River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1878-03-07
Grandfather 1ickshingle's Stories.

From the Oh City Derrick
Grandfather Lickshingle is very old.
His hair is silvered With the frosts of
many winters, and his eyes have long
since lost their lustre. His step is slow
and lettering, and when his cane is mis-
laid. which is often the case, he cannot
walk alone. 1t is then that the children
help him to the window where lie can
look out over the fields, for he grows tired
of gazing into the fire and dreaming of
days and years gone by. The only facul-
ty which the dear old man has retained
unimpaired is his memory. This is as
clear as sunlight He remembers as it
were but Yesterday events which occur
red when he was boy bent over his ia
theirs kree. Grandfather Lickshingle
loves to tell of the strange things which
happened in these early days, and the
children never weary listening to them.
Every evening he gathers them close
about his knees so they can hear his fee
BILE voice, and tells them story. Last
nighthe recounted this bit of history
This" began grandpa, will be
story of Lo, the poor Indian, whose I'M
tutored mind sees grog in clouds and
smells it in the wind. 1t was in the
summer of 1721 | was a small boy, not
much larger than Charley here
"Oh, how jolly exclaimed Charley,
clapping his chubby hands.
"Whatter yer soy2" yelled grandpa
savagely, at the same time rapping Char
lev on the hand to keep him quiet.
My father" continued grandpa, "was
a heavy handed son of a gHnsmith, but
was himself far ner, preferring that vo-
cation to that OF his father. He used to
/ put me to picking brush when he would
/ be at work, and keeping the Indians away
! from our dinner bucket We lived in a
| bowling wilderness where the Indians
were always hungry and troublesome.
1 They pretended to own the land, but
when you asked them to show deed
they could not begin to do it. The
houses which people occupied in those
DAYS were the most primitive structures
imaginable, being made nearly altogether
of poles and bark. They were sorry
looking affairs, indeed, and reflected
great discredit upon the architects and
builders
They contained but one room and Il fire
place, which occupied one side of the
room. There were no frost steps to scrub
every morning, and no chandelier in the
parlor. That was the style of all the
houses with but one exception. We
built seven-story brown stone front, with
an Assured roof, and hot and cold water
up and down stairs. We had velvet car
pets all over the house, and also light
ing-rods. Our place was the wonder OF
the country. AS soon as we could cleaI
of land enough we had croquet ground
a private tIotting- park and boulevard
We had q silver plated door bell and two
stone dogs that laid on the front porch
and looked savage if tramps came up the
gravel walk One day an old Indian sat
ON d stump short distance from the
house, and tried his sweetest to whistle
the stone dogs over to him. The dogs
wouldn't 60. Then he got some meat
and neld it up so they could have seen il
if they had not been stone blind, and call
ed them all kinds of pet names. The
dogs were not only blind to the meat, bu
they were deaf to tiattery.
Then the Indian had recourse TO a ms
cradle swindle. lie kicked the stump
scratched in the ground with his finger:
and cried rats, rats, rats - Not being
ratters, the dogs didn't prick up theil
ears and run over to the stump as if they
had been shot out of cannon. Thi:
shows that craven image isn't likely tt
/. lose its presence of mind, even in a mo
ment of the most intense excitement
When the dogs didn't take any notice O.
the red man he got mad and swore a
, them, and told them to get out.
, One day book agent came along, anC
. told the Indians that the dogs were mad,
Of stone, and couldn't bite the fees tina
infested them, After that the cusseC
redskins used to come out of the woods
, in droves, sneak up TO the porch anC
play wretched tunes on the door bell
, When the servant would go to the doc
: they would say they had come TO borrow
, lhe smoothing-irons, or something hk,
: that. The truth was they only wanted t.
/ ring the bell, because they couldn't afEorC
aay thing Of the kind themselves. Al
Indian is great liar and dearly love
his gin"