Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1886-01-21

Beet0wn.
Owners of thermometers In this town
amt so numerous as they were. An
indignant people. getting tired of hear-
ing their reports of from 800 above to
40' below. came to regard them as
worse than the unfortunate weather
prophet of a year ago. and told them to
"dry mp" and they dried. 1t is trying
enough to the system to endure these
extremes. without having the record of
what you are undergoing kept before
your eyes; so if there is a man in the
village that owns weather register, he
is keeping 1t to himself. You see when
we make up our minds that 200 below
is the limit of our endurance, it is dis
couraging to have some one pop up and
tell us its more than 800. During the
extreme cold snap families were divided
up into "reliefs," soldier fashion, and
the fires were kept burning night and
day. Wood teams are running busily
and the bracing air is better than any
tonic ever advertised.
Our village schools are fortunate in
having good teachers this winter -
teachers who have succeeded in getting
up the interest of the pupils in their
studies, large and small, and the per
cent of attendance is unexcelled; yet
there are few lone cases where the
compulsory law should be enforced.
The store building occupied by Mrs.
Bonn, and owned by Mccoy Brothers,
took fire from defective chimney on
Monday night. but was Immediately
discovered and extinguished. Five min
utes later and the whole block "would
have went"
On the same evening Mr.. VIM. II.
Mayne had the bad luck to lose a
horse. 1t was being led beside another
horse behind sleigh. and being blind
was crowded off the bridge below town
and so badly hurt that it became nee
essary to kill it. As there was no rail-
ing to the bridge the question is wheth-
er or not the town should pay for the
horse.
An active newsgatherer drove furious
ly into town the other day, and while I'M
hitching his team, called out to me in q
very excited manner, "Come over here
Tramp | want to tell you. you want
to 60 right over to Glen Haven; there's
the place for items; liveliest place you
ever saw; staid there last night; seven
fights and two men robbed; never saw
the beat;" etc., etc. LESS see your
notes" said l. Haven't got any;
couldn't stop" You're a good one,"
replied, "you want me to go there and
get robbed and killed so you can have
the whole field of Beetown journalism
to yourself" He didn't deny it, so l
concluded to visit Cassville, noted for
the quiet and peaceable character of its
Inhabitants, andthe next day started.
They say there is special provision made
for tramps down there, and provisions
is what | am after. Taking the tramp
train ! was overtaken beyond McKim-
mics mill by kind-hearted granger
who invited me to ride. Just beyond
the top of Augur's hill great uproar
was heard ahead, and we had hardly
time to turn out when up dashed a
four-horse team, drawing about the
noisiest load of humanity l ever heard.
One of them pointed a "pistor' at me
and thought | knew him. Rousing up,
| said to my friend holding the lines:
what kind of gang was that?" ooh!
them was delegation of the .Untired
Order of Hard Workers Cor something
like iD from Lancaster; they have been
down to Cassville to elect bosses and
get in their work . ssWhat made them
feel so good, and what are they going
back forP" Because they couldn't
find any work, suppose That's
natural. for | always feel the best N.Y.
self when l pretend to hunt for work
and don't find it, And they'll 'sgo
through Beetown, too, and won't be
there, aud when they get home they'll
crowd Joe Foster and everybody else
away from the public stoves, and brag
about what hard trip they had, and
how they managed to ''pull through"
But wouldn't Bill Holford, if he had
met them then, thought that the millen-
mum for the wage laborer had come,
when he saw that crowd twenty miles
from home with four-horse turnout,
well dressed, happy, hilarious, uproar-
ious. Of course he would or anyone
else. But the ''pistol'I business bore
down on my mind; l couldn't get over
it. mentioned it to my companion,
but he said not to notice it for it wan t
"loaded'' no way. So l dropped the
matter, remarking that if it was not, it
was the only thing about that outfit
that aoas empty. And when recall that
chaps name I'll make note of it. By
this time we had got to the Lime kiln
when was unceremoniously dumped
out, the driver remarking that consider
ing my clothing, language. and general
appearance. the city authorities might
compel him to haul me back again.
Thanking him for his candor and the
ride, l ensconced myself in that kiln, for
although
:" To lie in kilns and barns at night"
When bones are crazed and blood is thin
Is, doubtless, great distress
let then, content could make us blest:
Even then, sometimes we'd snatch taste
or truest happiness.
And | am content; lodging free OBJ
tanned, and a new city right In sight
for grub. Tomorrow will visit it and
write you the result of my observations.
But who was that man with the pistol?
Mr.. Handy. of Mt. Hope, has been
visiting his brother-ln-law. Mr.. Joseph
Burton, who has been dangerously sick
but is slightly better at this date.