Rensselaer Union, Volume 7, Number 23, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 February 1875 — A Very Natural Mistake. [ARTICLE]

A Very Natural Mistake.

Always cork up your catsup bottles tightly. Going out on the steam cars the other day we observed a man place a bottle of tomato-catsup, neck downward, in the rack above his seat. Presently a friend came in, and in a few moments the friend, who was cleaning his nails with a knife, introduced the subject of a third term for Grant, The discussion gradually became warm, and as the excitement increased the man with the knife gesticulated violently with the hand containing the weapon as he explained his views on the question. Meantime the cork jolted out of the bottle overhead, and the catsup dropped down over the owner’s head and coat and collar without his perceiving the fact. Directly a nervous old lady on the opposite seat, who caught sight of the red stain and imagined it was blood, began to scream “murder” at the top of her voice. As the passengers, conductor and brakemen rushed up she brandished her umbrella wildly, and exclaimed: “Arrest that man there! Arrest that willin! I see him do it. I see hint' stab that other one with his knife till the blood spurted out. Oh, you wretch! Oh, you willinous rascal, to take human life in that scandalous manner. I see you punch him with the knife, you butcher, you! and I’ll swear it agin you in court, too, you awdacious rascal.” They took her into the rear car and soothed her, while the victim wiped the catsup off his coat. But that venerable old woman will go down to the silent grave with the conviction that she witnessed in those cars one of the most awful and sanguinary encounters that has occurred since the aflair between Cain and Abel.— Max Adder.