News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1886-08-05
WORK OR BE WALLOPED.
Mossbn cls In Missouri Astonished by a New
Sort of Vigilance Committee,

BUFFALO, Mo.-The Bald Knobbers
of fancy county have a counterpart
here in an organization not named as
yet, but having for its object the pro-
motion of industry. Many of the older
settlers of the county enjoy hunting and
fishing mora than they do work, and to
put stop to the shiftless methods OF
these worthless the more active citizens
have organized a mysterious band which
deals summarily with all offenders.
Owing to the operations of this society
of late, something like panic prevails
among the fishermen and hunters, and
many of them are thinking seriously of
emigrating or gong to work.
Tom Cook, living a few miles south
of here, has farm of about eighty
acresa, with not more than ten acres
under any sort of cultivation. Where
an attempt has been made to put IN a
crop there are more weeds than grain,
but this has not worried Tom any. He
has an old house that looks as though
it might fall to pieces almost any night,
with an alleged barn which is gradually
disappearing by way of the kitchen
stove. When there is no wood handy,
the Cooks knock board off the barn,
and the result is that not much besides
the frame and roof of that structure re-
mains. The roof would probably have
gone first if it had not been difficult to
reach it. On the whole farm there are
no fences, and the few domestic ami
mails, not counting the dogs, look desc
late and oppressed. Tom has three
sons and a daughter, the boys being
lank and lazy like their father, and the
girl being fat and lazy like her
mother They never work if they
can help it. Tom and the boys go fish
ing, and the girl and her mother sit
around and wonder when they are COM
ing homo.
The other night the Vigilance G m
mittee called and notified Tom that if
he and the boys didn't get to work they
would have trouble. This hurt the old
mans feelings. He always had worked,
and so had his whole family; and, be-
sides all that, he'd been here since 4S,
and he " allowed that he had never
been iacketed yet, and he didn't intend
to now" His visitors had informed
him that a new era had dawned, and
that there had got to be more work and
lets fishing for the good of the whole
country. If he went to work, all right;
but if he did not he would be sorry.
The next day Tom went fishing as
usual, and the second night after that,
as he was returning home from another
fishing excursion, he was seized by a
mob and numerically whipped.
That paralyzed the whole community.
Old settlers, who are wearing the same
clothes now that they wore thirty years
ago, and who have yawned and stretched
SO much that they are loose in the
joints, spruced up little and came to
town to talk the matter over. All day
long they sat on the dry goods boxes
and salt barrels, whiting and chewing
tobacco, and at night they returned
home no wiser than when they came.
That night another old barnacle was
whipped, and a dozen others received
warnings. Several, who were not
anxious to have row, actually went to
work. One man brought load of hay
to town and sold it, the first time that
he had ever been known to do such a
thing, and another appeared with a few
quarts of fruit, which he was particular
to explain it was mighty hard work to
pick. But the whlppings and warnings
went on, until undlly SnOOLlnS &C.
Cured, and now the Sheriff has organ
lied a posse to hunt down the too
enterprising night Fighters, who, it is
suspected, are some of the leading
citizens of the county. Every old fish
erman is waiting the next turn of affairs
with breathless anxiety, and in the
meantime work is being done on some
places that have been strangers to it for
forty years.