Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1880-12-31
The Village Hotel veranda.


After supper we march into the office in
Indian file, arm ourselves with poplar tooth
picks, and then all march out and take seats
on the hotel veranda and hold a convention.
If you have never taken part in one of these
gatherings on the veranda of village hotel
you have missed good thing, The audi
ence includes every phase of human nature.
The discussion usually opens between the
village blacksmith and farmer, and it starts
on the weather.
The blacksmith asserts that we have had
too much rain. The farmer can't agree. The
undertaken, who used to farm it, then Joins
in with the remark that he has seen seasons
when we had more rain, and seasons when
we didn't have as much This calls out the
shoemaker, who can remember one year
when IL didn't rain from the twentieth of
March to the first Of October. While he is
trying to remember what year it was, the
cooper tits back his chair and asserts that
he can distinctly recall year in which it
rained every day from the first of May to the
middle of November. He can remember it
all the more distinctly because his father be-
lieved that second deluge was coming, and
spent two months trying to make water
tight Noah's ark of the horse barn. He
can't tell the exact year without going dis
lance of six miles to examine some old docu-
ments, but rather than have his word dis
puted, he would willingly go to that trouble
No one doubts, him, however and he sits
down 10 give room to the man whose three
year-old colt has been impaled ON fence
stake, and who wants a cure for the wound
Here follows a discussion on horses, lasting
fifteen minutes, and it is about to cross the
line and take up mules when an old man
spits over the heads of three boys in line and
says:
81 don't know much about horses, but if
| had one, and he should drive q ience-stake
clear through him, believe should grease
the stake and pick off the slivers before |
pulled it out tell ye horses can't stand
everything, no more'n man can"
Whatever new discussion might be created
by this bold assertion is barred by the APP
pearance of Il villager who made the trip TO
California in overland days. Noone knows
just how much money he brought back.
The estimate runs all the way from two
shllings to $4,000, but he is discretely ST.
lent as to the exact amount. There is one
thing certain, however. He killed upward
of fifty Indians, a dozen grizzly bears and
over a hundred bufIalos while he was gone
and that settles the question of his being en-
titled to command the parade ON the Fourth
of July. A move is about to be made TO
draw him out on wild Western scenes, when
somebody suddenly recolects that old Uncle
Jerry is lying at the point Of death. Every
body seems TO feel bad for a moment, and then
it is remembered how he made his wife go
barelooted in winter, lent his money at four
teen per cent, and whipped yoke of steers
to death, and the tide slowly turns. There is
one question, however, on which all agreed.
Uncle Jerry, during his palmy days, once
shoudred barrel Of cider and carried il
forty rods.
ayes, and seed him do il" signs the old
man behind me. "Fact of IL was, il was all
on my account, and beat him pretty bad.
| was up TO Fuler's cider mill after barrel
of the sweet, when Uncle Jerry came along
with bouncing three-year.old steer We
got to bantering, and we finally agreed that
if ! could lift his steer ! was TO have him,
and he was to have the cider If he could
shoulder it. | don't keer 10 Drag around
now in my old age, but think lifted that
steer without even CROWN red in the face.
Uncle Jerry turned as white as a sheet, and
| thought he'd faint away, but he stuck to
his word, and took the steer hum. He got
n heap O credit all over the country for
liftin' that cider, and never let on that
lifted the steer, and that's one thing I've
kinder laid up agin the old man.
Then the next man lies about the number
of crows he saw in Kansas, and 50 we 20
until IL is sharp ten o'clock an the mosqui-
toes begin to hunger for evening lunch
Then they bid each other good night and
separate 10 meet and lie again.-M Quod.
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