Rensselaer Republican, Volume 17, Number 48, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 August 1885 — A Dessertation on “Lye.” [ARTICLE]

A Dessertation on “Lye.”

A little knot of choice spirits were assembled in the back parlor of the gas office, listening to a narrative of wild and thrilling western adventure from the lips of Mr. Curry Combs, the vivacious and truthful collector of the company. “Well, it was . just as I was telling you,” continued Curry, "I was driving along from Livingstone to Miles City in a two-horse buggy and w r as having an elegant trip. Weather lovely, game plenty, and roads good. But on the third day out, just at dusk I noticed a little marshy spot ahead, but thought nothing of it. Pretty soon I heard the splashing of the horses feet in water, but it didn’t seem to be deep and I kept on. Then it seemed to me that the horses weren’t as tall as they had been and I wondered if they were sinking, but no, their motion was free and unimpeded and the water wasn’t over three inches deep. Then I noticed that the buggy was getting pretty close to the ground. All of a sudden it occurred to me what had happened. I had driven into an alkali overflow and the lye was so strong that it had eaten off about two feet of the horses legs and eaten the tires and felloes from the buggy wheels, arid they were running on the endvof the spokes. In a minute more we struck a deep place. The horses went in up to their necks and the buggy was afloat. In another second the horses and buggy were disintegrated and mingled with the alkali water and I was left swimming alone. Then my clothes commenced to drop off, and when I reached the shore I hadn’t a rag left on me.” “Why didn’t the lye eat you too?” asked an interested listener. “Oh, I’m proof against lye in any form,” replied the veracious Mr. Combs as he shifted his quid and led the way to a neighboring bar.— St. Herald. A bicycle club in Hungary is called “Buda-Pesther Kerekpar-Egyeapeljt"