Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1892-03-05

OFF FOR THE BLINDS.
he could possibly spare the time return in y
| couple of days after a brief visit to his family
| at the Princess Annie Hotel, and he laughingly
| remarked there was one member of his house
hold who would kick against being left, and
that was Baby Mckee, who loudly insisted on
accompanying him on the trip.
THE GREATEST SHOT ON RECORD.
The President is lover Of good stories il
they have comparative freshness, but he Is
quick to detect any tale that is palmed of on
him that ante-dates the food. There were sew
erai fine raconteurs or narrators among the
clubmen, who have q whole fund Of anecdotes
well worth listening to, and the time of all
others that taking tale should be told is after
generous dinner, with the room blue with
tobacco smoke.
The President shook in his chair Is one of the
record.
l was down in Occoquan said the clubman,
duck hunting some years ago aud met an old
gentleman, who told me that the occurrence
happened on his fathers plantation, or rather
that part that was rented to Miss Sally Brown,
spinster Of uncertain age, but Of certain
temper There was an old Dutchman some
time in the thirties or forties, when Washing
ton was but struggling town, and an un-
speakably dirty one at that whose name was
Cap'en Van Dam He was the owner Of small
sloop called the Fraulien whose crew consisted
OF an ancient darkey who answered to the call
Of Toby. This ancient darkey did the cooking
and helped the cap'en to furl and hoist the
SAILS He didn't do much work, but he could
play the fiddle rs we'll as Orpheus did his lyre
The business Of the captain Of the Fraulien was
to sail along the Potomac and its tributaries
and buy up fruit, vegetables, game, poultry
hides, pelts, butter, eggs, in fact. almost any
thing. and dispose Of the cargo in Baltimore
and Washington. The cap'en was as sharp and
shrewd Hollander as ever left the dykes and
dams Of the low countries. He had every in
dividual eye tooth cut-even ground to a point
but to look at his heavy, broad fat face and
unmeaning blue eyes one would never think it.
One December. half century or SO ago, the
Fraulien's anchor was dropped in a cove that
ran into Occoquan bay. The cap'en intended
to get under way the next morning. His pro-
visions were running short and he wanted to
replenish his larder, now as bare as the tradi-
ditional Mother Hubbards. That night phe-
nomenal freeze set in and the sloop was froze
hard and fast In the evening Capt. Van Dam,
after first having made Toby walk on the ice to
test its weight walked across to the shore
when a snug cottage was seen close by. Now
it happened that this was Miss Sally Browns
home, and the fat Hollander and elderly female
were destined to get better acquainted than
they ever dreamed of. Miss Sally made her
living by raising poultry. Her little rented
farm was cultivated solely to raise grain to
feed the fowls She supplied the choice dishes
OF the bountiful tables Of the neighboriuR
planters. There we're no fattened fowls in the
country equal to Miss Sally's. In person she
was tall, angular, with reddish hair, thin lips
and white eyes. Miss Sally was as the natives
expressed it. 'as keen as q brier." II the