I've Done The Same Thing Often


A MR. JOHN SMITH, who is described, evidently not without reason, as a

fast talker, gave the following description of the blowing up of a

steamboat on the Mississippi: I had landed at Helena for a minute to

drop some letters into the post-office, when all of a sudden I heard a

tremendous explosion, and, looking up, saw that the sky was for a minute

darkened with arms, legs, and other small bits and scraps of my

fellow-
ravellers. Amongst an uncommonly ugly medley, I spied the second

clerk, about one hundred and fifty feet above my own level. I recognized

him at once, for ten minutes before I had been sucking a sherry-cobbler

with him out of the same rummer. Well, I watched him. He came down

through the roof of a shoemaker's shop, and landed on the floor close by

the shoemaker, who was at work. The clerk, being in a hurry, jumped up

to go to the assistance of the other sufferers, when the 'man of wax'

demanded five hundred dollars for the damage done to his roof. 'Too

high,' replied the clerk; 'never paid more than two hundred and fifty

dollars in my life, and I've done the same thing often.'



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