The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1891-11-19
AS L WAS SAYING.

The "Sign of the Times" was emphati-
cally displayed here in Central Falls yes
terday, which gave considerable sport to
the lookers-on. At No 20 Central street
there opened in the afternoon an estab-
lishment where a sign hung upon the
ters, Boots and Shoes Tapped and
Heeled, 90 cents" The proprietor took a
recently-vacated store, and was there for
business.
"I knew was something OF Rip Van
Wrinkle, in Providence, but did not ex-
pect to come back and not see one familiar
face in business circles"
Thus talked man OF about seventy
years. who had been fifteen years in the
west, without being once in this city.
by George sir, 1t makes me feel just
as il used TO when went up TO my Grand
mothers farm, when boy, and just AS IL
came about sun set would go out and
sit on the stone wall, and cry for thinking
how mothers face looked when / | ist saw
her, as she bid me good bye, and then 20
to torturing myself with the thought,
that suppose she would die before / could
get back there again"
ut seems to me" went on the Westerner,
"that Providence has seen more financial
eruptions than almost any place l ever
heard Of When l ask after any of the
heavy men of the time when L was
living here, get told, oh he's gone to
pieces and living out of town somewhere
on property his wife had I; or he's dead,
plagued to death by his failure, or he's
yes, sir-he's in the insane asylum 1t
makes man creepy to hear it. When /
go up Westminster street l look for the
old firm signs; most every one gone. III L
do find one, and 20 up into the Office,
strange faces meet me, and when i ask
after the old men / used to know there,
Il lr..l
them if they knew whether Moses had got
scooped out of the bulrushes, yet, or they
had sprinkled disinfectants on Holofernes
head. Im going home. | know you East
ern people have an idea we live in holes in
the ground and have thick coat of hair
grow all over us like dog, but we don't
all 20 broke and die between our friends
calls. feel just like dog that's buried
his best bone, and being extra hungry, has
gone to dig il up, only to find it's been
eaten by some other dog long ago, most
likely"
1t will not do always to judge by out
ward appearances. Any morning, If you
go To look, you may see outside Provi-
dence restaurant a big black horse, weigh
ing may be close on TO !, 100 pounds. He
will be hitched into a common express
wagon with a harness on that looks worth
about s..
The horse will stand unhitched with a
very listless, don't-give-a-cent air. Yet to-
day that black horse can be taken out of
the wagon, put in a sulky and take first
money on any track in the 2:40 class. And
remember, all this without days train
ing.
1t is mig" the property of Slocum of
Pawtucket. Every day the horse brings
its master and load of fish and clans 90
the city; every afternoon he works on the
shore collecting clans from the diggers.
just for fun this fall he at three different
times came out of the clam cart shafts
and stepped into those of the sulky,
Once was at Phenix at the Kent County
Fair races; scooped the jackpot, as easy as
sliding of pitched roof; then down at
Kingston, trotted three winning heats,
while the other horses were wondering at
themselves, and out at Pawtucket he hur-
ried round a little, took first money and
went back home to drawing clans again.
1t seems as though he winked one eye, the
other morning, as a man asked him IL he
knew what daisy he was. But being
sensible he never answered a word, as To
whether he thought himself great things
nr not