Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1888-02-16
A Night and Two Days on Girty's
Island.
As REPoRrKD By o. THOMPSON.
oHAPrKR IN.

oHAPrKR IN.
We were aroused from our slumbers the
next morning by some one singing in n
plantive tone, an old fashioned doggerel or
stanza as follows:
Life Is but psnzy blossom,
| It's only blade Of grass,
LAST night we were all Jim Dandies,
But now we are all iackaaaes.
(Yes, I should say as much.) All eyes
were turned in the direction Of the landing
and to our surprise we saw the speaker, who
we had not missed before, standing with a
bottle in each hand marked ferdinand" T"
Where he had spent the night he refused to
tell then or ever after.
Oh yes, we are all jackasses, but just leave
me out of that catalogue, If you please. Only
to think that set of men who are ordinari-
ly taken for men of common sense, to allow
themselves to be transformed into idiots by q
few old worn out plagiarisms; by speech
have used in Fourth of July celebrations, in
rape cases, in horse stealing cases, in Bo-
hemian oats cases and God knows how many
others, why gentlemen / can hardly find
words in the English language to express my
contempt for you.
We we're all drunk, sang out weak voice
from among a lot of empty store boxes.
That is no excuse before the law he replied,
for men of your standing at home, to fill
4 yOuFbclNCs uR Wl6l biOpb uuIll you uO1
know the hoot of an owl from the waile of a
lost soul, is too ridiculous for belief. I shall
never have any respect for any of you here
after unless meet you on a petit jury or a
grand Jury.
At this juncture your reporter and the ex-
speaker retired for a few moments private
consultation. Don't you think you were
pretty hard on the boys, we remarked, after
taking into consideration the way you got
. off that atf1mn and Nollod an than 20 4
up and die like men if necessary
You don't understand these fellows like ]
do, he remarked, as he gave me the wink
with one eye as he uncorked the bottle with
the other. How could stand up before an in
telligent Jury of that class of men if they
thought that was as badly scared as they
were. We admit we never had so much re.
spect for the exponents of the law before.
As we returned to the fire we began to fee
} as though the inner-man needed looking af
ter, and committee was appointed to TAXI
an inventory of the stores, or in other words
! to see what there was for breakfast, and re-
! port in writing. While waiting for the re
port a man who who had been arrested
short time before for stealing COW in a veil
: of peleasantry asked a man who report sale
7 had once upon time stole watch, wha
) time it was, the other retorted that he dit
I. not know, but thought it was about milkin,
time. The prospect for fight seemed t,
loom up big but was squelched by the arriva
OF the committee, who reported as follows
Six cases double boxes of beer, one dozel
loaves OF bread, ten pounds of salt pork, on
sack of corn meal
The milk and watch controversy reminde,
! us that milk would be good thing to mi
with meal, and the man who stole the COY
was dispatched to a farmer for a supply-h
2 bought quarters worth of the tactical fiui
but they refused to lend pail. In vain
|. mentioned the names of prominent men i
q our party as security, but the fact that W
were from Napoleon was a knock down al
gument. He finally hired a boy to com
along and bring the pail back. A bir kettl
OF mush was made while he was gone, and o
: the arrival of the milk we seemed in fai
l. way to satisfy our hunger, but on overhaulin
/: our cooking utensils we found that, we ha
no small dishes. Here was q dilemma, bu
= as necessity is the mother of invention, W
soon overcame the difficulty. The ex-speah
er and ourselves were the only ones of th
party who had spoons. We turned the mil
y into the kettle of mush, stirred it up and 81
|, it on the stump and with the aid of ou
IS spoons commenced getting on the outside {
a it in the most approved style. As we WeI
! gorging ourselves one of the party remarke
% that this was the first regular stork and fo
r, dinner he had ever seen; some one aske
what kind of a, dinner that was He sal
\ once upon time stork asked fox to dir
= with him. The fox was on hand in tim
}. the dinner was served in high deep die
and consisted of soup. The stork with h
o long bill and neck gorged himself to rer L
!, ton, while the poor fox could only lick I'll
= drippings from the outside of the lar, but
y thanked the stork for the honor he had CO,
% ferred on himself and invited the stork
NJ zine with him the next day. Here the tabl,
were turned, the dinner was served in broa
Hot loft .A.x a. II
e of his bill in while the fox was at home. A
!. soon as we had finished two others took OF
places, and SO on until all were satisfie,
i Here were men eating out of the same dis
n with the same spoons who would have col
sidered themselves insulted had they bee
asked to eat from the same plate that anoth,
had eaten. Politics and religion NAL
!, strange bed-fellows.
J. After breakfast, and as the sun rose in Il
!. heavens we naturally regained our formt
: spirits and good humor, the speaker and ou
selves, together with a prominent politic
t character. were discussing the events of I'll
last "a hours, when we were pleasantly su
:, Irised by the arrival of well-to-do farmt
% who greeted us pleasantly, and asked us whi
was up. Before we could answer him he r,
marked that he knew something out of I'll
common course of things had happened,
the owls had hooted more last night tina
they had before in year, that several chicl
), ems had disappeared, that the old woman
"a bread would not rise that she had churne
ever since dlylight and the butter would n,
come, and SO on. The look we gave eac
other as he spoke about the owls can bett,
d be Imagined than described. In order
turn the subject, as we saw that he was ratl
er on the superstltious line, we told him thu
we had come up here to lay the ropes or plai
70 for a new church, that the regular church,
l9 were getting so corrupt, that we could n,
travel with them any more, that Cat this |
jumped up and shouted hurrah
am looking for a new church to join mysel
70 say mister, how much is it going to cost
join this church, we told him the reguli
tariff or rates had not yet been fixed, th
money was not SO much of an object iu
q now, as that the candidate should bring forl
fruits and meats for repentance. What kir
g of meat do you want and how much v
told him that about four of those half grow
l. turkeys and about six of those largest wat,
melons would do for this time. At this |
l. seemed grieved, for he is man having gre,
possessions. In order to get rid of him a di
ciple of Blackstone invited him to take
walk down to the landing, as our stores wei
q exhausted at camp.
The arrival of our new friend had change
n the drift of our conversation, and the subje,
of religion came up and the different ways ,
l. going to heaven, the effects of religion O
the habits of mankind was discussed, and
!, was proposed that we organize church {
our own. The idea seemed to meet the an
proval of all, and all were invited to give hi
views on the question. Each got up in tnr
land gave his views on what should const