THE SORROWFUL MAN FROM COLUMBUS.

Globe, Volume XXII, Issue 2114, 2 December 1880, Page 3

THE SORROWFUL MAN FROM COLUMBUS.

At the Union Depot the other morning, officer Button observed a tall, long-legged stranger, who seemed to bo clothed mostly in a linen dnater, wipe hia eyes and blow hia nose like one suffering mental distress, and he approached and asked the cause. ‘Oh, lots of things,’ replied the man, as he shook out his handkerchief. ‘ls there a camp meeting anywhere around here f’ * Not that I know of.’ ‘ And they don’t have any prayer meetings , here In the daytime ?’ ‘No.’ ‘There isn’t anybody around the depot who makes a speciality of singing Gospel , hymns, is there?’ * Don’t know of anybody. Has yonr wife j run away J’ j ‘ No; I never had one.’ , ‘ Lost your wallet ?’ | ‘No j I never carry a wallet,’ ( ‘ Anybody abused you ?’ j * No ; everybody Is kind to me.’ , * Then why this sorrow and these tears ? ( Strong men do not weep without strong ( cause.’ ‘I weep—l weep because the world Is , cold—because it is wicked—because human nature has become suspicious. I weep be- , cause another sun has risen on the evil j passions of men.’ t ‘Are yon naturally sorrowful ?’ i * I am. I sometimes wish I wasn’t that way. How long before the Lake Shore train < goes ?’ c ‘ About twelve minutes,’ * Then I will spend eleven minutes in fur- i ther weeping. Have you a private room in i which I can sit and cry ?’ ‘ Say, old man, what’s yonr lay ?’ asked ) the officer, after looking him over. e ‘My lay is weeping. I am the sorrowful man from Columbus. ’ ] ‘ That’s too thin. What’s the particular t packet this morning ?’ t ‘ Won’t yon give me away ?’ asked the man. after a fresh dig at his eyes. ] ‘No.’ 1 ‘l’m dead broke, and I want to get to Toledo. The conductor who goes out on this train stands over there, and I’m weeping for hia benefit. He has already remarked my grief, and he wonders what ails me. When he asks far my tiaket I’ll either be a missionary who weeps over the avarice of railroad corporations, and appeals to his ; charity, or a country parson who lost his B money on the confidence game. Now lot me i weep some more. ’ _ I He wept some more, and then said : j * It’s the best lay in the world. It’s a c hundred times ahead of cheek or riding on c the springs, and it costs me nothing, and Is j always ready. I cried my way from Colnm- 'j bus to Indianapolis, wept from there to B Chicago, and then sobbed myself along to f Detroit, I now weep that I may see Toledo, j and I shall depend upon emotion to scoot j me through to Colnmbns in good style. I c will now edge along towards the conductor e and give way to an extra burst of mingled j grief and contrition, Ta-ta, old blue-coat — j don’t give away a man who couldn’t raise a \ nickel if his eyes should give out to-mor- l row.’ —“Detroit Free Press.” s s