Frontier Humor in Verse, Prose and Picture — John Shaqi
Frontier Humor in Verse, Prose and PictureCox, Palmer
General
Frontier Humor in Verse, Prose and Picture
Cox, Palmer
Canadian wit and humor
“Bow-legged Spinny, the cabbagin’ tailor, was thar. He met the crowd
while carryin’ home Squire Lockwood’s new suit, and catchin’ the
excitement of the moment, tossed the package into Slawson’s yard, and it
bounded into the well quicker than ‘scat.’ He didn’t know it though, but
hollered to the old woman, as he ran past the window, to look arter the
package until he got back. Not seein’ any package she allowed he was
crazy as a cow with her head stuck in a barrel, and flew to boltin’ of
her doors pooty lively. He had been once to the Lunatic Asylum, you see,
and they were still suspicious of him.
“The crowd thought to head us off by takin’ down a narrow lane, and it
was while they were in that, that they began to surge ahead of Judge
Perkins. He was awful quick tempered, and pooty conceited, and when
bow-legged Spinny was elbowin’ past him he got mad. Catching the poor
stitcher by the coat tail, he hollered: ‘What! a miserable thread-needle
machine claimin’ precedence?’ and with that he slung him more’n ten
feet, landin’ him on his back in a nook of the fence.
“That was the day they buried old Mrs. Redpath, that the doctors
disagreed over. Dr. Looty had been doctorin’ her for some time for bone
disease. He said her back-bone war decayin’. He didn’t make much out of
it though, and they got another doctor. The new feller said he
understood the case thoroughly; he ridiculed the idea of bone disease,
and went to work doctorin’ for the liver complaint. He said it had
stopped workin’ and he was agwine to git it started ag’in. I reckon he’d
have accomplished somethin’ if she had lived long enough, but she died
in the meantime. When they held a post-mortem, they found out the old
woman, some time in her life, had swallered a fish-bone which never
passed her stomach, and eventually it killed her.
“‘Thar,’ ses Dr. Looty, ‘what did I tell ye? You’ll admit, I reckon, my
diagnosis of the disease was right arter all, only I made a slight error
in locatin’ the bone!’
“‘Bone be splintered!’ ses the other feller, ‘hain’t I bin workin’
nigher the ailin’ part than you?’ So they went on quackin’ thar and
disagreein’ over her until old Redpath got mad and hollered, ‘You old
melonheads, isn’t it enough that I’m a widderer by your fumblin’
malpractice, without havin’ ye wranglin’ over the old woman!’ So he put
’em both out, and chucked their knives and saws arter ’em.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account