The Virginia enterprise. [volume] (Virginia, St. Louis County, Minn.) 1893-19??, 1895-03-22

and friedrich Barbarosa and Philip Au-
gustus in the crusade that lasted from
11S9 to 1872, and I'm the man you want
to see. There's a lot about that crusade
first place, we called Richard Our Dick.
and Friedrich, Reddy. and 1'hilip-oh, we
things. Do YOU want the story? Let
me know at once how many Words
Let her co. said the truth seeker, as
ne looked over the slate and arranged
with the medium for the use of the line
all day.
We'll" began the slate, las l said. /
am lchabod Potts, yeoman. left Lon
don in 1883 or such matter to go to Je-
rusalem with Our Dick The boys al
ways called him that just before a war.
Several thousand of us pulled out and
marched across the country in the fall,
and got down into Southern France for
the winter, and by good luck got Through
that winter without misfortune. Then
we tiddled around France and Italy and
Germany drumming up crowd, when
the fall of 1889 found us over in Austria
with lot of Dagos> Dick got gay one
day and ordered a lot of the Eyetalian
armer-a job lot. with automatic clasps
and lot of duplex levers and swivel>
drilling in those old baseburners all fall,
and Reddy-him they call Friedrich Bara
rosa in the book-looketf on mighty jeal-
Gus. For his men only had 4 dog-chain
armor that didn't clank nor glitter nor
nothing-its only advantage was: it was
comfortable. Well, to make long story
of magazine length, the winter of 1889
came on-you remember, of course, the
cold wlnter-but of course you don't.
Well. it was fearfully cold-rained all De-
cember and took the stove polish off them
armors and rusted 'em up some. And
then, on the 9Th of January, there wac
the worst blizzard on the twenty-five
years. record Of the University of Vienna:
The hinge of them automatics We're wet
and rusty. and, by Johnnie. when we got
up the morning of the 9th we had to
thaw 'em out to get 'em on. It kept get
ting colder and colder, and at 10 O'clock
Thursday morning it began to snow.
Say, but it did blow and snow; Dick
care a cent for the cold, so he ordered
the boys out for dress parade.
1T was awful. The snow drifted into
the crevices of their breast-plates and
leg guards and iron shoes till every man
was a walking snow blockade. But Dick
wanted to make the Dutch dog chain ar
NOR look sick-wanted to show Reddy
that his job-lot armor was good for all
kinds of weather, sort of general purposes
armor. and he put us through the Knight
Templars' drill and the fire drill and the
X. of Z. and Sicilian circle and the cheat
or swing and the 'ring-around-t he-rosy.'
and all the rest of it. But saw old Red
dy. who was looking on, wink the other
eye. and one of his head men rode off to
our camp. ! say | noticed this at the
time. but l didn't think of it until after.
well, the rime frost was a-gatherin'
on their breast-plates and arm covers and
sheet-iron helmets and hauberks of ourn
an inch deep, and the thermometer was
getting down deeper and deeper in the
tube. When we broke ranks and went
back we could see the steam come up
from under them iron reast-plates and
through the bars i'll our visors like the
steam coming out of man-hole of a
sewer on a cold morning. 1t was awful.
The snow had drifted through the slashes
IN our boots an we had to empty 'cm out
before the track was Open"
The slate was read and erased and the
pencil began again.
Il was pulling through an extra deep
cut going back to camp. when l spies a
lady who had on one of the new high
DICK. he was going on ahead of me, and |
saw nm bracing up to make Il killing bow
He felt hurriedly all over his armor to
see that it wasn't wrinkled nor unbuck-
led any place-he was such skeezicks
among the women that way-antl as she
went by he Tipped his hand up to his
iron helmet, that was covered with an
her the hand didn't come. Froze fast!
ana the lady she huns as she passes
Where Did You Get that Hat" /
thought the Lion Heart would just burst
his brcastplate, he was that mad. But
ne pretended that was the way he al
ways done, says the best people was
all doing that way'-hol1ing their fingers
thNIr hall
didn't say nothing. 1t wasn't my cue
to come in. SO I just helped the old
man up the palace steps and pulled out
to tell the boys
A new slate was brought and the mar
rative went on.
you 'spose 1 found? Weather cold. mind
you, way down to 20 degrees below. and
still dropping. found that the whole
blamed army of English crusaders in their
job lot baseburner armor leaning M
against one another, not able to bulge.
| There they was, wloopn' and ho]lerin'
for some one, to come and take the base
They couldn't. They pcrspircd on the
| road and melted some of the snow. and
that, with the rust of the night before,
had froze tight as Il rock. They cOuldn' t
move or they'd fall over.
There they stood stacked up like fire
sale OF Old iron, and the snow drifting in
| and packing down harder in ting cracks of
! the armor plate every minute. / was still
| in working order, SO l sets out to find the
| blacksmith. w hen found him lie was
silly drunk, adroppin' the last monkey.
wrench on the whole Europeans continent
into hole in the ice on the river, which
he'd cut to see if the fish wouldn't bite.
! The goose grease, which we used to linn
Der up the hinges of the army. when they
crna oil had como 0ho0d ,Of tho ,ronko1,
J wrench. And there we was. TenatfNl
: and men or so froze in the armor, and
nothing to turn nut or bolt nor to loosen
! hinge, and the blacksmith 50 drunk he
! couldn't tell straight from horizontal
At this the corner Of the slate creaked
to stimulate chuckle that Mr.. Potts de.
sired to make vocal. Then the story went
ON. @ LIZA Z: r - ~
Il. "Well, done all could / pulls out
and tells Old Dick, and also tells him
B that L thought old SReddy. the Dutcl
/ King, had did 1t BY getting his head mar