putterings, 418-415

  digging up something yes and no coffins, canned clams, confectionary signals, logic-haunted original stews   puttering with it is what is the matter now, our preference for the overtly neat and tidy. It works backwards as well as forwards,   sometimes, scratching clack down blunders crushed in rocky chunks of repetition  

puutterings     |     their index     |     these derivations     |     20240402  

chunks of justice

        Tanner’s store was in a double house and he owned it all, though he occupied but half. The other half was rented to Abe Willis, who did a little puttering business, selling coffins, canned clams and confectionery. By and by Willis died from eating the clams and was buried in the only coffin in the shop — for he made them to order, and never kept any in stock, except one with a glass top, which he used as a show case for the confectionery. After he was gone there was nothing left but the candy, and no place to put that in, so his widow ate up what little there was, in order not to waste it, and then closed out the business.

ex Howard Fielding, “Chunks of Justice,” in The Rocky Mountain News (December 11, 1892) via the Colorado Historic Newspapers Collection : link

—

Howard Fielding was the nom de plume of Charles Witherle Hooke (1861-1929) wikipedia : link

full transcription at 417