Daily Kennebec journal., 1881-03-30

(C.rson City Appeal ]


Yesterday afternoon, while the lawyers in
Justice Cary's court were waiting for the YER
dict in 4 petty larceny case, Attorney Soder-
b r. related an incident OF his early child
hood in Minnesota illustrative Of the peeullaf
customs in vogue in that state:
81 knew an old farmer there who owned
ten acres Of timber land where millions OF
pigeons came each wear TO roost- They dew
astated the wheat fields and the old coon used
to catch the birds in nets and thrash them out
on the barn floor Each bird had three ounces
of wheat in his crop, and il used to be bad
year for .Old Thompson when he could not
sbip thousand bushels of wheat to market at
o.. go per bushel, and it ranked A No. when
i, reached the Chicago elevator. If there had
been few millions more of pigeons he would
have come pretty near getting corner on the
Minnesota wheat crop.
81 knew a planter down in Alabama" said
Kittrell, ''who was fully as sharp as that He
trained an alligator to work up and down the
river and catch the little picaninnies that
PLAYED along the bank. The alligator would
take the little kids in his jaws and swim back
to the plantation II WAS a dull day that he
couldn't corral three or four. The planter
raised 'em carefully. and when they got big
enough sold EN- in New Orleans at prices
ranging from three to ten thousand apiece.
He was rolling in wealth when Lincoln's
emancipation proclamation was issued. and
after that the alligator never did any more
work The man is now barely keeping body
and soul together in Washington, elerking in
one of the government bureaus at eight thou
sand a year
Judge Cary evidenced the greatest interest
in these weird tales, and edged up Ia the
group.
These are curious warns, gentlemen, but
believe them au hal a dog once, hack
in Nevada, that l kept 10 herd lumber
BEG pardon. Judge; did you say the dog
herded lumber?'
s.Yes. sir, cottOnw ood boards. We always
kept a dog there to bring the lumber in at
night
Everybody now paid the closest attention,
as they knew that the boss was at work.
s.It was this way. Cottonwood boards warp
like thunder in the sun. \ board would begin
to hump its back up about nine in the morn
ing, and in half an hour it would turn over.
By eleven it would warp the other way with
the heat, I'D make another flop. Each time
| it turned it moved couple of feet. always
following the sun tow ard the west. The first
] summer lived in Brownville over ten thou
sand feet of lumber skipped out to the hills
the day before had advertised house raisin'. :.
went to the county seat to attend a lawsuit.
and when got back there wasn't a stick OF
timber left. 1t had strayed away into the
uplands. An ordinary board would climb a
two mile hill during hot week. and when it
struck the timber it would keep wormin' in
and ont among the trees like garter snake.
Every farmer in the state had to keep shepherd
| dogs to follow his lumber about the country,
keep it together, and show where it was in the
morning. We didn't need any fumes fol-
lumber. We sawed it east of the place we
wanted to use it, and let it warp itself to it,
destination, with men and dogs to head it of
at the right time, we never lost stick
Well, here comes the jury" continued the
Judge. 'The witnesses lied. so guess they
will disagree"