Iowa voter. [volume] (Knoxville, Iowa) 1867-1874, 1870-03-10

seemed to have been treated for almost
every known disease, and hence l might
adventure to inquire if he had ever been
bitten by . mad dog. No. sir" he
promptly replied, with an air of severity,
"but saw man once who was bitten
by q massasauger. Perhaps you've never
seen one of them prairie rattle-snakee,
stranger! Oh? you have. Well, You
Yankees do learn some new things out
here. As was saying, we were binding
after NcCormick's reaper down on section
10. The little bundles, You knew, lie out
. day or two before we pick them mp and
make the shecka Over night, the snakes
curl MP underneath to keep warm. II was
about noon, and one OF my men had just
reached round bundle to lit It and bind
it, when he took big massasauger right
by the tail. The reptile wriggled round his
flat head, and struck the poor chap In the
side, and he reared out with pain.
started of boy for doctor, and staid to
watch the fellow. He began to swell up
right away, and In ten minutes no was
bigger than pork barrel. But he kept
right on, rounding out and rounding out,
till finally l turned my back on such
and he was gone He'd blown open, and
bust all abroad, sir
"What did you do, Mr.. Spencer"
"Me! I collected his fragments and
gave him . decent burial"
Fearing every moment that l myself
should explode with my suppressed laugh.
ter, / thought to change the subject by ask
ing about the doctors bills. To my re-
lief Spencer again withdrew his attention
from me and launched out into another se
ries of "great moral truths" After say
ing that he had paid $4,000 to various
physicians, he spoke of the property he
had sacrificed to meet these bills. In par
ticular he dwelt mournfully upon the sale
of span of horses and yoke of oxen.
Here he frightened up, as he said Gen
tlemen, I'll tell you two or three facts about
those beasts, to give you some idea OF
their value.
81 started one day with my span OF
grays and load of corn, to drive to Jack.
son, nine miles, to market. Brought back
10 bags of meal and barrel of -four.
Well, Just as got out of the town, and
had about eight miles of prairie 'twixt.ms
and Hannah, heard 6 rafting noise be-
hind me, and when looked round, there
was bouncing hail storm right upon me.
l yelled at the grays. and flung my chaw
of tobacco at Billy, for he was the LATEST,
and he swung along at what you Yankees
call good Hiram Woodruff pace never
quit yelling, and they never stopped run
ming, till we struck Felderkin's Corner,
right where you blazed that big burr oak
this morning Then l found the storm
was over, and when / looked to see If the
| load was safe, there was two bushels and
| half of hail stones in the hind end OF my
| wagon, Dut not one of 'em on my sacks or
ON me Gentlemen, had raced on the
edge of that hail storm all the way home,
Now, it's my opinion, that you couldn't
do that trick to-day with any two horses
in Illinois-not if you soak their tails in
turpentine the night before, and touch a
match to 'em, just as you say-Git out OF
this !"
Taking furtive survey Of his audi.
ence, and hooking his heel firmly on to
the round Of his chair, the truthful Spen-
Ger braced himself for q final tale.
"When first came here in 1849, those
oxen were steers. Stock was rather scarce
then and / worked the critters in early.
Well, one day, old Tennessee Smith, down
by the Lillycache, had cut q red elm and
it got lodged in the sloO and none of them
dared venture out to cut it clear. SOthey
hitched on all the oxen they had and tried
to drag it upon the bluff. But with six
yoke they couldn't make it let 60. Then
somebody said send for Spencers steers.
"When Smiths boy came, told him, you
can have the steers, Charley, but no one
ever drives 'em but me. So yolked up
and went down. When got there 1
said, gentlemen, take away your oxen, and
they did. Then told 'em to cut welt
all around the log, 80 that my chain would
lie in smooth with the outside of the bark.
Then / cut slit from this welt to the end
of the butt, SO that the taut of my chain
wouldn't catch in the hazel brush. Then
put the chain round and hooked on, and
took up my whip and just give the critters
cheerful start with the lash. They sprung
to 1t and jerked the log about two feet, and
there it stuck fast. Then yelled and put
on the string a. d those two little fellows
leaned into their work, and just shivered
a minute and then they went like shot
for two or three rods, with long red stick
behind 'em, and everybody shouted and
then shut up their fly traps and said not a
word. For, gentleman, would you believe
it, those two little bucks had drawn the
heart right out of that log!"
wiped his forhead with bandanna. Eyes,
can show him the very same log to-day 1t
Jackson. The road commissioners took it
for q town pump. 1t was ell bored out
for them"
How long Mr.. David Spencer would
have continued to deal out these "great
moral truths" know not. But Fielder.
kin, who had evidently heard these tales
before, gave signs of uneasiness. and mint
ed broadly that the "wimmen folks i"
wanted rs ont of the way.
At this, the-story teller rose with an in
jured air, and saying that he would call
in the morning to pay his share of my
surveyors bill, abruptly left the house. l
have never seen him since, nor heard Of
his whereabouts. He owes me SIS with
interest since December, 1859.-Boston 3D.
csvtiscr.
kOgues Cheated.