Posted by stew - Wed, Feb 24, 2010

Gazette & Courier - Monday, September 20, 1875
Why she didn’t catch it

Why she didn’t catch it - One of our prominent merchants was informed a day or two since , when he went home to tea, that there was a mouse in the sitting room; it had run in there during the afternoon, and they had shut the door to keep it in until someone came to catch it. "Well, why didn’t YOU catch it?" said the gentleman to his wife as he started for the sitting room, banging the door pretty sharply behind him.

The ladies - there were 2 or 3 callers present - waited in breathless silence and were soon startled by a yell that sent the lady of the house into a swoon and one of the callers to the rescue.



Opening the door, there was the gentleman with his pants half off, both hands grasping the antipodes of the small of his back,and he executing a Modoc war dance in the middle of the room.

The lady said "What is it?" The gentleman said "You clear out and call my wife". Soon as cold water and camphor had revived her, the lady of the house went in and quiet soon was restored. Inquiry elicited the fact that when the gentleman went in and discovered the mouse he went for it at once, and the mouse went up the leg of his pantaloons and got in such a position that he could not be shook out, and fearing that he would bite as well as scratch, he seized him with both hands, and then found it impossible to get his pants off alone.When the mouse was finally removed his wife quietly remarked "You see now why I didn’t catch it". The gentleman said he did. (Faribault Democrat) [Minnesota].


 

Subjects: Animals / Reptiles, Beverages, Businesspeople, Dance, Households, Jokes, Literature / Web Pages, Marriage and Elopement, Masculinity (Machismo), Medicine / Hospitals, Native Americans, Noise, Vendors and Purchasers, Women, Clothing, Water