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Show WHERE THE JOKE WAS.<br><br> On a Michigan Central train the other day was a passenger who had lost his right arm. Soon after the train pulled out of Detroit, he began talking with those around him in regard to the political candidates, claiming to have served under both. This led some one to ask him how and where he lost his arm, and he replied:<br><br> "It was down in the wilderness. We were charging the enemy's line. A bullet struck my arm, crushed the bone, and I fell unconscious. When I was restored to consciousness, I was in the hands of the Confederates. Indeed, a soldier was [section missing/unreadable] <br><br> While he was telling this a man with his left arm gone had risen from his seat and came nearer, and as the other finished he bent forward and said: "I am that very corporal! I remember the incident as if it happened only yesterday. I had you conveyed to an old log barn over on the right."<br><br> "Yes, yes -- let us shake hands, let us embrace! Thank Heaven that I have found you out. How came you here?"<br><br> "I have been to Detroit to be treated for cancer, but there is no longer any hope. I am going home to go to the poor house and there to end my days. I haven't a shilling or a friend."<br><br> "And I am going to the poor house as well," replied the other. "I have consumption, and as I am penniless I must go and die among paupers."<br><br> Then they embraced some more and seemed to weep. One passenger fished up half a dollar and passed his hat, and in five minutes a collection amounting to $3.50 was divided between them. Everybody said it was a shame, and one old man seemed willing to adopt them both if they would go on to Illinois. But they didn't; they got off at Dearborn, and it was a quarter of an hour after before a commercial drummer dared make the statement that both chaps lived in Detroit, both lost their arms by accident, and that they had played the same game over and over on every railroad in the State. -- Detroit Press. |