“IT WAS THE CAT.”

Globe, Volume XXIII, Issue 2248, 17 June 1881, Page 4

“IT WAS THE CAT.”

Down at Howell the other day an old woman about seventy years old boarded a Detroit, Lansing and Northern train to come to this city. Her baggage consisted of a large covered basket, and she wouldn’t allow any hand to take it from her. She bad scarcely got seated when the passengers were startled by a loud “ We-ow! ” in the car, quickly followed by a “ pet-wow ” and other “ wows ” too numerous to mention. While all were searching to discover the oat the old lady sat as stiff as a poker and looked straight ahead at the stovepipe. The sounds continued, and a passenger finally peered around until he located the cat in her basket.

“ Madam, are you taking that cat from one country to another ?” he asked. “ What cat ?” she snapped, “ Don’t you know that under the laws of this state, “a person who removes a full grown cat from one county to another without the written permission of the Swamp Land Commissioners is liable to a fine of 100 dols ?” “ Good lands! but I didn’t know that ?” she exclaimed aa she faced around, “ Women don’t keep track of the laws as men do,” he said. “ Personally, I’d like to see you take that cat through to Detroit, but there may be some one on this train just moan enongh to inform against you and have you arrested. I’d let her out if I were you.” “ Yes, I will, for I don’t want to break any law at my age.” She fumbled around the basket for a minute, and all of a sudden the oat jumped out. She alighted on the head of the man who put up the job, gave him several sharp digs, and thee leaped from one to another like a squirrel, biting, spitting, and clawing as she went. Everybody rose up and yelled—everybody but the eld woman. She sat like a statue afraid of being suspected. When the feline had gone the length of the car she turned to an open window and shot out like a bullet, landing right-side up and making tracks for a barn in the field. “ Who brought that cat aboard ? I demand the name of the person who owned that cat !” shouted a man whose head had felt the claws until the blood run. No one answered. Several passengers looked straight at the old woman, who stood it for a minute and then lifted up her basket and called out—- “ If anybody wants to look among the dried peaches in this basket for cats he can do so j you needn't all look at me as if I lived in the woods and didn’t keep posted on law.”— " Detroit Free Press.”