“Wall,” sez I, “when folks are in danger of death, it makes ’em impudent. Why, Deacon Garvin sassed the minister when he fell into the pond at a Sunday School picnic, and the minister told him to call on the Lord in his extremity.”
He sassed him and yelled out to him, “You dum fool, you, throw me a board!”
He sassed him and yelled out, “You dum fool, you, throw me a board!”
Sez I, “Dretful danger makes folks sassy.”
“Well, I won’t be to the expense of getting them,” sez he.
Sez I mildly, “You told Josiah Allen and me yesterday that you’d laid up two millions of dollars sence you had gone into this enterprise. Now, as a matter of justice, don’t you think that the public who have paid you two millions of their money have a right to demand these safeguards to life and limb?”
He waived off the question.
“Why,” sez he, “in all the last year there have not been more than fifty lives lost in our city from these cars, and considering the hosts that have been carried, considering the convenience, the swiftness, the rapidity, and etcetera—what is fifty lives?”
