Daily tobacco leaf-chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1890-1895, 1890-07-18

And Yet lie Told a Tale Of a Tin Pail
Tint XVna Ralnnrknhlc Indead

And Yet lie Told a Tale Of a Tin Pail
That Was Remarkable Indeed.
He was sitting ON the lower forward deck
Of one of the Staten Island rapid transit
ferryboats. He was an old man, with q
serious expression in his gray eyes, and his
mouth above his snowy beard was thin and
tightly closed He did not look at all like
a man who would joke upon any subject
He did not look like a man who would
lie unless there was money to be made by
50 doing Yet the following is truthful
account of what he said to an acquaint-
ance who came and sat near him, There
were several horses on the boat, and few
words concerning one of them gave the old
man chance to unburden his mind. This
is how he did it: ..
Eyes, sir; talkin' of horses reminds me
of suthin' that happened to me t'other day
when was out ridin' with my little boy.
We was in my buggy an was drivin' that
old mare O. mine. You know that old
mare, I've he'd her now Goin' on six year
Never was kinder animal in harness than
that mare. She amt got no bad tricks am
she never he'd. My old woman has dliv
her ever sence got her, nm she never he'd
no trouble o. no kind with her Well, sir,
| was drivin' her as / way a-sayin', with
my little boy last Thursday afternoon
Remember what a showery day it was last
Thursday2 Well, one o. them showers
come up when / was a-drivin' an ! put
the mare into IA trot to git to shelter SOS
the boy wouldn't get wet. Make her 10
faster, pop says my little boy, an hit her
a lick with the whip to sort o. hurry her
up. First thing you know she was goin
at a two-forty gait an leant back an put
the whip away. Jest then we ran over a
tin bucket that was allyn in the road an
somehow or other the handle of the bucket
got caught round one of the spokcs of the
buggy wheel an went a-circlin' round with
it.
at made the durndest chatter ever did
hear, an it liked to have scarf the wits
clean out Othat there mare She Jest laid
back her ears, kin O. snorted like, an
bumped herself for all she knowed how.
Go? / never seed the like in my life, She
jest whiZzed along, an every time that old
tin bucket pounded the ground she hump
cd herself along faster You bet my little
boy didn't tell me to drive no faster then.
He was as scarf as the mare. | took him
between my knees an helt onto him tight
Well, sir, don't know what wouldn't
happened If it hedn't been that the tin pail
fetched loose from the wheel an went
whizzin' by my head toward the mare, an
I'll be gosh burned if it didn't hit her in
the flank an ketch onto her tail an stick
there That's what it did. Then she did
go D'yever see any race horses a-comin'
down the homestretch in close heat?
Well, they wasn't a circumstance to the
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She got right down close TO the ground
an skinned along the street like light
hin express on down grade with all the
brakes wide open.
"The tin bucket kept swingin' from side
to side an hittin' her on first one flank an
then the other, an at every lick she went
faster | do reckon she was a-goin' most a
mile minute, when at last the bucket
broke loose from her tail Then got a
fresh hold on the lines an sortcr slackened
her up, an fore long she was a-trotting
just MS nice an easy as you please. 1t was
the queerest thing that ever happened to
me in all the years I've been a-drivin, and
don't want nothin' like it to happen
again. The next time | see a tin pail
allyn in the read you kin bet I'll give it
all the room it wants, Hello! here we are
in the slip. | didn't think we was much
past Gov ner's Island. reckon we'd bet
ter be movin' to git off the boat. y
And the old man shut his lips close to
gether again and was lost in the crowd
which was fastening to get uptown from
the Battery. The man to whom he had
been talking was standing stock still gaz-
ing after him and shaking his head slowly
from side to side. New York Sun