The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1895-10-16
HOW HE DIVIDED IT.
A STORY OF A SYRUP MAKER.
Seth BottOmly Writes an Interest
in Letter.

There is a great deal of political justice
dealt out unwitt:ngly in this world. I
can best illustrate my meaning by relat-
ing a story:
farmer to make up sorgum syrup, then
new industry in this country. This was
in the southwest corner of Wisconsin,
The man l was working for had got the
reputation of making the best syrup of
any man in the neighborhood, but even
he could not make good syrup out of poor
cane. But as it is with butter, no farmer
would admit that his cane was poor, so my
employer was greatly annoyed by the
questions,-"W is not my syrup as
good as Farmer Jones'?' "How is it
my. cane did not yield as we'll as
Smith's?" etc. Now Brown was, in the
main, an average honest man, and did
about the fair thing by his patrons, but
nevertheless, it must be admitted that he
went by Solomon's standard of honesty.
BE not overly righteous" rather than
the Golden Rule" He worked the cane
up on sharcs,-half and half, measuring
it out with gallon measure 1 did not
doubt his honesty, and should not have
found out that he always took the first
gallon at every sugering off, if he had not
aroused my suspicion by getting off the
stereotyped question, 'S-e-t-h''-he
was Of New England extraction-"wh
gets the first gallon, or Mr.. Robinson?'
1t is hardly necessary to add that the
verdict was always in favor of himself
Of course we had all kinds of cane
brought to us to work up, but the very
worst lot was that of a big bull-necked
burly farmer named L. The cane was
neither topped nor stripped, this gives the
syrup a dark color, and a bitter taste,
besides wasting the juice by the tops and
leaves carrying it into the refuse. Mr..
L. got all the syrup his cane made, for it
was not tit to use, except to make vim
egar of. But the spirit of justice was
lowering about that sorgum pan, crying
for vengeance. 1t came in the person of
Mr.. l.. who one day drove into the yard,
deliberately ted up his horses, took off
his coat, and turning purple with rage,
began to show his knowledge of all the
curse words in the English language at
the same time chasing Mr.. B. around the
sorgum pan. When I thought he had
given value in terror and humiliation for
every gallon of syrup he had pilfered
from other farmers, interfered, told Mr.
L. he had got all there was in the cane,
etc. He finally got into his wagon and
drove away, still declaring that if Mr. 3.
had not robbed him, he was a thief and
rogue and was robbing others.
O. :
since gathered that the Burdick, whom |
charged with joining the Farmers ALI
ance and then leaving it, for a consider
alton, was not our B. C. but another
'Burd'' of the same feather. 1t could
hardly be expected, except nature had
endowed me with supernatural power,
that l could imagine nature could have
produced two such abortons in the same
state. Still, in naming R. C.-Cockle-
burr Dick-I christened better then
knew. for find his father-in-law to be
the Right Hon. lite Barnacle Becker,
ward of Cute Nelson, and chief of our
railroad commissioners. My informant
in setting me right on this poine, said I
had merely struck him in the wrong
place, but had done him no Injustice
Yet as it seems to have sins enough of hia
own to answer for I do not want to charge
him with those he never committed, hence
this threshing over of old straw
Neither did do "t'other'' Burdick any
injustice. He did below like a bull calf,
and strangely enough, it was a bull calf,
presented to him by Jim Hill, that dryed
him up. He left the Alliance, as l
stated, and was for some time faithful
subject of Jims, but after awhile the
calf died, and as am informed he joined
our forces again.
All true Alliance men Will be sorry to
hear of this. 1t is such time servers as
this who have hurt the cause so much.
But we ought to be thankful that this is
a world of compensations. for if we were
afflicted with one Burdick, we escaped
the other. SETH BOTTOMLEY.