Year: 1877

This affair being settled turned our attention to
he outer world once more, but found that we had ar
rived at the send of the track" in the suburbs OF
Georgetown. Being totally unacquainted with the
law of the land we thought it best to follow the
wiadipgs of the river-or rather the canai-for the
Chesapeape and Ohio canal fooys closely the river
sh re


After walk of about three miles along dry,
dusty road, the monotony of which was occasionally
broken by the passage of barge on the "raging
canawl' we reached the chain bridge, which stluc>
ture is SO named because it is iron truss bridge
without sign of chain In its entire length. The
shore of the river on the north side hato about
quarter of mile wde the bridge being raised above
it some twenty-five feet by means of rough stone
abutments On the opposite shore the bank is very
steep, and in places perpendicular.


Crossing the "fat" we reached the river side and
cast our lines in wherever we s3und place that
looked fishy, but nary a bite did we get. We soon
tired of THIS Improbable and concluded
the river to do which necessitated the re>
tracing of our steps to the north end Of the bridge
Ny companion suggested the possibility of our
climbing the abutments and thus save a long and
rough walk ever stones and rubbish W. tried it
succeeded in attaining heighl Of ten twelve feet
and then found it 'no thoroughfare'' and like
Zaccheus, "came down."


Mac.-my fellow fisherman, ,-emulating the boy
who carved his way TO fame tie Natural Bridge
continued 10 climb to within about feet of the top
when he was obliged to descend, being unable to find
a ingerhold. Descending almost perpendicular
wall with ouy half an inch of tooi,hold is rather
delicate undertaking; Mac foundit for he had not
fak tb-aa 1o,x
feet slipped and the instant he was lying fat on
the rocks below, considerably shaken up, but fortu-
nately unhurt. fter addressing few appropriate
remarks lin which adjective composed of d and
separated by dash, played conspicuous part)
to the bridge, and his luck he gathered himself up
and picked way back to tbs end of the bridge
Crossing found small frame house which
bore In large letters upon lis front the Legend "Bar
Room" and the side of the door inscribed the
pleasing announcement milwaukee Logger Bear,
We entered and called fer sswei lager" Two glasses
were set out containing dark, dirty looking fluid
which we lookel upon with suspicion, but finally
raised to lips and after the customary salut
of "Howl" !" We drank, and then-went ut and sat
| down to.think


| We thought of chdhoods happy days,
When We were gay and innocent,


We thought of Murphy, and ifhe had happened along
lust then would have signed the pledge without
hesitation We thought of sundry things, but par
ticularly we thonght would Ike 70 puoch the
head of the vendor of the mast rinainous beverage
that ever passed the lips of man. Waugh 1 shudder
even now, when think of it, What its constituent
parts were, will probably be known He (the
| barkeeper) was large man aud wore heavy thick
soled boots number nine pegged at that and we
therefore refained from administering the casgation
which he deserved. We consoled ourselves that
sometime that da5olcal wretch viii sell glass of
it to ssme chap, less good Datured than we Who
seek revenge and bring him to untimely eud. One
thing IS certain, when he dies flowers will be
strewn above his grave, but he,


"Doubly dying he shall go down


70 the vile earth from whence he sprang
Unwept, unhonoI ed, and unhung."
! But this is DEPRESSION, and has nothing to do with
| the legitimate business in hand Weclimbed the
bluff, found cool shady spot where clear cold spring
gushed out from beneath the roots of gigantic tree,
and ate our luncheon. Which consisted of the two
pieces of hard-tack before mentionsd-ihs botti.
having been broken by coming in violent contact
with rock at the tEe of Aacs uncermonious decent
from the bridge. Then we lighted our pipes aud
smoked,


"And as the cloud of smoke arose
Like incense in the air.


We drank in the bracng air and the beauties of the
forest andrver scenery, which was beautiful beyond
! the power Of language TO describe


The roar ofthe rapids in the distance tie bubblng
OF The adjacent brook, the singing of the birds in the
wood, and the delicious intoxicating odor oftho many
lovely wild-Aewers, ues US to sleep.


All whot delightful, refreshing sleep it was too
sweet TO last for we were awakened by sharn pain
in prlcklngs all over bodies upon investigating
we found that the spot we had chosen for sesta
the home OF the sfy festive ant, These dimin,
utive inhabitants of the forest resentipg our hmili.
arity in taking possession of their ou srters were
making feroeious attack upon US and did it with
such vigor that we were soon engaged in executing
war dance, with the accompaniment of bideous and
resounding yells that would have filed the soul OF
the most iIlusrious scalp taker


We faally obliged to strip and plunge into til
river, and thus succeeded in inducing our foes to
leave our bodies, but to compel them TO vacate tho
inner parts OF our clothing found task that
qured much deep thought and the use Of a great
many expletives and otjurgations At last by turn>


ing them the clothes, net the ants) inside out and
picking of each individual ant we got rid of the
critters; donned our appeared and turned our foo,
steps bemeward resolved to stop at the market and
purchase three four fish to exhibit to our friends
trophies of the expedition This resolution we did
not carry out could find no fish bat shad and
this fish informed is caught only with nets
hook having attractions for it, This Intelligent
we received with astonishment and chagrin but this
feeling quickly gave way to thankfulness that we
knew this characteristic of the shad before claiming
to have caught them and being. humiliated by re,
ceiving the information when toe late 1t was mar
row escape.


Moral: never tell lie unless you are sure you will
not be detected.


Well, well, here am wandering from the subject
again, but will myself unon the ground that


never like to miss opportunity of instilling CHI
principles in the mind of my fellow men; use the
word men adysedly in this instance as 1 never kres
ono of the opposite to be detected in telling 6
"hb not that 1 think they never tell any. but the,
are cautious about IT. they sly "e>viish sIy"
Joe Bagstock would say hence the above moral i.
of no use to them,


On our return took different route and left tn.
river to bear away the mangled our late


the ants: Striking up the hill We shortly cam,
upon the reservoir which supplies the city with wa
ter. This is large body Of water near the bill top
! surrounded by high board fenco and two o.
! three hundred young Africans, who wsr,
engaged in the laudabIs occupation of throwing


old fish heads, sheep bones dead cats like pleas
ing objects into the water. This is supposed to adj
greatly to Its flavor and hsaltdfulnsss, and when
young Ethiopian happens to fall in and is drowns
I and not discovered several weeks afterward, O


until the rtoppage Of the flow ofwater leads to al
investigation the water has most delightful tast
# and odor-to those who are unacquaiutsd with tn
circumstance, Just above the reservoir the top