The Bossier banner., 1893-06-01
TEN YEARS LATER.

TEN YEARS LATER.
Hiram holds forth to a crowd of
listeners on the veranda of the village
tavern.
"Know Mr.. Bolton? Well, l should
rather say did. l can remember the
time when jeremiah Bolton didn't have
second shirt, had doubts about the
first shirt, to his back. Jobs turkey
wasn't in it with Jerry-I allus used to
call him Jerry an he used to call me
Hiram. There warn't no misters be-
tween us them days. Some of you
boys think yourselves smart, but there's
none of you could hold candle to Jere-
miah Bolton. No, sir. Last lection,
when there was talk of running Jerry
for guvnor, I knowed Jerry wouldn't
take no nomination. What did he
care about being guvnor? Why, Jerry
Bolton could buy the hull state ef he
wanted to-"
Most of the governors have to do
that" said bvstander.
"Well, Jerry amt that kind of man.
Fact is, they don't build men like Mr.
Bolton nowadays. Why, l remember
eleven years ago, before Jerry took out
his patent, an he was feelin kind O.
discouraged, says to him: Never you
mind, Jerry, your times a-comin.
You'll be able to buy out the county
some of these days Why, there wasn't t
man in this town believed in Jerry
but me. There was old Deacon Swipes,
him that's dead and gone. He used to
CO TO, 7
the devil you see in that wuthless coot,
Jerry Bolton The deacon used to
swear just a little, cause he'd been a
lumberman once, and man has to
swear when he's bringin' down raft,
but he never knew he swore, and no
body liked to tell him, and him dea-
con. Why, the preacher, he used to"
"What did you say to the deacon
about Bolton?"
'Oh. 1 says to him: Deacon, you're
all right at seein' anything that's right
under your nose, but you're no good at
dealin' with the future"
'The preacher attended to futurity,
l suppose"
jess so, jess SO. But the deacon
could never see why took such trouble
with Jerry, but knowed he wasn't no
common kind of man. He had way
of 1ookin' past you and of not hearin'
what a person was sayin' to him
that
Lucky man!'
Exactly. He was always a-studyin'
and a-studyin' in his mind. We used to
fol III L.
never'd tell what he was figurin' on,
you could tell which way his mind was
turned. Hiram he used to say to me,
great inventions, like the air brake and
the telegraph and the standard oil COM
pany, they's only thought out once in a
life time. 1t takes big man to invent
them sort of things, and I'm only a
small man, Hisam.' He was always a
modest man, was jerry"
That was because he was SO much
In your company"
well, anyhow he used to say that
what he wanted to invent would be
some little thing that every body would
want to have and couldn't do without
once they had it, and that wouldn't t
cost much, and wouldn't last long, and
yet would pay fifty per cent. to the
maker of it. Hiram, he used to say to
me, if soap wasn't invented, that's
what l would like to invent and get a
patent on He never could have lived,
eff it hadn't been for me. Lived in a
house l owned at that time, and most
they got to eat come off my farm. 1
never bothered him about no rent nor
pay, and when he was troubled about it
l used to slap him on the back and say:
You wait till your ship comes in"
Didn't he pay the mortgage on your
farm, Hiram?"
''Well, that's neither here nor there.
That's private matter 'twixt him and
me. Besides, it was like this: I put
that mortgage on, to get the money for
his patents"
''Why. it was In the papers that the
man from New York put UP the cash. +"
"New young man. yea keep your