Democratic Sentinel, Volume 2, Number 27, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 August 1878 — The New Coachman. [ARTICLE]

The New Coachman.

The boy should have known better at his age than to let out family secrets, but he felt grateful to the other boy for the use of his stilts, and he softly remarked: “ Father wasn’t home all last night, and he hasn’t come home yet. ” “ Gone off?” queried the owner of the stilts. “ He’s down town somewhere, we expect, and ma says she ain’t going to run after him if he don’t come home for a month.” “ Did they have a fuss ?” “ Kinder. You see we had to let the coachman go ’cause its hard times. Yesterday afternoon ma wanted pa to black up and drive ner out in style. .He kicked at first, but when she got mad he caved in and fixed himself up so you couldn’t tell him from a darky. When he drove around ma called him Peter, and ordered him to back up, and go ahead, and flaw and gee around, and he got up on his ear and drove back to the barn. Them duds came ofFn him like lightning, and he was so mad that he didn’t stay long enough to wash the black off his ears. ” “ And what did your mother say ?” asked the other. “Nothing. She looked a little sad around the mouth, but she’ll fetch him to if it takes all winter. He might as well come home and begin to learn how to use burnt cork.” —Detroit Free Press.