THEY COULDN'T MAKE HIM SPEAK.

Globe, Volume XXI, Issue 1820, 20 December 1879, Page 3

THEY COULDN'T MAKE HIM SPEAK.

They had a dime supper in the neighbourhood of Pawtucket, conceived and carried out by the ladies: The conditions of this novel supper were these :—For every word spoken by the gentlemen at the supper table a forfeit of ten cents was imposed ; but, on the other hand (as duties are always compensated with rights and restrictions with privileges), it was agreed that whoever could weather the whole supper, submitting to all queries, surprises, and ingenious questions without replying, should be entitled to it gratuitously. Many and frequent were the artifices and subterf ages resorted to by the ladies in attendance to trap the unguarded, and one after another stout and discreet men went down before the constant volley of artful interrogations, At last all fell out and paid the dime penalty Bave one individual—a queer chap—whom nobody seemed to know. He attended strictly to business and passed unheeded the jokes, jibes, and challenges. They quizzed him, but all in vain. He wrestled with the turkey and grappled with the goose. He boiled out the cranberry sauce with an unswerving hand, and be ate celery as the scriptural vegetarian ate grass ; and finally, when he had finished his fifth piece of pie, he whipped oat a pocket slate, and wrote on it, in a large and legible hand, " I am deaf and dumb."