The Anaconda standard., 1895-03-05
TOM RAISED HIGH JINKS
And MiSsOula Vas All Torn Up
Yesterday. loe
WASHDAY AND NO WATER
Manager Mcleod Did a Very Un-
popular Thing Yesterday and
He VIII Need a Bodyguard %
for a Week or So. r

MIssoULA, March 4.-The University
City has been all torn up to-day. The ex-
element over the Johnson trial is insig-
nificant compared with the conditions
that have prevailed here to-day. 1t has
been a memorable date in the history of
Missoula. There has been hurrying to
and fro; telephones have been ringing
vIo emily all day; men have worn an anx-
ious look; women have appeared with
white faces and angry brows; homes
where domestic tranquility usually reigns
have been upset; business men who usu-
ally take lunch in their own pretty dining
rooms, with their wives, have eaten sau-
sage, rye bread and caviar at some beer
hall and have resumed their labors in n
very uncomfortable state of mind, and
the whole business and domestic routine
of the city has been upset.
In accordance with the ancient custom
which prevails all over the civilized world,
Monday is observed in this city as wash
day. That starts tho week off right and
makes everything run smoothly until Sat-
urday night. 1t is really a commendable
practic and one which should not be al
lowed to lapse into inocuous desuetude.
1t stamps tho town where ii exists as a
modern community and no amount of
booming can create the same impression
of a town that is produced 10y the sight of
long lines of snowy linen drying in the
afternoon sun, when Monday mornings
scrubbing is over and the housewIferests
from the rub-rub-rub of the early hours of
the day.
But the bright, warm sun of this after
noon, which struggled through heavy
clouds at 10 o'clock in the forenoon in or
der to be ready for his weekly drying du-
ties. looked in vain for something to dry.
On lines where Monday afternoon usually
finds yards and yards of clean linen, not
n shirt or towel Tapped to-day in the fresh
spring breeze. All the weeks wash lay
mildewing in the tubs where II was put to
soak last night and housewives have
wrung their hands when they should have
been wringing clothes and their angry tears
have dripped to the floor, winch should
have been dampened by the dripping
from the wash tubs. Tempers have been
rufn ii that are usually calm as an inland
lake and men who never drink have to-
day sought consolation in red liquor for
the woes of housekeeping without water.
The whole trouble lay with Manager
Tom Mcleod OF the water company. He
shut off the water from the whole city this,
morning in order TO make some repairs to
his pipe line. This would have been all
right if he had only let the people know
that he intended to violate Monday in
such a manner, but he didn't, and The con-
sequences have been severe. When he
first came down town this morning he
found an angry lot of citizens waiting for
him. He thought that 1t was a good joke
and turned them away with his blessing.
But the outraged people of the town would
not listen TO blesslngs-not while they
were in the cursing business-and they
kept coming. Finally, Mr.. Mcleod began
to realize the seriousness of the condition
of affairs and, at IL o'clock, drove out to
to the reservoir, where he has remained in
secusion all day.
The day has been indeed a rocky
one. 1t will not be forgotten in many
moons. 1t has been n day of general
gloom and depression. A stranger in tho
city would infer that the bottom had
dropped out of boom, so glum have
been the faces on the streets. But it was
not that; it was simply wash day without
water, an experience that a town never
wants to go through more than once.