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.'