Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1885-12-03
the printers caravansary in Hot
Springs, but didn't object. However,

Inc mouse. ne woman was quite read
and willing to keep the whole dollar
but didn't reciprocate. considered
it rather above the market value of q
few remnants of corn bread and bacon
and cup of cold coffee. The ..hospi-
tality' might have been worth six bits
TO an ardent connoisseur in that article,
but to plain and hungry printer hospi.
tally was not SO much an object as
grub. On the other hand | was quite
ready and willing to keep my money;
but here, too, there was no reciprocity
of sentiment She wanted that two bits.
| offered her boot brush / had with me
and explained its use. She thought it
might be a powerful tony thing to ha,e
in the family, but it would not buy cali
co nor coffee, and she allowed she would
rather have the two bits. Finally she
called in small boy from somewhere
out among the hounds, and sent him
with me on my way three or four miles
TO the neighbor, who was monied man
and could change the dollar. Thus was
this momentous financial transaction
finally accomplished.
During the afternoon the country be-
came less billy, the '.gumbo'' clay be-
gan to take the place of the gravel banks
and quartz ridges. the great pine trees
became scarce and the gum and syca-
more frequent. Toward night came
to river considerably larger than the
Grant at "Slabtown" But there was
no such bridge as spans that stream at
foot log. suppose the railroad
bridges on the Iron Mountain road were
the first and only bridges the natives
had ever seen. From my observations
and inquiries estimated that that coun-
ty of Saline contained II. 264 hound dogs
and not one wagon bridge. This esti-
mate may be "a lille low on dogs, but it
is high enough on bridges.
About two miles from Benton, the
county seat, saw rough board school
house by the wayside. and entered TO
take observations. The door was fast
ened and | entered through the window,
which had neither glass nor sash. The
furniture consisted of rough board
benches, and board fastened against
the wall in sloping position, to serve
as writingdes Some books lay
around-among them two or three cop
les of the old Webster spelling book,
book had not seen before for at least
a third of century. The old familiar
pages carried me back to the time when
the Beetown hills bounded all that | had
seen of this world; when | thought that
Salt Lake and California lay just beyond
Nip and Tuck" on the west, and that
just behind the bills on the east-away
up toward the head of Congress Hol-
ler'' LAY Europe. Asia, Africa and
Pennsylvania. There, just before you
got to the middle of the book, were the
simple reading lines, ''Can boy cry
and not shed tearp" and so on; and in
the back part the stories of the lawyer
whose OK was gored. and the milkmaid
who counted her chickens before they
were hatched-a great while before.
The school-bell was very primitive
affair, being "a plowshare hung by a
string from stick nailed into the VIM
dow. Imagine such a school house, so
furnished, in The immediate vicinity of
Lancaster!
1t was about shutdown when | came
into Benton. "a village of 500 or 900 IN.
habtants. situated gu the Iron Noun
tain railroad. 1t was not bad looking
place. but there seemed 20 be no great
rush of business. As | came up to the
holel and sat down on a bench in front
half dozen young men with their guns
and dog came in from Il hunt. Hunt
ing seemed to be the chief industry of
the place. | could appreciate the wis
dom of the editor of an Arkansas agri-
cultural paper when he told his readers
that the Arkansas farmer would never
prosper until he took his gun and killed
every dog on his place and hen gave
away the gun to whoever was fool
enough To take it. But the average Ar
kansas granger was more likely to take
his gun and shoot the editor than the
hounds.
There was TOO strong flavor of horse
and dog about this hotel, and inquired
for quieter one | was referred to a
boarding house kept by q widow. /
found it to be a very inviting looking
place, with a good supper on the table.
Among the guests, whether bearders or
visitors | did not know, were two or
three young ladies who had just re-
turned from a summer visit to Minnese-
Ia. They were very intelligent in APP
pearance and conversation. and it hard
ly seemed possible they were educated
at or in the vicinity of the school house
| had just inspected.
The laDdlady was as neat-looking a
body as you will often see, and her
house appeared well-kept. But appear
ances were deceptive in some respects.
All night long | wreslled with the bed
bugs. like Jacob of old with the angel.
| don't know as this Is an apt poetical
quotation, but it is the first one have
been able to ring in yet, and SO it must
go.
Shortly after break fast of nice hot
biscuits and coffee bad restored the raw.
ages of the ed-bugs, the morning trair
came up from the south, and before
noon | was wrestling with the terribly
lean bourgeois in the office of The Ar
kansaw Traveller and eating water
melon with Opie Reade.
G. N. HoLFoRD.
Surprising.
Suppose you were married man
as perhaps YOU are-and had good
| business---as we trust you nayc-anr