The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1883-02-23
John o. Bakers Great Speech.

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Had you looked through camp you
would have discovered that every min.
or had his weakness. In some 1t was
whisky; in others. old sledge; in others
lying and Boosting. and 20 on clear
around. A 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 may 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 spent years in invent
ing great speech. He had brought
the pieces together ut different times, as
IL they had been parts of mowing.ma-
chine, and the work of setting up,
Tightening the bolts. greasing the bear
ings and hitching on the horses was all
done that winter.
1t was 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
tistical, 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
ventor suggested that we take holiday
and hear it. The suggestion was not
seconded. We were working hard to
make an average Of ninety cents per
day. and no one felt like losing time to
hear q speech.
Then John Q. took his speech under
his arm aud walked over to Turkey
Bend to find an audience, but tho May
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.
A 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 degcnerating.
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 a chap swing for
his 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. 1t 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 fiendish pur-
poses of his heart.
We left camp at noon, reached the
Bend an hour later, and rs the man
who was to hang had long confession
to make, and did not have good com.
mand of language, we did not return
until about 8.
Had anything happenede You can
bet your last dollar there had!
Nearly mile away we heard the
voice of John @. Baker pitched at its
highest key, and occasionally caught up
such words as washington" "Inde-
pendence," Magma Charta" and ..glo-
rious country"
As we drew near we discovered him
on a rock beside Elder Watkins shanty,
that great speech in his LETT hand and
his right slashing through the air. He
had then been speaking for four hours.
and he had only come down TO the war
of 1872.
We made rush for him, and at the
same moment made the discovery that
Elder Watkins was stone dead i'm his
bed. Beside him lay piece of paper
and pencil, and in trembling hand
he had written:
John z. Baker has killed me with
his great speech. He has been going
for three hours now. and feel that an
other ten minutes will finish me. Please
hang or drown him in revenge for this
cold-blooded murder"
The great American speaker was still
delivering his great American speech
when we rushed for him. 1t was q mir
acle how he escaped all those bullets.
and it was still stranger how he outran
the ileetest of the crowd. but he actually
got away and carried his speech with
him. 1t ought to have been II great
moral warning to John Q. Baker, but
it wasn't He brought up in q camp
sixteen miles away and resumed his
speech Just where we had interrupted
it, and they suspected him of being q
Mormon missionary and hung him.
Detroit Free Press.