Alpena weekly argus. [volume] (Alpena, Mich.) 1871-1893, 1892-06-22
In Bad Shape.

truthful parts in italics, only, it
would exhaust your stock of that
type, for it is all ''petrifed truth. ="
In 1868 | left Little Rock to take
command of United States vessel
then at work at the Upper Mis-
souri,. Before leaving requested
John McGuire-my room mate
to ship me by express my fowling-
piece, which | left in his charge,
when | should so notify him, AT
ter reaching Omaha | wrote him to
send it on; said fowling-piece was
No. 6 and fully six feet long. He
knowing little about such ware,
ordered carpenter to make box
in which to ship it. The carpen-
ter, knowing less, made a box the
whole length of the gun, without
unstocking it. This made a box
six feet long, eighteen inches by
eight inches at the large end, and
tapering down to eight by eight at
the other. When Nc saw the
amount of vacant space in the box a
bright idea must have struck him,
for he gathered up all the ammuni-
tion on hand, consisting of ten
shacks of shot, of various sizes and
put them in to fill up space, and
for what reason | know not he
placed therein four quarts of whisky.
This brought the weight of the box
up to some three hundred pounds,
and so expressed it. When ! was
ready to leave Omaha the package
had not arrived, and instructed
the agent there to forward it to St.
Joe. On arriving at the latter
point it had not reached there, and
the same. process was repeated at
four other points below, the last
point being Lexington. Before
reaching there our machinery be-
came disabled, and we had to lay up
at Missouri City for repairs. While
there | received word that several
thousand dollars of Government
money had been sent us to Lexing-
ton. left the vessel and proceed
ed to that point by rail and there
found my gun, and there my troub-
les began. The original express
charges were heavy enough, but
each reshipment had augmented
them until they amounted to a
grand total of thirty-six dollars.
| paid them, and had them sent
over to the passenger Office. twas
then nearly dark, and the bus was
about ready to start across the river,
by ferry boat. ! requested the con-
ductor to take my box along. Af-
ter looking at it and "hefting' it,
he remarked 1T is too heavy; be-
sides, | do not like that kind of
freight" When | asked what OBJ
jections he had to it's character, he
replied that ''it might cause a dis
turbance," But on seeing" him
to the extent of two dollars, he
agreed to take it along; just then
the bus drove up, and assisting the
driver, we got it safely on top
During this process several ladies
inside began crawling out, remark
ing that they didn't want to ride
in stage carrying corpse on top"
This was my first impression that
my box very much resembled a
coffin, and it took the strongest
kind of assurance to convince them
that it was nothing more than a
harmless package of hunting gear.
On crossing the river we found a
small statiOn-house at the terminous
of short branch road that led up
to station on the North Missouri
railroad. Here we found the train
awaiting us, and when all were
aboard, except myself and package,
| asked the baggage-master why
he did not put my baggage aboard.
He replied that he did not carry
corpses as baggage | protested,
tried to explain that my box was all
the baggage ] had, and described
its contents. But he only held his
nose, and said that THAT game
was played out, and the train moved
off. There | was. 1t was then
dark. | requested the station agent
to allow me to store my goods in
side, but he remarked that "they
would keep better in the COOL" so
he shut and locked the door, and
and went back across the river on
the bus. | might remark that
there | was again. | could not
cross the river and leave my goods,
so | suspended the box against the
building, and as it had begun to
rain | crowded up alongside of it to
give us both what scanty protec-
tion the projecting caves would af-
ford. remained there several hours,