News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1882-12-14
OLD EZRA'S FLOATING FARM.
Ihe way n Yankee Avoided Paying Taxes
Stories of Floating Islands.

Speaking about paying taxes" saic
man who had perhaps been performing
that pleasant duty, ''reminds me of al
Old fellow, sort Of hermit, who ivet
where L did in small town in New
Hampshire, and if he wasn't the out-and
outest chap for avoiding the demands O
the State, then I'm mistaken
Why didn't they sell him out 90
Because they couldn't get hold of the
property. No, it wasn't air castles, and
he didn't live in balloon, but on solid
property, and every time the tax collector
came around in New Hampshire Ezra
and his property were in Massachusetts,. u
ooh, | see. He had the State line on
wheels, and showed it about to suit" ="
Not exactly, but he had hi7 property
fixed so that he could shift it anywhere
he wanted. 1t was nothing more or less
than floating island made up of bog
and stuff, and for a good many years it
blew about the pond, until finally the
old chap put up hut on it, kept COW.
chickens, and ducks, and had regular
floating farm. But one day he heard
the assessor was coming, so he cast off
the moorings that he had rugged to the
island, and before the next day the wind
had carried him over the State line that
ran through the pond into Massachusetts,
and when the collector went out in a
skif, the old bog-skipper, as they called
him, actually threatened to have him ar
rested for trying to collect the taxes of a
neighbor State.
"He anchored the island on the Mass
achusetts side until the Selectmen got
after him there, and for several years he
lodged back and forth, and didn't pay
cent on his four acres. But finally they
put up job on him, and two assessors,
one from each State, went out in skitfs,
the Island being anchored in the middle
of the lake. The old man said he was
ready to pay, only he wanted it just
right, as he lived in both States-the
house was in one State and the barn in
the other. The collectors got so mixed
up trying to straighten it that 1 believe
they had to take it into court Anyway
[ don't think the old mans taxes are
square yet"
ga similar case might happen at an
other place in New England, " said one of
the group of listeners. "On Lake Me-
nomenauk there is an island that for a
long time was called the mysterious island
It belonged to the town of Winchendon,
Mass, contained about six acres, and was
covered with trees thirty feet or more
high. Some of the people declared they
had seen the island move years ago, but
they were generally laughed at, until
one morning they found it gone, and now
it is, or was n short time ago, over the
State line in New Hampshire, nearly
three miles from where it at first stood.
1t was originally bog held together by
roots, and the water had gradually un-
dermined it, until a good, sharp breeze
took the trees as sails and away it went
''Many lakes have similar islands, even
in streams affected by tide. They are
found anchored by roots, rising and fall
ing with the water, and swinging by
their vegetable cables. Some of the
European lakes have such islands, that
are used for pasturage, and they often
carry the island population to great dis
tances.
During the great flood in the Missis-
sippi in 1874, vast floating islands were
formed in the river and carried far out
into the Gulf Stream. One that vessel
ran into three hundred miles from the
delta was over an acre in extent, and
populated with great variety Of snakes,
frogs and turtles, besides a number of
land animals that had sought protection
there from the rising waters, only to be
swept out to sea-"