Rensselaer Republican, Volume 22, Number 16, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 December 1889 — A Week Too Late. [ARTICLE]

A Week Too Late.

A young man about 23 years of age, dressed like a farmer, bad his feet on TstreeTljar“B©at in front of him ana was reading a novel, when one of the boys went over to him and observed: •Tve just made a bet of five dollars on you.” “On me? What is it?” “I’ve bet five dollars that you will suicide within a week. I’ve been watching you very closely for the last half hour, and all signs indicate melancholy and despondency. Have you selected any particular line of killing yourself—poison, the rope, drowning, or hanging?”

“Do you actually bet five dollars?” anxiously asked the young man. . “I did.” “Pay if you lose?” “i’ll have to.” “That’s too bad. I wish I could have seen you last week.” “Wljy last week?" “Because I then had the ager every day right along— two cows were sick on my hands—my girl had gone dead back on me, and I expected a windmill man was going to beat me out of four hundred dollars. I did kinder think of suicide.” "But now?’’ “All is changed. Cows got well--ager all gone—gal has set the day for next Wednesday, and the windmill man is straighter than a board. Durn my hide if I hain’t going to try and live a thousand years?"—N. Y. Sun.