FIRST-SIGHT OPINIONS.

Lake Wakatip Mail, Issue 2168, 6 August 1897, Page 3

FIRST-SIGHT OPINIONS.

"Don't be premature about judging a man," said the colonel impressively.

"These •first-sight' opinions lead to a good many blunders, and often work great injustice. 'When I was a young man at home, father had some iron furnaces and a coal tract in the same vicinity. We had a large home and entertained a great deal. One vacation, Jack, just younger than me, came home with Charley Patter as his guest. Charley had a collar that prodded his ears, wore ultra clothes, sported a monocle, carried a stick like a shepherd's crook, sprung his arms out at the elbows, and talked with an imported drawl. We guyed Jack unmercifully about his elude chum, but he had a loyal defender in my brother.

"While Patter was with us the men in the furnaces and the mine went on a strike. They were peaceable enough, but there were a lot of rough characters who had taken advantage of the opportunity to indulge in all kinds of lawlessness. One night these tough outsiders filled up on bad whisky and attacked our house. As windows crashed and doors were being battered, we hurried the women into an inner room and hastily organised for defence. I took no account of Patter, and did not even assign him a position. "We did some shooting, for it was absolutely necessary to check the desperadoes. We drove them back and then settled down to watch. Though I was in command. I never thought of the cellar, the rear of which could be approached through some thick shrubbery All at once there was a terrible racket down there, and Jack and I made a rush, to find Patter laying about him with a poker and never saying a word. He had three men down, was having it out with a fourth, and had made a stand that put the rest to flight. He was badly battered, his clothes were torn at all angles, and he could scarcely keep his feet, but he had grasped the weak paint and defended it, saving the women and the property. We never knew that the poor fellow's arm was broken till he keeled over in a. faint. He was grit clean through, and it was his quiet talks with the men that soon brought about a settlement of the strike. We all apologised to Jack."— American paper.