People's Pilot, Volume 2, Number 53, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 June 1893 — A Pardonable Offense. [ARTICLE]

A Pardonable Offense.

When Columbian guards do wrong they have to write, a full explanation of their wrong doing on a formidable paper bearing printed questions that are designed to extort the truth from the erring Columbian. When one of them sat down while on duty one dreary night recently he was discovered in his heinous offense and was duly given the printed blank and ordered to tell his shame in ink. The questions to be answered read: “What was the nature of the offense?” The guard wrote: “Settin’ down.” “What was the cause?” “Tired,” wrote the culprit. “Have you any explanation to offer?" said the merciless blank. “Hewy body, small feat,” was the triumphant answer. Naive and to the point, to say the least of it.