AMATEUR THEATRICALS 171 



pivots, and other technical manoBuvres of the 

 ring and mat alternated with one another in be- 

 wildering rapidity, and a quality of language was 

 being handed round that would chill the blood of 

 a pirate. 



Now two men, however big, strong and willing, 

 cannot readily, and without assistance, subdue, 

 handcuff, and abduct two other men equally big, 

 and, further, inspired by a mixture of wood-al- 

 cohol, fusel oil and other powerful stimulants, 

 known as curry-comb whiskey, even when the 

 two first-named gentlemen are clothed in the 

 majesty of the law, blue coats, brass buttons, and 

 helmets that rest mainly on their spreading ears. 



And so, as a law-abiding citizen and a magis- 

 trate, it was my duty to go to the assistance of 

 my officers and to deliver them from their ene- 

 mies, which I did, without much enthusiasm, 

 however; and with the assistance of a lusty 

 peasant who came by in a farm-wagon, and the 

 excited father of the family, we soon had the 

 miscreants safely trussed and piled into the farm- 

 wagon, which was pressed into service with the 

 horse and the driver. 



This accomplished, and the prisoners having 

 disappeared townwards amid a prodigious rat- 

 tling of loose wagon-wheels and terrific blas- 

 phemy of the chained, I turned my attention to 

 my new neighbors. They were in a very un- 



