Democratic Sentinel, Volume 3, Number 40, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 November 1879 — They Couldn’t Make Him Speak. [ARTICLE]

They Couldn’t Make Him Speak.

They had a dime-supper in the neighborhood of Pawtucket, conceived and carried out by the ladies. The conditions of this novel supper were these: For every word spoken by the gentlemen at the supper-table a forfeit of 10 cents was imposed; but, on the other hand (as duties are always compensated with rights and restrictions with privileges), it was agreed that whoever could weather the whole supper, submitting to all queries, surprises, and ingenious questions without replying, should be entitled to it gratuitously. Many and frequert were the artifices and subterfuges resorted to by the ladies in attendance to intrap the unguarded, and one after another stout and discreet men went down before the constant volley of artful interrogations. At last all fell out and paid the dime penalty save one individual—a queer chap whom nobody seemed to know. He attended strictly to business, and passed unheeded the jokes, gibes, and challenges. They quizzed him, but all in vain. He wrestled with turkey and grappled with the goose. He bailed out the cranberry-sauce with an unswerving hand, and he ate celery as the scriptural vegetarian ate grass; and, finally, when he had finished his fifth piece of pie, he whipped out a pocket-slate and wrote on it in a large and legible hand, “I am deaf and dijm] j"—providence Journal,