Absence of Mind.
The following cases of absence of mind are furnished by the newspapers:
A short time since, a person engaged a butcher to come the next morning and kill a hog for him. The butcher told him to have the water boiled early, and he would attend. In the morning he came, asked if the water was boiled, and being answered affirmatively, killed the hog, and brought him to his scalding position. He then ordered the good man of the house to bring out the water, which he did by bringing out cold water. This surprised the butcher.
“Where,” said he, “is your boiling water?”
“Why, here!—Molly and I boiled it last night! Oh, now I know!—you can’t scald hogs without the water is hot!”
Exit the man of the knife, in a rage!—N. O. Pic.
On Sunday morning, between the hours of one and two o’clock, as Inspector Donnigan, of the police, was going his rounds, he observed a man, stripped to his shirt, standing in a short, narrow, and uncovered passage in Denmark street, London. On approaching him, and asking what he was doing there, the man replied that he was getting into bed; and at the time he shook from head to foot with the cold, which was very intense.
Donnigan asked him if he was aware he was in the street. He replied he was not, and that he fancied he was by his bed-side, and said his clothes were somewhere about. The officer, after searching for some time, discovered an excellent suit of clothes and a silk cravat on the sill of a window about thirty yards off, with shoes and stockings underneath, and a hat close by.
The cold had by this time brought the man to his perfect senses, and, by the advice of the inspector, he put on his clothes, and, thanking him for his attention, proceeded homewards!
A few years ago, Inspector Norman, belonging to the same division, while going his rounds, had his attention directed to some wagons which were placed in Black Lion-yard, Whitechapel, by a loud snoring.
He procured a light, and on proceeding to the spot, he found an Irish gentleman fast asleep between the shafts of a wagon, with his clothes off to his shirt, and apparently as comfortable as if reposing on a bed of down. His clothes were carefully placed over one of the shafts, and on the top of them rested his pocket-book, containing nearly £800 in bank notes, and in his trowsers pockets a quantity of gold and silver, beside a valuable gold watch, &c. He was at once aroused and taken care of, and the preservation of his property was considered almost miraculous, as, in the immediate neighborhood in which he was found, were located some of the most expert thieves in Europe.—London paper.