The Bennington banner. [volume] (Bennington, Vt.) 1858-1894, 1890-05-08
PIPK1N,s PIPE LINES.

little else to be seen. So philosophical
ly seated myself upon the weather-worn
boards, planted my feet upon one of the
rails and lit five-center.
Then | noticed strange state of affairs
for Green Spring Junction. The Y was
filled with cars loaded with huge iron
water pipes, and along the l. b. q W.
track, from the south a human being was
approaching.
/ wondered at both the pipes and the
man-for the pedestrian was man.
"Mornin' " quoth the stranger, as he
somewhat Familiarity seated himself by
my side; e, ,.o,,,,o, ,,,,;,,r o.
Spring junction, to make friends with
any one who could speak English.
"Nice mornin', 'smornin'. 'Spose you |
hain't got chew of tobacker about
your"
mo, l haven't; but if you can make
out with Carl Dunder cigar shall be
glad to accommodate you"
As my visitor lit his cigar l asked:
POSSIBLY you can tell me what those
big water pipes are to be used for?'
"Sure puff, sure puff ly. Yes puff,
stree. Them's for the pipe line, to carry
oil from over yonder at Lima to Cleve-
land"
"Ahl" said I, great things, those pipe
lines, are they not?'
"That's what"
For some moments we both remained
silent, putting smoke.
My companion broke the stiffness.
81 'spose, now, you never heered tell
of Pipkin's Pipe Line?''
Cant say that ever did"
mo. 1t was before your time, reck-
on; and most of folks has forgotten it.
But hain't, and l never shall"
looked at my watch. 1t wanted for
ty-five minutes to train time.
"Tell me about il" said |.
''Well, good many years ago-never
mind how many, stranger, cause it was
long before the war; lived over in
Wood county. 1t was pretty thinly set
tied in those days, and though our vii
lage wur small one it wur the biggest
within quite distance.
"a Teller by the name of Pipkin run a
bit of a saloon, and though he didn't sell
much whisky, or beer either, in the vii
lage, he got rid of good deal of liquor
and stuff among the lumbermen that
used to be kinder thick in that section.
"Nobody liked Pipkin: and to tell the
honest truth, he didn't have generwine
friend in the whole county. His record
wasn't very clean, neither in regard to
politics nor his family affairs. He
seemed to do pretty well, however, and
apparently had plenty of money, for he
lived well and bought considerable land.
''All of a sudden, without giving any
notice, Pipkin shet up his saloon and
went to work to build him cider mill
1t want no One-horse mill neither 1t
wur big affair, with a cooper shop and
everything complete. At the same time
Pipkin built himself large, two-story
house, and set to work with whole lot
of help (all strangers) to farm his land.
He had the biggest farm in Wood county
nigh on to !, 200 acres, though mOre'n
half of it wur woods.
Inside of two years Pipkin wur doing
the biggest cider and vinegar business IN
Northwestern Ohio; only what puzzled
the neighbors wus where on earth he got
all his apples-fOr Wood county warn't
much of an apple section them days.
However, nobody cared about Pipkin's
affairs The women gossipped consider
able, but the men folks let him alone.
Pipkin warn't inclined to be noways
neighborly; he never gave any one round
them parts a job, and he done all his
trading way off. All his help was
strange, and even the teamsters he hired
he fetched from Toledo. Once old Uncle
jeff Smiley, as, wer kinder old and in
quisitive like, did undertake to ask Pip
kin where he got his apples, but he did
MT get no satisfaction for his pains. We
all took the hint and didn't bother Pip
kin, and it got to be that nobody so much
as passed the time O. day to the surley
codger.
"But apples or no apples, friend, Pip
kin run that there cider mill of his'n full
blast, and jist everlastingly kept three
and four teams a-hauling cider and vine
gar in barrels to the railroads. He
shipped the stuff all over-tO Cleveland
and Pittsburgh and Toledo and Detroit,
and even as far as New York City.
'Well, sir, by the end of the fourth
year Sam Pipkin must have made pile
of wealth, and it were about that time
that my old uncle, Seth SandersOn, died.
Uncle Seth had lived for years in Sandus-
ky, but owned land in Wood county,
which he, being sorter misery, wouldn't
sell for no price. There was nigh on 200
acres, and Uncle Seth willed it to me.
This lot, mostly in timber, was west of
Pipkin's line and being sort of narrow
strip, ran clear out to the big Wood
county swamp, nigh on to two miles.
First thing knew, Pipkin came to
me and wanted to know my price for
uncle Seth's strip. But as | hadn't
thought it over put him off for week,
and the next day, with Levi Ransom, l
set out to kinder inspect my new belong
ings. We got pOl1ing around in the sile,
and purity soon Levi he run his hickory
stick into some very soft earth, and then
struck something real hard, and, curious
like. Then we both of us scraped and
scratched, and at last we managed to
clean off two or three feet length of iron
pipe-small pipe, such as city folks use
for gas pipe.
oval, I'm durnedl' says Levi, and
says 1: We'll, durned.'
1--WE speckerlated and guessed till we
was tired, and last says Levi: Il have it
says he; I'll run home for drill Levi
being blacksmith), and he went. He
wur back in an hour, and in few min
utes he had little hole drilled. Then
up spurts a steady stream, taller man,
of pure, strike-yer-dizzy ,ohisky! Yes,
sir, whisky, and no foolin
well, sir, you might have knocked
me and Levi over with a straw, and we
had to both of us sample the liquor jest
to brace up our nerves. But we didn't
go off half-cock, by no means. Levi
plugged the pipe with small stick of
wood, covered up the hole and started
OA lOl lOlCuO- w llCn we Cdllle DdCk we
brought with us the Supervisor and two
or three Deputy United States Marshals.
Next morning, bright and early, we
tracked that pipe line, sir right through
Uncle Seth's strip, way into the swamp,
and brought up at a big, pretty well built
shanty. The Marshals captured the
place and two men, and discovered one
of the finest whisky stills you ever heered
tell on! Then we followed that there
pipe back again for moren five miles,
and we landed right into Pipkin's cider
mill.
''Well, sir, it wur considerable of a
joke on us Wood county sleepy-heads to
think tibet there Teller Pipkin had fooled
us for years, now warn't it?
Cider? Ha ha!
Vinegar? Ha, ha, hal
"Well, Pipkin didn't get ahead of the
revenue men to any large extent, and he
put in about ten years at Columbus. Yes,
sir, these pipe lines are mighty handy
things, but you see the Standard amt the
first to lay one in this section.
Here comes your train"
MUSICAL CONNoIsEURs.
tGnI, ,o,, NFo.Io. 4