River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1895-04-04

compartments, ono leets Dy the time
the speaking begins like telling the rest
of the world to draw on him. There
fore, |, on my own motion, would never
gnote banquet speech'on anybody be-
cause / do not think Il is exactly tho
fair thing"
Another good story'is told by the
witty Mississippi state'sman. He was
elected to the Fiftieth congress by a
slim majority over his opponent, and it
was with much difficulty that he cap
tured the election and. maintained his
seat in the house.
During the first session of the Fiftieth
congress Mr.. Allen concluded that he
would spend the Christmas holidays at
Tupelo Several days after he had been
home while walking abbut the house he
sprained his ankle One day when he was
hobbling about the streets of the town
helping himself along with the aid of a
cane he was met by an old maid, a
friend of the family. who seemed very
anxious about his welfare and inquired
Of him why he was li'nping about in
that way
"oh." replied Allen. al got lame rum
hitH III NpilSiti-N 1t AiA- AdSb tlfNllOu.
During the extra session of the recent
congress which was called by President
Cleveland for the purpose of repeating
the Sherman silver purchasing act, Con-
|. gresham Allen made strong speech
on the monetary question. In conclu-
sion he said that the condition of the
country under existing legislation and
the proposed bill reminded him of the
story told of the farmer who went away
for visit and took his family with him
to see his relatives in the city. 1.-THE
affairs of the farm" said he, ''were left
in the hand of their ,trusty overseer,
Uncle Eben, who was, charged partic-
ularly by the farmer on his departure
that Uncle Eben must let him hear
often as to how things were going.
Daily letters were sent telling how
prosperous the crops were aud one day
Uncle Eben wrote as follows. Every
thing is all fine as usual. The horse,
Frank. has been sick With the CHAMBERS.
/ gave him the medicine as directed and
he Is now well of the disease, but he is
dying of the remedy"
Mr.. Allen said that that was the pre-
else condition in which the country was
lingering. 1t had recovered from the
results of the operation of the Sherman
Inv. but was suffering from the remedy
which was being given by the legisla-
tors In the house.
At banquet of the Gridiron club
one evening speaking'o the toast Our
Flag" Mr.. Allen said. when | was q
boy our flag was different from the flag
under which | now lovally live. 1t was
a confederate flag, and | was n young
confederate soldier. 1T was conceded
by everybody in the rebel armies that
was the bravcst private soldier in tho
ranks. On one occasion when battle
was raging. | charged whole rcgi-
ment of Yankees and iyas moving them
down with my saoer just as Samson
once moved down the Philistines with
the iawbonc of an ass, had them piled
knee deep around nae when Gen. Lee
rode mp to me in person and said: For
Heavens sake, john, stay your arm.
Do not turn noble Warfare into such
horrible butchery.' ineverq uailed be-
fore anybody in my fife. but out of re-
spcct to Gen. Lee | dcsisted and the
battle went ON.
"At the battle of nlissionar: Ridge l
was on the slcirmiSh limo with Bill
Jones, who had always been the bully
of the crowd of boys at school. But
Bill got scared that day. The Yankees
kept crawling close and closer to us,
and the bullets came very fast and
thick. so Bill and laid down behind
a half dozen rails which we tore out of
q fence. Bill said that was not man
of family and asked me TO lift my head
over the fence and see how close the
Yankees were getting. l replied: L
hain't got no family get, Bill, but l have
hopes; and Ill keep my head close to
the ground Just then the Yankees
sent a big shower of bullets over us
and into those rails when brown
thrush in a tall tree above began TO
sing. Bill was trembling with excite
ment and fear, and while lying on his
back. he looked upat the brown thrush,
and with quiveripg voice, said: oh,
birdie. birdie. IL | had your wings l
would not stay here and sing while the
Yankees are shooting so hard You
can see that Bill 4 ps something of a
coward. but | never got scared at bull
lets or cannon balls, or anything else
during the war" SMITH ID. FRY.