Custer chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, Black Hills, D.T. [S.D.]) 1880-1890, 1888-06-16
The AK and Wood Pile az Ne dicine.

~
Burdette: Every human male man,
who possesses even q lingering faint Of
temper, should keep an AK and a wood
pile somewhere handy, that he may rush
ont and work of his wrati when it wakes
fierce. There is nothing in this vain old
world that will send a man back To his
az pointed work with a more wilted collar
and a truer comprehension of himself,
than thirty minutes wrestling with a full.
favored AK. He can use it SO fiercely on
the wood. All the fury Of his nature, all
the hate he feels for his enemy, he can
infusc into that ax-handle, and how the
chips will fly. Not very srtistically,
probably, but they will fly. And pres
emily it begins to dawn upon the man
that he is feeling more calm. Evidently
he is experiencing a change of heart.
He does not hate his enemy so bit
terry, after all. The Ak weighs
about eigbty-one pounds on the
up-stroke. He does not bate his enemy
at all. He changes his stoke and begins
TO chop on the system of Italian penman.
ship, the up-strokes heavy and the down
ones light. He rather loves his enemy
nsw. AT last he puts all his failing
strength into one terrific blow. He
misses his tip with the AK and smites the
chopping block with the handle, A tinye
as though he had swallowed al alarm
clock goes from elbow to hip and back
again. the AK drops from his powerless
hands, and a weak, limp, nervelcss, per
spring, trembling, gasping thing, he
staggers into the house, lies down on the
first thing that looks like a lounge, and
10 raaHu tn ltn T!.ara ,rp'f a faov nv A
fault in his heart. Death has no terrors
and life no temptations for him. He has
chopped out all his baser nature, and is
just as ethereal and spiritual as he can be
OF this side or the Jordan. 1t is great
medicine.
People with whom | have been quar-
reling all spring would be amazed to see
me now. | f0olishly contracted last
spring TO keep a camp fire going. |
didn't know then that it took al the for
csts in the Adirondack spurs to keep up
one little camp fire. | am not IA large,
broad, tall, sinewy man and the AK they
gave me might have beaten down the
brazen gates of INTERCHANGEABLE that
what s-his-name besieged, if he ever did
besiege it. ] have fallen trees with that
AK that would have made Mr.. Gladstone
ohu'it'I. lHty ltlI INC ! Hlusl Say lclIct"
not fallen, but ! know better, because !
only cut down fallen trees. My wrists
were larger than my knees, which goes
TO show that | didn't pray as hard as
chopped. but | didn't have strength
enough to hate anybody; | was too limp
to commit the lightest sin, SO | didn't
have much need of prayer.
| didn't write any the fol
lowing week, because | couldn't close my
fingers over anything smaller than an *
helt. We tried tying the penholder to
my elbows, but they wouldn't bend with
that kind Of an implement. My hands
were a little better the next week, but |
was as badly AK ridden as ever. | hear
voices calling even now for more wood
though ! assure you ! cut ont a cord be
tween every paragraph. At least, ! think
] did. But | went out and chopped III.
til the AK flew Off the handle, which was
dropped every five minutes, and then
heaped high the fagots, and c aw ed into
the camp. tire, and shovel ne old mar
tyrs how sweetly and %joyously "A mar
could roast himself rather than eat one
solitary single olher stick Of wood more,