Jasper County Democrat, Volume 21, Number 85, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 January 1919 — The Scrap Book [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

The Scrap Book

JUST MADE ANOTHER SEARCH Old Boatman’s Ready Explanation of Dive He Seemed to Take With Some Suddenness...

“Cool ai an Iceberg" is a Certain old boatman, and it is doubtful whether an earthquake would startle him or not. One day, using his oar as a punt pole, he was Just /pushing off with a

boatload of trippers, when a timid young lady remarked that she hoped there was no danger. “No, miss!” returned the boatman; “theer ain’t no danger to be feared while I’m aboard. Twenty odd years, I’ve sailed this boat, and never had an' accident but once, and that wnsn t serious. Ye see, I wor just shoving off in this very.boat when the oar broke, and I lost it. Five years ago that wor, 'and I’ve never seen that oar again from that day to —” At that moment the oar he was us-. Ing slipped to the bottom, and the boatman fell overboard with a splash. When he scrambled into the boat again he was the coolest indivtdual on board. “It Just struck me,” he x said, quite calmly, “to have another look for that theer oar I wor talking about, but I don’t see nowt on it!” —London Answers.