The Big Stone Gap post. [volume] (Big Stone Gap, Wise County, Va.) 1892-1928, 1894-02-22
TIE S0p-HOuSE GOING.


f:es3l!.iscen2es III Early Eavs III i~cEcas
ant, Nebraska.
'.,rhe sod-hcrse OF the Kansas ond
Nebraska plains is following the huf-
falo and antelope into the land OF
legends. said 81 resident Of Topeka
recently to . group Of acau2;ntanccS
at. Tie Arling ton. "a good many OF
The queer structures gre std standing,
and in Some instances are yet used as
human habitation but most Of them
are utilized as stables for horses or
cattle, and arc slowly cinlnbling away
to become .in1is!inguisb able in their
original Garth When I first Went
west years ago FAY father TOOK up the
acres as far Us, his eye co,nd reach in
what is nov eastern Nebraska. There
was not q tree in sight Of the knoll he
had selected as the spot upon
which lis residence should be
erected aud the nearest place lumber
corld be secured was sixty miles away.
Re put up g small teat in which to
cook and eat; The family slept III the
wagons, and, with ny brothers and
hired help, set abous making house.
''Ihc thick SOD WAS cut from the
prairie i'll slabs about two feet wide by
three IN length, aud Oh the side of u
knoll, where an excavation had been
matte ia its side, these slabs were
placed one on top Of the other until the
required height was reached. 1t was
arduoUs work, and remcmb Der what
lot cf excitement there was when my
father and my brother Leon started OH
early one morning to so after the
ridge pole and rgfters that were TO sap
port thc ROOF. They took only the
running gear Of our small wagon, and
! cried like & good fellow when they
started off, because thought they had
broken up my pet vehicle.
'Frhoy were gone nearly a week, and
reached home in the middle Of one
night, after their journey OF one hun
dred and twenty miles. They had
brought long. round piece of timber,
like a slender telegraph pole, with
numerous ether small pieces, and
mother nearly had a fit Of de-
light when they proudly displayed Q
door end two window-sashes, with q
bundle OF glass for the latter. There
was great rejoicing when the ridge
pole was put in place and the rafters
run down from IL 70 rest on the sod
walls, add then came the laborious
task OF putting on the sod roof, so that
il woala, keep out thesrain and snow.
Sat last it rwos completed and we
raoyed ia, The house had four rooms,
wl.ic;l ,yasa.nusual for such structures
and lis two windows soon made Ii
known I'll over that section Of the west
rs the Shack with the Glass Eye. ;
r, here never was a more comfortable
building erected tiian q sod house.
They are no5 at al damp, as one would
suppose, and arc rs warm as you conld
desire. il winter. while in summer they
are Tie most delightfully."- cool places
imaginable But they are rapidly dis
;sI,ites,ri 3,fss noyv, ard when yen see one
you, are sure 10 rnslsnIear it a modern
cottage, with its windmill, just as you
10 out ut or place. Washington
Post.
1.-The burglar is not inclined to be
sallsatiye. but. he is q great bore when
nc 6ads The safe locked Binghamton
Republican.
s:inpsror III lam t1as aensn teieis,'.s't.rn
ffa.r Elteas to Prince Bismarcls, eS-
pressing nE,athy with him III IDS III;
hcks aud osfsriEg him tho tlii1 % oflG og