Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1893-02-23
Old Times.

| EU. hCg1SteT-1n the early days o.
our life in this Valley, the 14th day O.
February was always looked forward
to by the old settlers, as ground-hoe
day, and the weather was watched with
interest, for on that day was the day
on which the future of the year de-
pended. How anxious they felt fol
days beforehand. If the day came ii
warm and sunshiny, how sober thei
faces looked; on the other hand, it il
was cloudy and cold, or stormy, how
pleased they looked, for now we know
just what kind of a crop year we viii
have. Now we can begin to make
ready to SOW our oats, for if we car
just get them in, in the month OF
February, we will make a splendid
crop.
We did not know much about Valen-
tines day at that time: only the old
settlers would say: To-day geese and
ducks choose their mates, and squirrels
will pair off," and am in heart with
the old settlers about the signs. At
that time we did not have any Civil
Service Stations all over the country.
to take observations of the weather and
report by telegraph to all parts of the
habitable world.
AS look back to the early days,
when we got our mail but once a week,
and the news we got would be perhaps
a month old, can hardly realize it.
That now, in less time than it took a
letter to go from Ironton to old Con-
necticut, we could almost go around the
world. Now we think a paper that is
three or four days old, is stale news,
and we won't stop to look at it, but
throw it to one side as being old-way
behind the times. No, sir, we want
our news from all parts of the world
to-day! Now, we don't want any old
mouldy stuff-it must be fresh. And
then we did not know, or even think,
the time would come, when we could
just go across the room where we were
sitting reading, and put our mouth to
little thing and talk to some friend
way down in old Connecticut, or New
York or Boston-just as easy as If you
were face to face with your friend.
Neither did we think of such a thing as
a machine that would, thousands of
miles apart, tell you on long strip of
paper what was being done at the 9TH
err end of that wire. The first tele-
graph instruments printed in charac-
ters what was said. Those strips of
paper could be preserved and filed away
for future reference. Neither did we
have any of those instruments that will
give back the same sounds, that were
made by voice or by instrument, years
after they had been first rendered, by
putting them in a kind of machine
made for that purpose.
think some of the early inhabitants
had a kind of an inkling of the idea,
for remember when I was a little bit
of chap, used to hear the people of
that day tell of a man who drove a
stage {you known railroads are of mod
ern times; we knew no more of rail-
roads at that early day than we did OF
the telegraphs or telephones). In
those days the stage drivers had big
horn. Some were regular bugles and
some were just common tin horns; if
the driver was musician, he would
have a regular bugle, that he could
play tunes on. remember man who
drove our stage through Ellington,
could play most anything. One of his
favorite tunes was, 1.-The Campbells
are coming" and / tell you it made
our young hearts swell when We heard
Eph begin to play on his buglea a mile
before he reached our town. And as
he came up with his team in full speed
and with grand flourish, how it made
US boys just think when we get to be men
We will drive stage, just as every boy
now wants to go on the cars. That