True stories of old Houston and Houstonians: historical and personal sketches / by S. O. Young. Page: 90

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90 TRUE STORIES OF OLD
was sleeping peacefully one night when the most horrible racket
yoj ever heard broke out in the hall.
"I realized that it was the trap again, but could not imagine
what it had caught. I could hear the trap hit the floor, then
it would hit the ceiling, bound off to the wall and come back to
the floor with noise enough to wake the dead. It woke the
whole neighborhood up and I could see lights being turned on
in half a dozen nearby houses. They must have thought that
I hal caught a burglar or that a burglar had caught me and
that I was trying to get away from him.
"Finally I switched on the light and peeped out in the hall.
The mystery was solved.
"I had caught my wife's pet tom cat and he did not like it
either. I had an 'underworld' time getting him free from the
trap, too. I found a corn shck, wet it so it would stick, and
threw it over him. Then I got him by the head and held him
firmly until I could open the trap.
"When I released him he did not stay to have his leg dressed,
but went out of the open window like a streak of lightning. He
did not show up again for ten days or two weeks and when he
did come he examined the hall thoroughly to see if it was safe
for him to come in.
"It seems he entered through an open window that night and
jumped down right into the trap. Of.course he thought it was
a put up job and I don't think he ever forgave me for it.
"Yes, I have had experience with skunks, too. We know them
under the scientific name 'Magnus Odoriferous Felenus Americanus,'
and they are all that the name implies.
"I and four or five cur dogs had an experience with seven of
them in one bunch. The dogs corralled them on the prairie in
a bunch of weeds and I was fool enough to get close up and take
a shot at them.
"When I and the dogs got through vomiting, I realized that I
had killed all seven of them and that they had nearly killed me
and the dogs.
"I was with some boys in a wagon but they made me walk all
the way to town, about six miles. When I got home they tnade
me burn my clothes out in the yard and get under the hydrant
and scour myself with lye soap. It was awful. It was a very
cold day but I had to do it anyway."
FOUGHT TO THE DEA4H.
AFTER the war a number of young men came to Houston,
seeking employment. There were some professional
men but the majority were young fellows just out of the
army, with nothing to do and whose entire capital consisted of
nothing more tangible than youth and good appetites. Some
of them afterward rose to prominence in the commercial and
financial world, while others drifted away and were lost sight

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Young, Samuel Oliver. True stories of old Houston and Houstonians: historical and personal sketches / by S. O. Young., book, 1913; Galveston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth24646/m1/90/ocr/: accessed March 29, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; .

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