Rensselaer Standard, Volume 1, Number 21, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 November 1879 — Valises That Look Alike. [ARTICLE]

Valises That Look Alike.

Burlington Hawkeye. If the trunk manufacturers do not quit making so many thousands of valises that look alike, somebody is going to get into some awful trouble about it sometime, and some trunk maker will be sued for damages enough to build a Court House. The other day an omnibus full of passengers drove up Sown from the union depot. Side by side sat a commercial traveler, named William Macaby, and Mrs. Winnie C. Dumbleton, the eminent lady temperance lecturer. When the omnibus reached the Barret House the commercial missionary seized his valise and started out. The lady made a grab after him and he halted. “I beg your pardon,” she said, “but you have my valise.” “You are certainly mistaken, madame,” the traveler said, courteously but firmly, “this is mine.” “No sir,” the lady replied firmly, “it is mine. I would know it among a thousand. You must not take it” But the traveler persisted and the lady insisted, and they came very near quarreling. Presently one of the passengers pointed to a twin valise in the omnibus aad asked: “It isn’t mine,” said the traveler, “it is just like it, but this is mine.” “And it isn’t mine,” said the lady, “he has mine, and I’ll have it or I’ll have the law on him. It’s a pity a lady can’t travel alone inthis country without being robbed of her property in broad daylight.” Finally the traveler said he would open the valise to prove his property. The lady objected at first, saying she did not want her valise opened in the presence of strangers. But as there was no other means of settling the dispute she at length consented. The traveler sprung the lock, opened the valise, and the curious crowd bent forward to see. On the very top of everything lay a big flat flask, half full of whisky, a deck of cards and one or two other things that nobody knows the name of:

The traveler was the first to recover his self-possession and speech. “Madame,” he said, “you are right. The valise is yours. I owe you a thousand apolo—” But the lady bad fainted, and the traveler re-locked his valise with a quiet smile. Early in the afternoon a sign painter down town received a note in a feminine hand, asking him to come to the Barret House to mark a red leather valise in black letter a foot and a half long. Thk largest block of granite ever quarried in New England been taken out at Woodbury, Vermont. It was 230 feet long, 13" to 18 deep. 15 wide, weighed 4,000 tons, and required 673 wedges with 50 pounds of powder