The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1890-04-08
BY BILL NYE
To Questions of Thoroughly Respect
able Inquirers.
Governor Clark and HIS Cow on Their
Duplicates Trip to Albany.
copyright, 1890, by E. ". Nye.l

copyright, 1890, by E. W. Nye.l
A correspondent residing at Scufle-
town, KY, writes to know if New York
State e had q temperance Governor,
and, If so, who he was. There was a
temperance Governor whose name was
Clark. He was inclined to be of a simple
nature and was elected during an I'M
guarded moment, I believe. At least it
has never occurred since. He lived, I
think, at Canandaigua, and still does so
for that matter.
He was not quite sure of his election at
first, but after a while he became con-
WINGED that he had been chosen by the
sutfrages OF the people, and so he started
for Albany by diligence, with a speckled
COW attached to the rear of the convey
ance. When he got pretty near to Albany
he was told that a mistake had been made
in the returns, by which the other mans
election was only too clear. He probed
the matter and found that the information
came from an authentic source; so, after
batting his team, he gave his trusty COW
a dose OF Moxie and started out for home
again, sad, Yet bowling to the will of the
people. For some days he %journeyed on
e rough roads and through desolate
stretches of country, sometimes finding
such rough going that his frail drosky
seemed ready to overturn and plunge
down a bottomless chasm.
At last the domes and minarets of Can
andaigua loomed up in the distance, and
after his long journey the Governor drove
into his own door yard and put the team
out. Polishing his red but virtuous beak
on the back of his buckskin mittens, he
slowly took up the thread Of private life
again by knocking the choicest brains out
of a stray cat.
Anon n of the neighbors came in
and asked the Governor what was up. He
allowed that he was not so much elected
as he had VOTED. "Why, yes you be-"
said the man. The Governor picked up
his ears and began to look for the papers.
He now discovered that sure enough he
was elected after all; so, eating a cold
doughnut and drinking some n~on-elastic
cider, he returned to the barn. Admins
tering a Dover's powder and a little bis
muth to the COW he once more hitched up
his drosky, whilst the COW looked up into
his eyes with an air of inquiry and re-
proach, as who should say, "Governor,
how much of this junketing business have
you got on hand" He smote her across
he nose pettishly aud said, "There, tor
1T ye, can't We never so ?"
he became Governor, but in a quiet
way, giving to the State a corn starch a.
ministration unmarked by recklessness or
intestine strife. He was the only tenn
perance Governor, [ think, that New
York ever had, and that was the only
way he has been the author of a foot
print on the sands of time.
The cow who assisted him during his
calm reign Of oat meal and chastened
monotony has long since passed to her
reward.
He still recalls with marked pride his
career as Governor, and speaks CT the time
when he made the trip by diligence to
Albany and back with a pair Of split-bot-
toned chairs lashed to the back Of the
load, a cow attached to the rear also and
an Oleander from Olean, who went alor 6
"a an amanuensis.
We should learn from the career of
Governor Clark to esteem, ever through
life and ever beyond the confines of time,
where sorrow and distress and habits of
industry can never enter, those qualities
of mind and heart which, wherever found
and whenever came a~cros't, should, by
n and all, be most highly thought of.
BILL NYE.