The daily Cairo bulletin. (Cairo, Ill.) 1878-1???, 1883-01-24
John Q. Bakers Great enAAoh.

Had YOU looked through camp YOU
would have discovered that every min.
er had bis weakness. In some il was
whisky; 10 others, old sledge; in Others
Eing and boasting, and so on clear
around few were lazy, few more
were too fond Of argument. and the
weakness Of Elder Watkins. In particu.
lar, was reading the Testament too
much
Which is TO remark that one NAV be
too good in this world.
Among the other weaknesses which
cropped out in our camp on Grizzly
Creek that winter was the weakness Of
John Q. Baker.
Mr.. Baker had speut years in invent
ing great speech. He had brought
the pieces together at different times as
II they had been parts Of mowing-ma.
chine, aud the work Of setting up,
tightening the bolts, greasing the bear.
ings and hitching on the horses was all
done that winter
II was a great speech.
1t began with the landing Of the Pill.
grims, and didn't end at any partic-
ular epoch.
1t was religious, political, social, sta
tisticai, philosophical, valuable and in
teresting, and every respectable fam.
lily ought to have had copy.
When the speech was finished and
polished and ready for delivery its in.
ventgr suggested that we take a holiday
and hear it. The suggestion was not
seconded We were working hard 10
make an average of ninety cents per
day, aad no one felt like losing time to
hear a speech.
Then John Q. took his speech under
his arm and walked over TO Turkey
Bend 10 find an audience, but the Nav
or OF the camp gave him five minutes in
which to get out OF shooting range. He
then tried the camp up the Little Trail,
and there he was actually shot at He
returned to camp somewhat discour.
aged.
y man who has speech to deliver
and is choked off must feel rather I'M
comfortable. Indeed, It is not serving
him just right and no one can blame
him tor asserting that the spirit of the
country is degenerating,
When John q. discovered that the
fruits of his toll were not appreciated he
went about like man who had taken a
solemn vow to'bide his time and get
even in the end. That was where his
head was Level. Had he raised any
row over our want OF appreciation he
would have been tossed into the creek,
followed by his great American speech
and other personal traps,
One day the boys over in the Bend
had hanging bee and invited us to
come down and see chap swing for
bis crimes, The invitation was accept
ed by all but two Of our crowd. Elder
Watkins was sick and couldn't 90. and |
John q. Baker was mad and didn't
want to. II was therefore arranged
that he should remain to care for the
Elder, a proceeding to which he agreed
with wonderful cheerfulness.
Little did we suspect the iendish pur.
poses of his heart
We left camp at noon, reached the
Bend an hour later and as the man
Who was to hang had long confession
o make, and did not have good COM
nand OF language, we did not return
Until about 5.
Had anything happened? You can
'ot your last dollar there had!
Nearly a mile away we heard the
'oicc of John @. Baker pitched at its
highest key, and occasionally caught up
uch words as "Washington," "Inde-
endence,' Magma Char,a" and .rlo.
ious country"
AS we drew near we discovered him
D rock beside Elder Watkins shan,y,
bat great speech in his left hand and
is right slashing through the air. He
al then been speaking for four hours,
nd he had only come down to tho war
1912.
We made rush for him, and at the
,me moment made tho discovery tina,
,lder Watkins was stone dead in his
cd. Beside him lay piece of paper \