AN AMUSING EXPERIEN E.

Western Star, Issue 1540, 28 February 1891, Page 2 (Supplement)

AN AMUSING EXPERIEN E.

The following (says tho Washington Star) is an extract from a letter received from a special agent of the United States census, detailed to get data for the fish and fisheries of South Carolina :

“I must tell you how I worked B . I got there late on Friday evening, and found everybody mum as an oyster. I waa in despair until at last I heard a man playing a fiddle in one of the stores. fl went in at once, and, after loafing around a while, asked to see’the fiddle. When I got it I drew the bow over the strings, said it was,' a good one, and handed it back; but they saw I cculd play and insisted I should try, so I took off my coat and sailed in. From that moment my stock went up. In an hour I had half the folks in town in the store, the proprietor was doing a rushing business, and so was I. I finally put down the fiiddle and addressed the crowd, told them ray business, and said that though I was willing to play for them I must attend to my work first, and invited all who were engaged in fishing to walk up and sign the pledge. Nothing was too good for me. They wanted to fill me up on beer, and I had more cigars than I could smoke. They refused to let me set ’em up a single time, and when I wanted to leave town they begged me to stay, or, if I would go, to come back and locate. They hunted up all the men I wanted and brought them to me or took me to them in a buggy. I was treated like a prince. One poor devil (coloured) refused to answer my questions, and one of my enthusiastic assistants cracked him on the head with a beer-bottle, so that he had to be carried from the field in a disabled condition.

“ Well, I had a time, but I got everybody there was to get.”