Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1890-12-11
SINGLE TAX DEPARTMENT.
A MYSTERIOUS DISAPPEARANCE
CONTINUED FROM LAST 1ssuE-l


''Shuu mp, you foolsr' shouted Roger
Rocks chaplain; what do you know
about it?" And the fools shut up.
The red-breasted crow was as mild as
ever, but his duty was plain. '.Such ir-
religious sentiments strike at the very
base of society,"" he said. "a nest is
part of a tree; grub is part of corn
field. If crow can not own tree or a
corn field he can not own nests or grub
the greater includes the less. beg
you to retract"
Il can not" Father Cav answered.
Then you must bear the eonse-
quences." said his redness; and forth
with Father Cav was seized, stripped of
his feathers. and thrown to the ground.
Meantime Qui Fassett had been for
gotten. But when Father Cav was dis
posed of, the attention of the crowd was
turned to the shameless agitator. He
was arrested and carried before the same
magistrate who punished the crows that
had called him scab When the charge
was explained, the magistrate. with all
the severity he could command. said to
Qui:
Il am surprised that a crow so intelli-
gent should be disturber, arousing dis
content among crows and preaching
doctrines that no one ever heard of be-
fore"
II am only preaching the doctrine /
heard you teach" replied Mr.. Fassett.
''Whatr' croaked the magistrate, half
angry at Outs impudenee, and half
curious to know what he meant "Ex-
plain yourself. sirr'
when I first became a crow" said
Qui, Il was insulted and attacked as
scab by a flock of working crows The
ringleaders were brought before you and
you punished them
Yes; that's so; I remember it." the
magistrate mum bled, bobbing his head.
'Well," Qui went on, when you pun
isbed them you lectured them"
81 always d." said the magistrate.
'You lectured them on the criminal
tty and heartlessness of preventing other
crows from working for a living"
True enough" said the magistrate;
''but what has that to do with your
case?"
This" answered Qui. "When 1 went
to look for work. l found that few
crows owned all the cornfields and all
the trees, and they wouldn't let me
scratch in the fields unless | would give
them all the grub I got except three
worms a day, and l couldn't get place to
roost except on limb of tree where
my boss had his nest. And found other
crows in the anne predicament. This, said
I to myself, is an ingenious way of pre-
venting crows from working for living,
and it is criminal and heartless, just as
the good magis trate said"
Ten days." exclaimed the magistrate,
'and don't come here again"
So poor Qui was taken to the trunk of
an old tree and pushed through knot
hole. After fluttering around the hol-
low trunk, he finally fell to the bottom
among a crowd of filthy crows, who
pecked at him, pulled out his feathers
and made fun of him as the crow who
wanted to divide up crow property.
At last Outs term of imprisonment ex-
pired and he took to flight He was a
sad looking crow, and whenever he tried
to alight on the limb of some tree that
had particularly deserted appearance
a policeman crow would fly over to warn
him off. Sometimes, forced by hunger.
he would stealthily drop down into a
never got enough to satisfy him before
the approach of flock of crows from an
adjoining field would oblige him to leave.
Having had many escapes from arrest
for trespass. and not few for stealing,
and finding it utterly impossible to get
place to build nest or a piece of
ground in which to scratch for grub on
his own account, Qui hunted for a job;
but to every crow to whom he applied
his appearance was SO repulsive, he was
SO evidently mere tramp crow, that all
employment was refused.
Finally, one day, half-starved rag
ged, dirty and Respondent, he was over
joyed at seeing his own house. Flying
quickly toward it he alighted on the
porch. There was his wife and little girl,
but neither saw him. II do WISH" he
overheard the little girl say, that papa
would come back" His wife made no
reply. She only wept.
May. DEAR" said Mr.. Fassett, papa
is back
His wife and child started, and Qui
was about to rush at them both with
open arms, when the little girl exclaim-
ed:
''Oh. it's only an old crow, mamma;
but how tame it is"
All of Outs Joy forsook him. In the
excitement he had forgotten that he
was crow, but his daughters exclama-
ton reminded him of his helpless con-
dition. His wife, still weeping, went
into the house, while the little girl
approached her father cautiously, lest
he might fly away, and taking him in
her lap smoothed his ruffied feathers.
He tried to make himself known
to her, but all his efforts to talk resulted
only in croaks, Ineligible enough to a
crow, but meaningless to the child. To
Outs establishment, however, the cat
his old pet cat-understood him, and
her miaous were as ineligible to him
as the dialect of the Swede who worked
on his farm. While puss looked up at
the crow, occasionally uttering long
drawn miaou. and the crow croaked. the
child feared the cat wanted to dine off of
her crow and that the crow was frighten-
ed: but that wasn't the case all. The cat
and Mr.. Fassett were engaged in con-
versation. from which Fassett learned
that he had disappeared some three
months before and that the greatest ex-
element had prevailed in the commun-
itv. while his wife had suffered intensely.
And I have missed you very much
myself, Mr. Fassett,' said the cat.
Oui learned great deal from the cat
about what had happened, but that was
nothing to him beside the instruction it
gave him in the way of becoming him
self once more You can not change
b.ol- amin eyp1aiped the cat sunleSS