. . . recently landed on our shores, applied to a merchant on the wharf for work. Willing to do him a kindness, the latter handed him a shovel, and pointing to the back of his store, told him to “shovel off the sidewalk.” The merchant forgot all about the Irishman, until after the lapse of an hour or two, when Teddy thrust his head into the counting room (which was upstairs) and inquired. “Mayhap yees ‘ud be havin’ a pick, sir?” “A pick to get the snow off?” said the merchant, smiling. “The snow ‘ud be off long since,” replied Teddy, “an’ the brick too, for that matter but it’s the sile (soil) that shticks!” In some alarm the merchant ran to his back window, and sure enough the fellow and thrown nearly all the pavement into the street, and made quite a hole. “Good gracious, man! I only wanted you to shovel off the snow!” – “Arrah, sir,” said Teddy, “Didn’t yer honor tell me to shovel off the sidewalk?”
– Published in The Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, March 1, 1862, p. 2
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