Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1892-03-14

VIII grow on again. but that it will be
sort OF thick and hump up in the middle
like nice fresh pecan meat
We pass through Hudson going south
from st. Paul and Minneapolis. Hudson
is handsome little city on the shores of
Lake st. Croix. She makes a speciality
OF great men. Also good pickerel fish
ing. Ex-senator Spooner lives at Hud-
son. Also Commissioner Taylor, when
not at Washington or closely scrutinizing
the United States railway system by
means of a special car. Every year he
goes over every mile of railway in the
United States as commissioner, and when
he gets back in his special car to Wash.
ington 1t is safe to say that over all that
great mileage of road not a sardine can
or an empty beer bottle is left to offend
the eye. He is one of the most careful
and painstaking railway commissioners
that we have ever had. Some charge
him with being over nice about his rail
roads and too finnicly and pernickety
about always having the road bed made
up with the head toward the engine, but
he is a careful and conscientious man
and his heart is in the work.
Judge Humphrey lives here also i
do not lay down any rules of conduct for
my boys at home. | just in a general
way tell them to be like Judge Hum
phrey. The man who goes into Wiscon-
sin and criticises Judge Humphrey is
generally arrested on suspicion ana held
till they find out what his record is
1t was at Hudson that we used to bet
on the date when navigation would open
in the spring. There were no railroads
then. When the first boat whistled in
the spring people left their business. and
sometimes broke off in the midst of an
eloquent prayer-full of statistics and
timely gossip and mere mention, news
summary. baseball news and household
hints-in order to run down to the land
ing and see the first boat come in.
MesSrs. Coon q Plat kept a grain
warehouse then on the landing, and one
day in winter they made a bet on the
date when the first boat would come up
the river to Hudson. 1t consisted of a
pair of fifteen dollar boots. One day in
early spring Zeph Plat was alone in the
warehouse, and he thought he would go
up in the cupola and with his glass take
a sQuint down the lake on the sly. He
was fat man, and when he got up to
the top of the stairs he found that he had
arrived there two or three minutes ahead
of his breath. Finally he secured it,
however, and hastily running his bin
ocular tube along the horizon he saw,
just below Catfish bar, the dark smoke
and gray steam of the first boat
1t meant pair of boots on him, or
rather on Coon at his expense. He
turned slightly pale, then he started Up
town to find Coon and hedge, which he
did by paving him ten dollars But he
smiled when he thought how he had
worked it.
But the boat did not succeed in getting
up that day, nor for Il week afterward.
She struck ice at Catfish bar and had to
stop there, so that Zeph lost his ten dol
lars, to say nothing of the cigars and
sarsaparilla which he bought for those
whose silence he sc dearly priced
Byron j. Price, the president of the
Wisconsin Press association, also lives at
Hudson. He had for many years
checkered career as horticulturist and
pomologist. He tried to grow the water
melon, and succeeded very well, but
when the melons got ripe other hands
gathered them and other chins than his
were bathed in their cold, sweet juice.
This made Byron hot, as we say in
America, and he worried over it and
came near baCksliding at one time. He
tried planting bulldog in each hill, but
that only improved the quality of the
melon and made them the more desirable
to those whom he referred to in his paper
as ''fiends in human form"
One summer he said to himself: Il
will try it once more and see if can get
good ripe watermelon for my own use,
just this time. Just one melon that |
rose myself. If | fail | will try it no |
more forever" He knew pretty well |
who took his melons. They did not
deny it. 1t was gang of footpads from
the high school, headed by Will Taylor |
and Pagan Starr. They took the melons |
not maliciously, but because cool, ripe !
melon in the dark of the moon had been |
prescribed for them by their physician.
That year, however, Byron did not tell |
any one his scheme. He planted the !
melons in the middle of his popcorn
patch. But he did not tell anybody. He |
Gid not even put it in the Clear Lake |
Herald, which has always been regarded |
as the best medium of hushing up any
ggslY