THEY TACKLED THE WRONG MAN.

Samoa Times and South Sea Gazette, Issue 50, 14 September 1878, Page 4

THEY TACKLED THE WRONG MAN.

He was rather an uncouth-looking individual, and as he sauntered into the store the crowd sitting on the barrels winked at each other and made remarks about his person. " Where did it come from;" usked one, pointing to him. " Somebody left tlie door open and it blew in," said another. " I don't think it's alive said a third. " Touch it and see," remarked a fourth. '• Yjg, it's a man —sec it move ?" queried the first. All hands laughed boisterously. " I'm a poor man, and I don't want to have any trouble with anybody. I'm a Christian, and 1 don't believe in turmoil and strife and oan't participate in it. I pray you, worldly-minded people, that you will ullow me to depart in peace," said the new arrival. One of the crowd, more daring ihan the rest, hammered the man's hat down over his eyes, and another dabbed his nose full of molasses from a barrel standing by. Then the poor Christian took a small volume from his pookot and began reading the Scriptures in a drawling, sing-song tone. While he was engaged at this the crowd played all sorts of tricks on him. One put some eggs in his pocket and another mashed them. Then the biggest man in the house poured some oil on his hat and lighted it. Thin the clerk hit him under the nose with a codfish. Then that man quietly put his little volume in his coat tail pocket, and the clerk went head first into the molasses barrel. When the biggest man in the houso picked himself up from under the counter it was next to an impossibility to guess where his nose left off and codfish began. No. 1 made work for the glazier and hit a ventilator in the window. No. 2 hatched out half a barrel of eggs, and No. 3 got up on the pie shelf and stayett there. As No. 4 walked out of the door on his back he wondered how much it would cost to make him as good as new, and the poor Christian remarked—" The next time you folks pick me up for a slouch look out you ain't in the wrong pew. Good dav, fellers." The clerk is waiting torment to come rouna ana settle for damage done, but they must have forgotten where the place is, as they pass right by .without looking in, and their bills remain unpaid.—Shenandoah Heruld.