THE ONE-LEGGED MAN.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3262, 17 August 1881, Page 4

THE ONE-LEGGED MAN.

' I never advised a man to leave his own town,' he said to the small crowd surrounding him at the Union Depot the other day ' but if any of you are bound to change locations Uregon is the country to go to. I am now on my way back there, and there's nothing you can ask about Oregon that I can't tell you.' ' How's the climate ?' 'Superb. It's never too cold nortoohot. Providence watches the weather out there like » hawk, .

' Lots of Injuns ?' ' Y<'f>, but they can't do any damage. Providence always gives the settlers ample warning, or else leads the rod men into a trap.' 'Some hard cases out there, aren't there ?' ' Not very hard. When a rpfin pets too bad Providence kills him off. , ' How did you lose your log ?' asked a hackdriver, as the conversation flagged. ' I'll tell you about it. I'vo iij,-.;uo.:«u Providence nn-.l in the same breath, and I want to pv.'vo t):?it there is a special dispensation there. I was going up the Delros road to a gristmill one day last September when I fouud a 4oz bottle of chloroform on the road. About a mile on I met a grizzly bear as large as a steer. I bad no weapon, and I knew that I was boxed up. To run \v;i.~ useless, and no living mau ever looked a, grizzly out of countenance. I always try to m.iko the best of every situation, and when I found myself cornered f opened the bottle of chloroform and inhaled sufficient to make me iiucciiiicLus. Whib in this state the bear made a, breakfast off my left log, and I never felt one single twinge of pain. . There was a sensation in the crowd, and all pressed nearer. ' When f came to, the bear had disappeared, and just at that time the Red Valley coach drove up. Providentially, two of the passengers had fallen over a precipice, so that there was room inside. When we got in "Rrnwn's Hill we found a surgeon who had been chased in by Indians that very .nioi'niiig, <in<l he fixed me up in an hour, f sa»v fie hand of Previdence all through, it. no .-.loin <>.■ T .*ee that. liule] over there.' ' TMd Providence get that cork leg for you ?' inquired a mean man near the door. ' Certainly it did. I lay bed two months, and when I took the stage for Portland we came across the body of a stranger who had been murdered by highwaymen. He had a cork leg, and it was just my fit. This is the identical leg, and let me add in conclusion that I haven't begun to give Providence and Oregon half their just dues.' —Detroit Free Press.