MORE ABOUT THE BAD BOY'S PA.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 5, Issue 1448, 4 August 1883, Page 4

MORE ABOUT THE BAD BOY'S PA.

" What is this I hear about your pa being arrested in Chicago ?" said the grocery man to tho bad boy, as he came in with a can for kerosene and a jug for vinegar. . " Well, it was true; but the police let him go after they hit him a few licks and took him to the station," said the boy as ho got the vinegar into the kerosene can, and tho kerosene into the jug. "You see, pa and me went down down theie to stay overnight, and have fun. Ma said she'd rather we would be away than not when they were cleaning house, and pa thought it would do me good to travel, and sort of get tone, and he thought maybe I'd be better and not play jokes, but I guess it is born in me. Do you' know, I actually think of mean things,to do when I am in the most solemn places? They took me to a funeral ence, and I got to thinking what a stampede thore would be if the corpse would come to life and sit up in the coffin, and I snickered right out, and pa took me out-doors and kicked me. / don't think he orter kicked me for it, 'cause I didn't think of it a purpose. Such things have occurred, and I have read about them, and a poor boy ought to be allowed to think, hadn't he?" "Yes; but what about his being arrested? Never mind the funeral," said the grocery man as he took his knife and picked some of the lead out of the weights on the scales. "We went down on the cars, and pa had a headache, because he had been out all" night electioneering for the prohibition ticket, and he was cross, and scolded me, and once he pulled my ear 'cause I asked him if he know the girl he was winking at in a seat across the aisle. I didn't enjoy myself mhch, and some men were talking about kidnapping children, and it gave me an idee,-and just before I got to Chicago I" went after a drink of water at the other end of the oar, and I saw a man who looked as though he wouldn't stand any fooling, and 1 whispered to him and told him that the baldheaded man I was sitting with was taking me away from my home in Milwaukee, and I mistrusted lie was going to make a thief or pickpocket of me. I said '' s-h-h-h, 1 and told him not to say anything or the man would maul me. Then I went back to the seat and asked pa to buy me a gold watch, and he looked mad and cuffed me on the ear. The man that I whispered to got talking with some other men, and when we got off the cars at Chicago, a policeman came up to pa and took him by, the neck, and said: ' Mr Kidnapper, I guess we will run you in,' Pa was mad and tried to.

jerk away, and the cop. choked him, and another cop came along and helped \ and the passengers crowded around and wanted to lynch pa, and pa wanted to know what they meant, and they asked him where he stole the kid, and

he said I was his kid, and asked me if i, I wasn't, and I looked scared, as though : I was afraid to say no, and I said : : ' Y-e-s, s-i-r, I guess so.' Then the ; police said the poor hoy was scart, ; and - they would take us both to the station, and they made pa ■walk spry, find when he held back they jerked him, along. He was pfful mad, and said he would make somebody smart for this, and ! hoped • it wouldn't be me. Atiihe station • they charged; pa with kidnapping a boy ~, from Milwaukee, and he said it was a •• ' lie, and I said, of course it was; and ; : .:theboss asked who lold the cops pa was a kidnapper, and they said: "Damfino"; and'then the boss told pa ho could go, but not let it occur again, and pa and me went away. I looked so jorry for pa that he never tumbled to

it th.it I whs to blame. We walked around town nil day, and wont to -the stores, and atnight:pawaa_offtal" tired; - and ho put me to bed in the tavern and he went out to. walk around and get rested. I thought pa had gone to a theatre, and that made me mnd, and I thought 1 would play a joke on him, Our room was 210, and the next room was 212, and there was an old maid with a scotch terrier occupied 212. I saw her twice, and sho called me names, 'cause sho thought I wanted to .steal her dog. That-made me tn'ajl at her, and so I took,my .jackknifo and drew the tacks out of tho tin thing that the numbers I were, painted on, ami put tho old maidV , number on our door, and our number on her door, and then I went to' bed. I tijied to keep awake, so as to help pa - if he had any difficulty, but, I (>uess I got asleep, but woke up when the dog , barked. If tho dog had not woke me up, ,tho woman's scream would, and if. that hadn't, pa would. You boo, pa came home from the theatre about 'leven, awl he had been drinking.; He . says everybody drinks wheirthey go to, Chicago, even the Minister. Pa looked at tho numbers on the doors all along the hall till he found 210, and walked right in and pulled off :his. coat; and threw it on the lounge where thV dog j was. The old maid was asleep, but the dog .barked and pa said: '?Th'at : cussed boy has bought a dog,' and ho kicked tho dog, and then the old,maid said-; 'What is the matter pet?'' Pa laughed and said: ' Nothing the mazzer with me,'pet,' and then you ought to have heard the yelling. Tho old maid covered her head, and kicked. and : yelled, and the dog snarled and bit pa, and pa had got his vest off already and his suspenders unbuttoned; and he got scared, and took his coat and vest and went in the hall,' and I opened our door, and told pa ho was in the wrong room, and he said he guessed he bowed it, and he came in our room, and I locked the door, and then the bell-boy and the porter and clerk came up to . see what ailed the old maid, and she said a burglar got in the room, and they found pa's hat on the lounge, and they took it and told her to be quiet, and they would find the burglar. Pa was so scared that he pretended to go to sleep, but was wondering how he could get his hat back, In the morning I told him it would be hard to explain it to ma how he happened to get into the wrong room, and he said it. wasn't necessary, to say anything about it to ma,. : Thon he gave me five dollars to go. out and buy him a new hat, and he said I might keep the change, if I would not mention it when I got home, and 1 got.him one for ten shillings, and we took the eight o'clock train in the morning and came home, and I s'pose tho .Chicago detectives are trying to tit pa's hat pna burglar, Pa seemed offully relieved when we got across the State, lino into Wisconsin. But you'd a died to, see him come out of that old lady's rooni witli his coat and vest on his arm, and his suspenders hanging down, looking scart. He dessent lick me any more or I'll tell ma where pa left his hat."—f I Peck's Sun,