Democratic Sentinel, Volume 19, Number 14, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 April 1895 — A Methodical Man. [ARTICLE]

A Methodical Man.

Now this actually happened when Bumstead w'as at a certain hotel where you put your shoes outside your chamber door at night, to be polished by the porter before you rise in the morning, asserts the Worcester Gazette. Bumstead is a traveling man, who sellswell, never mind what he sells. Sometimes, he does not sell. He travels long distances by rail, but he does a good deal of walking besides, and one result is the growth of a tumulus, a mound, an excrescence on one of his toes which would do the heart of a chiropodist good, only to look at it. Now Bumstead is a methodical man. lie prides himself on his business habits. It is his custom to get a shine at the end of his day’s work. It is his habit, also, to say to the boy, when he reaches his left foot, “Now just go easy over that little toe, will you?” and the boy polishes the tumulus with the greatest delicacy. On this particular night, Bumstead had neglected the afternoon ceremony, so before he retired he set his shoes out to be blacked in the morning. And he wrote a placard and placed it in the left shoe, reading, “Go easy over that little toe.” Then he retired calmly to bed, but the porters laughed earlier than usual the next morning. And they laughed so loud the night clerk w’ent down to see whether the water pipes had not burst.