Democratic Sentinel, Volume 1, Number 21, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 July 1877 — The Naked Truth. [ARTICLE]

The Naked Truth.

At noon yesterday a policeman found a boy bathing in a slip, near the foot of Randolph street, and he called to the hul to come out and be arrested like a man for breaking the ordinance. “ Is it agin the orjunance for a boy to fall into the river ?” queried the bather. “ No sir, but you are naked.” “ Does the law say that a boy has got to have his clothes on when he falls in?” “The ordinance prohibits bathing here, and now you come out.” “Is it bathing when a feller cuts his foot on a piece of tin, knocks his head agin a beam, and four catfish and a gob of mud ?” “I want you !” called the officer. “ What for?” asked the boy. “ I command you to come out 1” “ I can’t co|ne,” sorrowfully answered the bather. The retd truth is, I jumped in here to rescue a drowning female, but her hair pulled off' arid she’s at the bottom. 'si have no witness I dasu’t go to trial!” “I’ll bring you out?” growled the officer as he made for a boat; but the boy dis Appeared and was seen no more. While the officer was looking under the wharf the half of a good-sized sniul pile suddenly slid down the back of his neck and into his boots, and a musical, familiar voice was heard saying : “My shirt’s on hind side afore, breeches turned around, and this vest is wrong end up, but I feel as clean as a new stamp from the Postoffice, and Lor ! what an appetite I’ve got for pop-corn balls.”— Detroit Free Press.