
we met when we got home was Giles Hay /
ward, and the next was Wells And it /
turned out that that whole story about their |
skipping the town was put up job. Some |
body'd done it 10 make US trouble Parks be, .
twas that Kentucky conductor that knew .
Hayward, but never found out for certain.
Did Hayward ever hear about that notice f.
in the paper" asked some one when Mr..
Blossom had finished
No" said Mr. Blossom, 1--WE never told .
him. We were afraid be might not Sc, the
joke OF course, as it turned out, nobody
was hurt, but after this when | travel on q
pass il has my own name on it. n-Eerminius
Cobb in New y ork Mercury.
An English traveller told Balize Hon
durasl newspaper MAJ that be had eaten
,ScoI MON pie while in Mexico, end that he
liked it The natives told him that Young
were frequently utilized for food
for the lower classes, who dig them up from
heir nests in hundreds, remove the sting
and make omeletS Of them
Drug stores OF Dresden.