Kansas City journal. [volume] (Kansas City, Mo.) 1897-1928, 1898-01-04


Take your hides to Asher's'' is the
gruesome admonition contained in an adj
vertisement in a Northwest Missouri pa
per.
Even the industry of marrying and CIV
Ing in marriage showed a 10 per cent gain
in prosperous Nodaway county during 1897,
as compared with the record Of the prev
ious year.
A Maysville veteran, w. S. Gourlay, has
been awarded a medal as a surviving men,
Der of the SiXtieth New York infantry, a
regiment that made a gallant record at
Gettysburg.
MIR. unsell is a prominent figure in a
Boonville mercantile establishment. His
services. probably. are in especial demand
just after the close of the holiday trade
when the exchange of the misfit presents
begins.
Concerning the real estate transfers in st.
Joe last year, the News makes this re-
markable statement: The real estate trans
fers for the year ending December 81, 1897,
amounted to S17. sos. 1905 This is an in
crease of $50 115.3 over 1886.
A Maryville chap with an appetite for
b'o 10 ~ 3 ~ till lllS ClS ~
OF the snow that fell during December on
the six square miles of territory embraced
within that towns municipal limits was
equal to that of Is, 62O seventy-ton loco
motives.
Colonel Switzler denies that he and War
rem used the finger language during the
recent visit of his goldbug son in Boom
Vile. Each recognized" the colonel says,
that the other had a right to his opinion
and each was tolerant of this right, and
hence the pleasant reunion of father and
son was carried on in faultless English,
with occasional classical Illustrations which
lent an attractive tinge to their conversa-
tion."
Ash Grove appears to be without n Ma
sonic lodge. The Commonwealth publishes
this rather unique item: 1.-THE trouble in
the Masonic lodge has been permanently
settled. The charter which was temporar-
lily arrested has been permanently sus-
pended. This is unfortunate for the lodge
and greatly to be regretted by those who
love the principles of Masonry and appre-
ciate the good it has done and can do.
When this trouble first came up the Com
monwealth referred to some of the causes
which led up to the arrest Of the charter.
There were evil influences at work and did
NV I " S'y w. "S u
does not print this now to humiliate any
body, but as a matter of news, news which
shows we were right in the charges made.
We repeat publicly what we have said in
private, that a mar must be a gentleman
before he can be a Mason"
No doubt many who have examined the
map of the state of Missouri have observed
the curved little appendage, SO to speak,
which runs down into Arkansas at the
extreme southeast corner of the state. and
have wondered why this variation was
made from what are otherwise straight
boundary lines. The explanation is a we'll
authenticated tradition, but is not given in
any history. II is as follows: When the
boundary lines were determined on in 1890,
and the southern line-which, by the way,
was the famous Missouri compromise line.
over which was fought the first battle be-
tween the advocates of slavery and free
~soil-there lived just south of the line a
gentleman of much prominence and influ-
ence in Missouri named John Walker. Colo
mel Walker. an uncle of the late Auditor
Walker, who died not long ago in Howard
county-did not relish the idea of being left
out of the new state and becoming a citi-
zen of the territory of Arkansas, and for
t~unately he possessed influence enough to
enable him to prevail on the commissioners
to so defect the boundary line as to take
him into the state. The territory thus in
closed embraces Pemiscot county entire
and nearly the whole of Dunklin.
William Best, a resident of Atlanthus, in
Gentry county, who, although 81 years old,
is as sprightly and vigorous as many a
man of half his age, enjoys the distinc-
ton of being next to the oldest. if not
actually tho oldest 1ocOnotiye enoipnar IN
the United States. having handled the
lever and throttle on an engine between
Philadelphia and Trenton in 1885. The
wages Mr.. Best says, in an interesting
talk in the Albany Ledger. were $50 a
month at that time, but ii was very dam
Serous work. The track was constructed
of cross ties. with wooden sleepers laid
along them. and strips of iron fastened TO
the sleepers with spikes. These spikes
often worked loose and stuck up an inch
OF two above the rails. These they called
snake heads" Once while they were run
ming at n pretty fair rate of speed. a
drive wheel got entangled in some snake
heads and the fiange was wrenched
off and flew right up into the cab and Mr..
Best narrowly missed quitting the railway
business for good. then and there. After
he did quit. he was sought by Baldwin,
the pioneer locomotive builder in this coun-
Try, 10 go Win an engine 10 the south
and run it. as it was customary for the
manufacturer to send an engineer with
each engine in those days. He did not
SO. however, but came West and engaged
in other pursuits. lie has been in Gentry
county since 1865.
The first Anglo-American to visit Gen.
trail Missouri was a land surveyor and
hunter named Ira Nash. He left Femme
Usage. a settlement in st. Charles county
and came up the Missouri river by land to
what is now Howard county in the spring
of 1904. a few months before Lewis and
Clark assembled the river. He came alone
OF his first trip. but returned the follow
ing season with several companions. While
Nash was entitled to the honor of recog-
milton as the pioneer of Central Missouri
and the first explorer of what was then a
vast wilderness, he was in many respects
an Infamous character, and his name de-
serves to be forgotten. Among other crimes
of which he was accused was that Of muir.
dering his wife. She died a violent death,
and, while he never was convicted of hav.
ing caused 1t, the early settlers believed
that he killed her. He was a man of some
education and a skiliful penman. After
the New Madrid earthquake QslD which
submerged and destroyed so much valuable
land in Southeast Missouri, the government