Baxter Springs news. [volume] (Baxter Springs, Kan.) 1882-1919, 1892-05-07
THOMAS ROWE DEMANDED SILENCE.

with his wife and children or sweet
heart, besides score of farm-servants
from the neighboring homesteads. In
good old style the gentle waited upon
the simple, the schoolmaster and the
schoolmaster's wife, the apothecary
and his two handsome daughters, the
village dressmaker and her three
pretty apprentices, and Dame Barlow
and her Nellie merrily We'd with each
other in loading the plates with good
things; the only persons OF higher
degree who sat at board being the jolly
woman, who took the head of the
table. and Arthur Dunbar, who sat by
his express command Mt his right-hand.
Big rounds of beef disappeared before
the sharp knives of the carvers, legs OF
mutton and spareribs Of pork vanished
like magic, and huge plum buildings
melted in q way that was Startling
but still there was enough for every
one and to spare, enough to pack many
small basket with dainty bits for the
sick and bed-riddcn, who could not
come to the feast, but were happy in
the assurance that Dame Barlow would
not forget them. Then, when every
one had eaten his ill, old Thomas
Rows, the patriarch of the laborcrs,
rose and demanded silence. All knew
what he was going to say, for he had
said the same thing in the same words
on thirty anniversaries of the happy
day, yet every ear was stretched in ex-
pectancy.
Fill your glasses, lads and lasscs. I
beant much o. hand ut speech-makin';
but 'ercs to the jolly good 'elth Of the
best meastcr an the best missus as ever
lived. With a three-times-three, my
lads; an one more for luck!"
How the old raftcrs rang with their
cheers! It would be vain effort to Mt
tempt to describe John Barlow's re-
sponsc. 1t was a master-effort OF in
comprehensibility. He got so mixed up
with the glories of the good old times,
the iniquitics of the income tax, and the
audacity of frog-eating French women,
that it was n relief to his wife when his
burst Of eloquence was finished.
Next, singing was in order, and inter-
rninable ballads with inevitable Choir
uses of Notwithstanding,
cheered the company, while old Thomas
Rowe, by special request, sang in a
quavering voice ditty whose immoral
refrain was that
''He who drinks cold water,
And NOES IN had eohpr
Fades ns the leaves do, fades as the leaves do,
And dies in October.
He who drinks good ale
And goes TO bed mellow,
Lives Us he ought 10 live, lives as he ough TO
live,
And dies jolly fellow"
A sentiment which would be hardly mp
preciated in this prohibition age, but
which seemed to find considerable favor
among the harvest-homers.
Then those who had been serving re-
tired to IN ante chamber to attack
similar repast on n smaller scale, and
all hands set to work to clear the tables
away. When this was done three old
men drew from the recesses of green
baize bags their fddles and the fun be-
gan to get fast and furious. "Sir Roger
de Coverly" was the first on the list, Of
course, John Barlow and the dinry-maid
the premier couple, followed by Mrs.
Barlow and the hend-wagoncr, while
others came in quick succession, but nll
mated from different degrees Of society
in the small community, Arthur Dunbar
being sis-a-eis with the herdsmans
daughter, q stalwHrt lass who candidly