Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1894-11-15
FROM THE ARIZONA KICKER,

about $50.
FROM THE ARIZONA KICKER.
Editor Builds a Tower, and Citizens
Come Miles to Shoot at it.
A disappointed crowd. the
last three weeks workmen have been
engaged in building tower on the
Kicker Office. We didn't set out to
make great big first-class tower,
such as might be looked for in city
of 100000 inhabitants, but an ordi-
nary affair into which we could
ascend by a ladder thirty eight feet
long, when we wanted to sit down
on an empty soapbox and ruminate
and reflect, and get away from the
hurly burly of life for an hour or two.
The news that we are building this
tower was carried over to Little
Valley, and whoever took it also made
the further statement that we were
going to put a town clock in the
tower Monday evening last the town
began to fiji up with people from
Little Valley, and it was noticed
that every one of them had two guns
and fifty rounds Of extra ammunition.
We didn't get onto the game until
about 0 O'Clock, when the mob gath
cred in front of the Kicker office to
see the clock unveiled. The boys had
come over to have fun with that
timepiece, and a howl of disappoint-
ment went up when it was finally
discovered that nothing Of the sort
was on hand. The idea of putting
up town clock had never occurred
to us. Had it come to our mind we
should have dismissed it at once,
knowing that it would have been shot
to pieces inside of five minutes.
AT $50 o'clock, when the crowd
was informed that there was nothing
to unveil, few of them retired to
the saloons to take drink, but the
thing, and therefore began blazing
away at the edifice in which we con-
duct family newspaper, grocery,
boot and shoe store, butcher shop and
various other industries not generally
combined with literary pursuits in
good natured way. and as an Arizona
editor must stand In with the boys
more or less, we got out and let them
bang away to their hearts content
Our agricultural editor. who Is a
little slow on foot, was graZed by two
bullets as he went over the alley
fence but no one was seriously in
iured, and the damage to the doors
and windows did not amount to more
than $15. Little Valley is nineteen
miles away. and we are sorry that q
crowd Of fifty men should have been
but it was not our fault. There will
he times when we shall seek that
tower and seclude ourselves from the
mad whirl of a busy life, but those
who wait to shoot the hands off a
town clock ticking away up there will
have to live another half century
We haven't put up in six years in
this locality to make such a mistake
as that
Drawing the Line.-The editor of the
Kicker, who is ourself, and the mayo
OF the town, who is ourself, has
never wrapped the mantle of dignity
around him and held the public at
arms length because of his social or
official position. Almost every day
for the last three or four years from
three to a dozen of our fellow citizens
could have been found "at home" in
our sanctum, and there have been
days at a time when all our exchange
list has been carried away and moth.
ing left for us to clip from except a
sarsaparilla almanac or patent
windmill circular. Our mail has been
opened, our dictionary worn out and
our time mostly occupied by sub
scribers, some of whom had to he
shot at before renewing, and no one
has heard us make complaint. We
understood from the first that 1t was
their way, and the only hope we had
was that they would gradually come
10 TestllZe Tile SlludIiOu }tilu uIVp On
Matters have been worse at the
mayors Office. AS everybody in town
voted for us we have all along felt
under obligations to the general pub
lie. We started out by locking the
door of our room when absent from
the town ha4l but pubic opinion
forced us to leave 1t open. For
months past every one has felt at
perfect liberty to enter the mayors
office, take possession OF his chair
and desk, and on several occasions
we have found the official records
of the common council pinned up
on the wall as a target for bullets.
When first made myora, we inclosed a
space with a railing but inside of a
inch Of 1t up for toothpicks, and we
month the public had whitfield every
received several vigorous hints that
"exclusiveness' wouldn't 20 in this
community. We have given up our
official office and done business on the
stair landing and elsewhere IN order
to keep the public good will and pre-