Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1876-09-21

to sad tone, he told the following tale of scand
navian handicraft and its weird results.
1T was the very first of this year. sitting where
now am, heard come tumbng down from the
/ Adj. Generals Office these words Eyes, remove
IT Jack and mark nv word forget to bring 1t back.
Jack one of the watchmen employed in the
Capital building, and the subject of the converse
ton was plain bunch of cedar shingles. incosed
in glass case, and bearing the following writing,
which Jack had just read aloud:
This bunch of shingles was manufactured ia
| New Sweden by Swedish woman. Madame
Ochestrom. she did all the work. She alone feed
the tee, sawed, split shaved and punched the shin
giles and carried them on her back three and half
miles, and sold them at the store of Sawin &
league for -four for the support of her family.
Her husba I'd was sick at the time and net able to
work. Weight of the bunch when first made 63 T.,
lbs. We vouch FOR toe truth Of the above.
A. j. SAwIN,
VT. LEAGUE,
&. {. SAwIN,
j. L. ANDERSON.
He If many guns confined, every visitor to
this building reads that same thing aloud, slowly
aud with difficulty SO that has become nuisance.
Not cnly are NV nerves entirely dry, but like a
ear wheel wanting greasng each additional read
ing CRATES and shrleks through my TO the very
bolt ON Of nv boots"
This bunch of shingles had been passed from one
to another part of the State House battle door
joke. After having attracted the notice of the
Commissioner of Swedish INN ration, it was i'm
pulsively purchased by him and presented 10 Gen.
iiarls, as Supe intepdent Of the CAPITAL building,
and had been by him deposited at the north end of
the Capitol near the Educational Department.
! lie stoCal and enduring superintendent of that
department, by repeated readings of the inscrip-
ton became familiar with it to recite it to his
children, and sometimes III his sleep, when his wife
under some Apprehension that his brain was soften
Ing, or he was becoming insane, Investigated the
subject and insisted that the exciting cause should
be removed. Wheieon johnson, with the AID of
the LAID Agent, bodily removed the case with its
enclosed burden of Shingles about rod, and for a
joke left II near the entrance of the State Treas
urtrs Office. In about fortnight the reiterated
d. oppug OF the information the outside of those
shingles began TO ferment among the venerable
hgu'ers 10 the Treasurer, Office. Mr.. Hatch was
noticed to exhibit an unusual crustiness IN answer
ing communications from AroOstook towns, relat-
ing to school money and roads, and also to walk
the reading room ofhis hotel and stroke his whsk-
ers in nervous and preoccuped manner that in
dicated some irritating cause. No word escaped
his lips the subject and il soon became evident
to the educ alional department, quick to learn, that
Mr.. Hatch and his clerical force were so absorbed
IN taxes, bonds and sinking funds that they had
neither nor noticed the rattle of reiterated
reading from the shirgle bunch other than it irr-
tatcd and unconsciously wore en- their nerves.
The Joke was largely on the educational and land
Office, as they had not removed the shingles far
enough TO escape hearing how much the shingle.
ed or how far the woman carried them,
ana Inc sOunQ Dul,tDCt uDtut0feu ears, 10 tnelr
previously excited nerves, sounded like muffled
thunder, and seemed to rattle among the text
books Of miscellaneous sizes and school reports
aud papers that adorned the walls and most of the
floor OF the united land and learning office. Urg-
cd again by his wife, the despot of education en-
tered the guarded precints of the Treasurer, well
know ing that the growl Of the watch dog
trey on the outside and not in the heart of the
etic ent custodian, and thus to him spoke:
"W ould II not be wise to send that destitute lady
ArOOstDOk shluQlcs
for rolief''i The Treasurer looking up hastily,
and occupied with his figures replied sharply,
"No, send her back she will die soon if you send
her to the Adj. General he will give her pension
and she will draw money from the State forever"
But mel be OF the educators mouth culver
i'll peculiar manner he turned square to the front
and said, What's up What is the joke p lie of
many books explained, and the custodian of the
States wealth with a CLEAN of JOY equal to that
occasioned by the discovery of a mistake prevent
Ing a balance of his accounts exclaimed, "Ies it
has been that jargon from those shingles that has
made me nervous and robbed me of sleep for
week" Together education and wealth, assisted
by the and his brother, at the hour of
high twelve, while the State War Department
was replenl,hing his ample Interior with mid day
taIions, carried the case and its laborous split
shingles TO the immediate vicinity of the Adj
Generals Office ii so happened that the muscles
and nerves Of the War Department were more am
ply padded with flesh than those of education and
wealth, and the effect on him was not immedi-
ate or so noticeable, but 1t so disturbed the Sec
ietary of State, whose Office adjoins the Adj
Generals, that in an unexpected and singu lar
manner he resigned his office in less than
thirty days. Astonished at this serious result of
their joke, the north end OF the State House felt
uneasy and spoke in whispers to each other. 1t is
reported and believed by all the marines employed
about the state House, that the designations and
political disasters that afflicted the south end
of the Capitol building last winter occasioned
wholly by the aforesaid bundle of shingles
1t is now stored in out of the way and mac
cessbe place, and only shown to visitors at the
State Capitol. under the express promise that they
shah not read the inscription aloud
BELGRADE.