Alpena weekly argus. [volume] (Alpena, Mich.) 1871-1893, 1890-03-26
A Pillow Tragedy.

thdL 10 concerneu, was pIctty ehdii
myself, and so in every way suited the
village. In thinking over my own
youthful days, it seemed to me pity
that the history of that village should
60 unrecorded for want of historian.
So | propose, in lack of better per-
son coming forward, to write some of
the particulars of the history of this
quiet village. / shall call it Bruce
vile, because that was not its name,
and, yet, it is near enough the name
to be recognized by any of its emin-
ent citizens, while the assumed title, !
hope, will protect me if an exasper-
ated populace should undertake to
bring libel suit against me, or to
take into the courts of law any of
the misdeeds that | shall have the
painful duty of chronicling or confess
ing.
1t is generally supposed that the
young men. or boys, rather, of the
cities are very much worse, as far as
pure wickedness is concerned, than
the innocent youth who resides in the
in the country or in a small village.
My own experience does not bear out
this popular idea. If there exists in
this world any gang Of youngsters,
who more richly deserved the cells of
prison than we did, / have yet to
hear of them. had some aspirations
myself to being the leader of this
gang of boys, but / have to admit
that there were many among us who
could astonish even me in suggesting
new and entertaining crimes which
were to be committed on the suffering
inhabitants of that village.
Bruceville is situated in Western
Canada, about two miles from Lake
Erie. The village now boasts very
fine brick school, and | believe that
there is principal there and assistant
teachers, and great many other
things that were not prevalent when l
was boy. l went to the first school
that was ever opened at Bruceville,
and that was the first school | ever
went to myself. The teacher was a
young woman who had amassed a
great deal apparently, at least we
thought so at the time, and the people
of the village rented the lower story
of residence for school house. |
have rather dim recollections of my
struggle with learning through the
first book. vaguely remember being
trounced once or twice, but / have no
recollections as to what the trouble
was. / know that even at that early
time | was marked as being boy
who, if he kept on the way he had
started, was going to develop into
veritable monster of wickedness. |
can remember that there was certain
feeling among some of us that we
were not at all the favorites Of this
teacher, aud l believe to this day tha
the teacher did not have the tact to
conceal her preferences. This par
tiality was brought to climax one
summers day by her inviting all her
favorite pupils up to her house, or the
house of her father, to engage in the
wild dissipation Of games and cracking
nuts, and such like hilarious enjoy
ment. Four or FIVE of US were not invi-
ted, and that night / went to bed early.
Each of the boys had particular
way of getting out of the house un-
known to the other inmates, and my
own means of exit was crawling
through the window on to the kitchen
roof, getting down that on the top of
board fence, and then from that to
the ground. We always collected
each other by mysterious whistles,
limitations from the whippoorwill or
quail, and in going to our rendezvous
we skirted along the fence or in the
dark shadows of buildings, crouching
down with our caps drawn over our
eyes. This was to avoid possible dis
covery, although there was no person
in creation that would have thought
anything of it if he had met us right
in the middle of the street anyhow.
Still there was certain delight in
making sneak for it, and on this
particular occasion four or five of us
had gathered for the purpose Of
breaking up that party at the teach
er's house. The teacher belonged to
large family Of pioneers who had
scattered around that neighborhood.
AS a number Of the family had the
same names. both first and second,
various adjectives were used to de-
signate the particular one meant.
Her father was known as "Swampy
john" because he lived on the other
side of the swamp, about half a mile
distant from the village. Another
relative was called "Hilly john" be
cause he lived OH the brow of hill.
The swamp which he had to pass to
get to Swampy Johns house was a
vvo,~J l~co.<..o 49, ..l:.l I'll. /.