The Grinder Papers — page 21: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

rs . ve ./ > +s v4 . - 16 LHE GRINDER PAPERS. Then says I to the colored gentleman, ‘‘ You're proprietor of this tavern, ain’t you?” Says he, ‘‘Not exactly, ma’am, but I’m a waiter.” ‘‘Well,” says I, ‘‘I ain’t come to stay—only jest to ask the way to Cousin John Mawkins’.. ‘‘ Where does he live?” He grinned, and says he, ‘‘Look in the directory, ma‘am,” and he brought me a book with names in it, and I turned over a good many pages and couldn't find Mawkins. ‘‘Well,” says I, ‘‘guess it isn’t here.” ‘Every name in the city is in,” says he. Says I, ‘I'll have to stop a week to read this tnrough. I al- ways thought the people at a tavern knew where folks lived.” He bowed, and grinned again, and he took the book, and says he: | : ‘“M, Ma, Maw 4 ‘‘Mawkins,” says I. - ‘‘Mawkins Robert, Mawkins Peter, Mawkins John,” says he. ’ ‘‘Here it is, ma'am,’ and out he reads the number, all right. Says I, ‘‘Very much obliged,” and I went to the door and waved my umbrella to a cabman opposite. A whole row of ’em stood there opposite a garden with iron railings, and a filthy, dirty white house with a clock on the cupola in the middle, and I must say the colored man was polite, all but grinning, for he put me into the cab. | | Just as I was getting in, he says: ‘‘Beg pardon, ma’am, there’s something pinned to your dress.” And behold, there, fastened by a big darning needle, witha com @) books.co vvF hen i Et Ses: