The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1892-01-26
MR., BowsER GETS THE GRIP.
1t Doubles Him Up in Spite of His
Enormous Will Power.
M. quad Tells HouU the ShiUers Laid
BrOUSeT Lou.

-Four or five weeks ago., when Mr..
BOwser came home one evening and
found Mrs. Bowser in bed, and was
Informed that it was a case of grip, he
blurted out:
"Gripl And you have gone to bed
and had the doctor for a case of grip2
Humph"
"But am awfully sickm she re-
piled.
RATS, Mrs. Bowser! You just
imagine it! This simply goes to prove
what l have often asserted-that no
person of any strength Of character has
ever had the grip. It's a namby-
PANTY thing, which even a child three
years old ought to be ashamed Of"
you may have it before you get
through"
eff 1 do-if I am silly enough to lay
down with any such thing as that
hope somebody will pound me to death
with a ~fence-rail! | have the grips l
call a doctor for such a ~nonsensical
thing as that9 Not if my name is
BOwserr'
Mrs. Bowser was in bed three or
four days, and Mr.. Bowser lost no
opportunity to talk about her foolish
ness in giving up to such a trifing
ailment, He likewise remarked to the
doctor that he thought it very foolish
In the medical fraternity to encourage
the public to any such delusiOn.
you'll probably have it, and when
it comes you'll change your opinion"
CURLY replied the doctor.
81 will, Ell! There isn't enough grip
in North America to put down one of
my ears! I'd just like to be attacked
just to show you how strength of will
could throw it off"
A week ago, at three o'clock one
afternoon Mrs. Bowser heard some
thing fall against the front door. She
called to the girl to open it and see
whether it was a bag of potatoes or a
corn shelter. It was neither. It was
Mr.. Bowser-not tie Mr.. Bowser who
had gone away in the morning step
ping high and carrying his chin in the
air, but the Mr.. Bowser who had come
home shaking and shivering and all
bumped over until he didn't appear to
be four feet high. 1t was a case of
grip. AS he sat in his Office gayly
whistling "Old Black Joe" a sudden
shiver shivered up his back. He looked
around to see who flung it, but it was
followed by two more. He jumped up
with q feeling that all the ice thus far
cut on the Hudson had been loaded on
his back. A whole drove Of shivers
and shakes and chills kept waltzing
from his heels to his neck and back
again, and there was a roaring in his
head as if he stood on the brink Of
Niagara. A boy who came in with a
telegram, looked Mr.. Bowser over and
said:
"Old man, you've got it, and got it
bad! If you've any home to go to
you'd better skip. If 1 never @ you
again then farewellr'
Mr.. Bowser didn't stop to exercise
any will power to throw it off. He got
into his overcoat and made for home.
The street-car conductor tried to con
sole him by saying that he would
probably be out in four weeks, and a
woman on the a named over twenty
two of her acquaintance who had
been carried off in a week.
Heavens, Mr.. Bowser! but what
does this meant" demanded Mrs.
Bowser, as he staggered into the hall.
"Tm-Tm a dead man. he gasped
as she pulled off his overcoat and helped
him on thelounge in the back parlor.
Have you got a chitl2"
"Y-yes! Get forty bed quilts to
cover me UpI"
"And does your back ache?"
"Does itl Great SCOTS, but 1 don't
believe l can live half an hour longer!
It's a congeetive chill, I suppose"
Its simply the grip, MI. Bowser.
That's exactly the way everybody is
taken. Hadn't you better exercise a
little will power?"
Mr.. Bowser looked at her reproach-
fully and shivered and shook.
"Curious how it took hold Of a man
of your strength of character" she
continued as she got his shoes off.
Mr.. Bowser's chin began to culver in
a suspicious manner and she said no
more on the subject. He had been put
to bed and was grooming and shiver-
ing, when the doctor came in.
"Well your ear has been pulled
down, I see," remarked the doctor as
he rubbed his hands together in a
cheerful way. "Have you tried to