The Mena star., 1898-03-09
Our Venture and Its Failure.
BY CHARLES ADAMS.
TN MY native town it has been tn,

IN MY native town it has been the
 custom for many years to print n a pamphlet, called the Town Report, a Hist of the delinquent taxpayers. Each uame is usually followed by some brief remark by the selectmen, explaining why the tax cannot be collected. The following are typical entries
 James Jones, poor and sick"
 William Smith. whereabouts un- Known"
 Richard Smith, cannot be found."
 ~Luke Clay, absconded."
 ~'Abram Lord, i'll and town charge"
 It is not list in which any body with spark of personal pride would like to see his name. Indeed it must be fatal to self-respect so to be held up year after year to public disapprobation. And the wrath may be imagined with which the llinsfolk of the delinquent citizen read their decent name in the black listi
 Among the names which appear there regularly is that of Burnside Berry, and ft is usually followed by the con Temptuous words: ''Loafer and worth less"
 ! Burnside Berry's tax record possesses -more Interest for me perhaps than for others; for when I was boy he was my neighbor and schoolmate.s "Burny," as we called him,was an impetuous, warm hearted fellow who was always invent ing or trying to invent something or other. Studious and dreamy. he had. I Fhink, in large measure the true invent five temperament, but he lacked persIs- hence.
 Of all his contrivances I remember with good reason his windmill boat especially well.
 Burnside and and boy named Her man Day had begun to attend the Nor well academy. with the half-formed purpose of fitting for college. We were all extremely poor. and had to resort 10 various expedients for earning money while at the academy.
 One of these was to prepare stove wood, which could be taken down the lake into Norwell village in boat and sold for enough to pay our weekly ex- Penses.
 Our homes were in the northern part of the town, seven miles from the academy. The lake, long. narrow sheet Of water, extends nearly the entire length of the town. At the foot of the lake is a large manufacturing village. Eifteen or twenty years ago, when we were at the academy. the people of the village had not begun 10 use coal as fuel. but depended on wood drawn from the northern part of the town. cord of seasoned dry wood sold usually for four dollars or four dollars and a half, but if sawed and split into stove-wood it was worth from five to six dollars.
 As the years passed. most of he wood fit for fuel. within five or six miles of the village. was used. In fact. only one large wood-lot remained on the shore of the lake. It was at the extreme north ern end, and was so surrounded by deep ravines that 10 reach it with teams was almost impossible. An effort had been made one winter to draw the wood to the village on the ice of the lake, but 4sspring heads" and other treacherous places in the ice. made the attempt a failure.
 Still another attempt had been made. by one Ladislaw, to transport the wood on clumsy flat boat, provided with a sail; but this method had also been found impracticable, owing 10 the nar- rowness of the navigable channel and &sthe number of different kinds of wind in a day. that were needed to sail the heavily laden craft. The abandoned boat lay aground at the head of the lake, near a rude log jetty where two or three cords of wood were piled
 Tn fact, the difficulty of getting the wood to market from the Squire Frost lot" as 1t was called. was so great that the owner was forced to offer the wood for sale at 35 cents, stumpage, cord.
 Such was the condition of the wood