Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1890-01-09
NUMBER u.
Old Times.

stormy morning, for the beginning OF
1890, but for all that wish you, the REG
lister, many and all the readers OF the
REGISTER, a Happy New Year, and
this morning, rs my thoughts go wan
dering way down the past and call to
| mind the different New Years, my
| thoughts stop at New Year of 1S41-42.
ihe Holidays of that year were the
coolest L ever saw or felt in this eli
mate. About the first of NOvem Der,
it turned very cold aud stormy, All
the people could do was to care for the
stock, keep fires, ard hunt, go from
house 10 house, aud eat, drink, and
sleep, and have good time in general.
That winter there were about twelve
or fourteen boys and young men in our
valley and suburbs, and abouta as many
girls, and did you ever see it so cold or
stormy, that if there was any fun to
be had, the boys and girls would not
find a way to get there? | never saw
Stout's creek so high or Il storm SO bad
l could not 60 if set my heart on 60
ing. That winter the young folks had
more fun ard to, more good hunts
than ever before or afterwards. l re-
member the ground froZe hard, then a
heavy snow storm set in that lasted
for several days which covered the
ground feet deep, packed hard and
frozen solid. In one of the hunts, one of
the boys came across place on the
mountain in the side of ravine, a
place where some animals had dug
"A hole up in the side of deep gnlch,
and had gone in and out until they
had made quite road or path up and
down the steep snow bank. After
carefully examining the marks made
by the sharp claws of the animal, he
come the conclusion it was raccoon's
den, and from the sign there must be a
whole colony ofthem. Word was sent
to each of the boys to be on hand on
the next day with whatever tool he
could get to dig those coons out, and
at night the girls were to be at cer
tain house and have good old time
with those old fashioned kissing plays,
and | tell you Mr.. Editor, we had some
real kissable girls, and they liked it
first rate. About ten o'clock the next
day, every fellow mounted his horse,
some with axes, mattocks, and one or
two bad picks. l don't think there
were but two picks in all the settle
ment; those father owned, and such
dull, blunt old things. At this time
such an old tool would go into the old
iron pile; but they were the best the
country afforded. When we reached
the place there were in all just fifteen
of us. We had two axes, two picks,
two mattOcks, one small iron bar, and
one old shovel, and about half dozen
guns. While some of the boys were
making a fire, the rest of US went to
work to get those coons out. We cut
long slim poles, and run in the holes
to find the course and the depth we
had to dig. We could get the course
and dig down to the street under the
frozen surface, but it was no small job
to make a hole through a foot If frozen
sleet and snow, then through another
foot of frcZen dirt and stone with such
ED tools as we had, but pluck and per-
severance Will overcome most any
thing. When one set got tired and |
li1 Snt
take their places, while the rest stood
about the fire. 1t was work or freeze,
for it was awful cold. Sometimes we
could feel the coons with our poles.
They seemed to be travelling about in
their streets. After working hard and |
having dug several holes through the |
frozen mass we found we were no near
er the coons than at the start. After
a council of war held around the big
log fire, we concluded there were no
hopes of getting them out by digging,
so we concluded we would try smok-
ing them out. After collecting lot Of
Did dead trees and some wet leaves, we
filed the holes with wood leaves and |
brought fire on the old shovel. Show
el-full after shove-full, until we knew
the stuff would burn, then stopped up
all bat one hole, the lowest one, with |
our hats forced the lower hole to drive
the smoke up among the streets above.
While the boys were standing by the |
fire | went up aud laid down on the |
snow over one of the streets and put
my ear down hard on the crust. |
] could hear the coons sneez-
ing and coughing. 1 called the boys
to come. Soon every fellow was ly-
ING fiat on the snow with his ear to the
crust listening. II hear him." $50
do I.n "There's lots of them; hear
them cough.n | went back to one of
the places we had stopped up and ran
nv hand in as far as | could reach.
Soon a coon came aud put his nose
against my hand. / hallooed, II feel
oae!n Most all of the boys had gone
back to the fire, it was so cold. Soon
another coon came TO my hand, but
III SmCI,a fn !