The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1900-07-15
Bachelors Career Ended in an
Odd Way.
DIGIT THAT HAD BEEN
CUT OFF.
(Chicago Inter ocean,


wonders to perform" said a cookbook
ing, ray-whiskered man who had con-
fessed that he was - years old before
he had found q wife, land I suppose
never would have been married if it
! had not been for a railroad accident
in which L participated by the mys-
ferrous Overruling of Providence. 1
was Of r. mite and somewhat IA
taiistic tenC Of mind. and had an
idea that a m. lost his heart as he
found religion-all Of a sudden and
when the proper spirit came along.
had never seen the woman that
thought was the one for me, though
had met several whom ! tried hard
enough to get and as the years kept
slipping by l slowly but surely was ar
irving at the conclusion that I was
destined TO fill d bachelors grave
However. 10 man knows what IS &C.
ing 10 happen next, and one day
boarded train out of the Wisconsin
town where l lived to go to Chicago.
| had intended going on a night train
but when 1 went to find my pass-I
had a pull with the railroads in those
days-where l usually kept it in my
desk it was not there. and l couldn't
find it high or low. l found it at last
had gone then, and ] was forced to
wait till next dav.
The train came by early. and v-!en
[ got into a coach there was not more
than dozen people in it. two-thirds
OF them women. By the time we had
gone 100 miles the car was half full,
and l suppose there were twenty wo-
men in the car, most of them well
dressed, and considerably above the
average appearance of domen in car
load lots, but / did not give them more
than passing notice, for, as / said,
wasn't paying much attention to wo-
men unless there was a good and suf-
ficient reason for il, which did not seem
to exist at that moment Being q mar
lied man, maybe you don't feel that
way. but l had learned that after an
unmarried man passes the forty line.
the frills and follics and furbelOWS
don't exert the same influence they
did when he didn't have quite so much
sense. There is an influence, Of course.
that benign influence which lasts as
long as life does, but il is more matured
and material, a result rather OF judg-
ment than of impulse. See?
Were you ever in a railroad acct
dent? No? Well, you don't want to
be. No matter how much life and ac-
cident insurance you carry, it gives you
a funny kind of feeling when it begins
that you never want to have a second
tlme-nOt that you yearn for it es-
pecially the first time
Sensations in Railway Wreck.
Everything is going along smoothly
enough. and you are thinking of bust
hess or politics, not often of religion.
or are gazing comfortably out at the
oil
comes a jar, bouncing over the rails.
swaying TO and fro that makes you
SICK at the stomach and gives you
sense of utter helplessneSs, and then
bang, and possibly you know what
happens next and POSSIBLY you don't.
In my case, all [ knew was that I was
in the front end of the car and all
the passengers and loose seats, with
stove or two and a few lamps, were
piled on top of me. and I didn't know
any more till / walked up some hours
later in a farmhouse.
"A forward truck had given way as
we were skipping along at about thirty
miles an hour, and our car. after drag
Sing for fifty feet had struck an open
culVert, stood on its end a second. and
tOppled over into the ditch. The car
was wrecked, but the special provi-
dence which looks after such things,
as well as before them, brought no
graver injuries than a few broken
limbs, some cuts and bruises. and
a good deal of shock to every
body, l was considerably bruised
and battered, but no bones were
broken. and two hours after I recovered
consciousness l was able to get I'D and
go back to the wreck to look for a
pocketbook of valuable papers I had
lost in the shuttle. I found it all right,
and l also found near il a lady's little
finger, clipped off as neatly as if it
had been done by sharp knife 1t was
very plump, nice-lOoking finger. too.
and 1 don't know what possessed me,
but / hurriedly slipped it into my pock-
ct. and went away without mentioning
my find to any one. 1t was nObGdv's
business, anyway. for all the passen-
gers, except two or three men. who had
got on at the last station back, had
been taken on to their destination on
the train, which got over the break in
a couple OF hours after the accident. as
ours was the only car that had suffered
much.
Il reached Chicago about twelve
hours late, and the first thing ! did was
TO go to a drug store and have the
finger put up in spirits in as pretty a
bottle as could be procured. Then 1
Lleu blue ribbon around the neck of
the bottle, and, putting it into my
pocket, began to dream dreams about
it. I carried it back home with me.
and set it up as a kind of unknown god
to worship, and, though was an other
wise sensible man of 10. you would
have thought I was a silly kid of 20.
the way 1 went on over that bottled
finger. Blamed if L didn't even write
poetry to il, and 1 wasn't much Of q
poet, either, before the advent of the
finger.
Apostrophe to Finger.
Il remember one piece that I thought
was extra fine. 1t went something like
this:
oh, little finger,
Soaked in Spirits,
/ wonder if
The poet merits
A touch of that
Fair hand unknown
Id dearly love
To call my own
oh, little finger,
Point the way
That leads RI her