The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1898-07-25
Picked Up by
The Wanderer

There is a great, glorious American
eagle in Anaconda, who would a good
deal rather be a common, low-down
barnyard hen than the national bird of
freedom. The eagle in question, in
stead of screaming loudly in honor of
the triumphs of the American arms, is
about the most detected. dispirited and
forlorn eagle that ever was. Let the
eagle scream is a hollow mockery and a
farce so far as he is concerned. and he
does not have a very high opinion of
his position as the emblem of liberty.
For the eagle that is here talked about
Is a captive. He cannot soar with out
stretched wings DER the mountain tops.
because he is cooped up in a little bit
of a box about two feet square. Neither
can he scream the national scream be-
cause his disgrace is heavy pom him.
and he is sore at heart. While his
brother eagles are being written about
and talked about, this eagle must con-
tent himself with sitting on a perch all
day and gazing hopelessly at the wide
expanse of space through a yard of
poultry netting from the window of a
beer saloon.
To add to the indignities which have
been heaped pom the glorious emblem
of liberty, there is a card nailed on the
eagles box which informs the public:
This eagle for sale"
The eagle has been in the box in the
window of the beer saloon for a long
time. He is getting pretty tired of
1t. h eagle wouldn't? He wants
to get out and soar and scream with his
brother eagles at Manila and Santiago
and Porto Rico. The prospects for the
freedom of the emblem of freedom are
pretty slim, however, and ii Is a pretty
safe bet that he would trade his Job of
representing the glorious American lib
erty for a job scratching sand in some
farmers back yard:
About three months ago one night at
a council meeting, Alderman Ed Devine
made a motion to instruct the water
committee to ooh into the matter of
erecting half a dozen public drinking
fountains in Anaconda. Mr.. Devine
made quite a speech, eXtolling the ben
efits that such drinking fountains would
confer upon the thirsty inhabitants of
Anaconda. Mr.. Devine said that Ana
conda was going to have a lot of pic
mics this year, and that there wasn't
any place in town where people could
get a drink of water without asking
somebody for 1t. Several other alder
men agreed with Mr.. Devine that drink
ing fountains would be a mighty long
step in the right direction.
Since the night upon which Alderman
LEVINE SpIuHB the lOuHldlH proposition
there have been a good many council
meetings. but the fountains have not
yet appeared. The summer is here.
There have been some picnics. and there
will be more. Will the crowd that at
tend these picnics and the people of
Anaconda generally drink from public
drinking fountains this year or not?
What do o think?
Talking about fountains, public foun-
tains, especially, brings TO mind the
fact that Anaconda has a public drink
ing fountain. The public fountain that
Anaconda has is located in the city hall.
The fountain is all right. and the cup
that hangs on a nail by it's side is all
right but a man or a woman has got
to be pretty expert to get a drink out
of 1T. The fountain is located just out
side the police court room, and ii is a
fountain whose inconsistency is remark
able. 1t has off days and it has days
that are not off. One day 1t gushes
forth a strong stream of pure crystal
elixir. and then for a week ii will send
out the puniest, sickliest little trickle
anybody can ina CINE. II takes a
about 10 minutes to catch a half
way decent drink of water when the
is in its normal condition, and
people who want a drink of water down
at the city hall set the cup under the
II iChlcs Hptiu NAH an nbuI III rams
acting their business, and when they
get through there is a pretty fair sized
drink in the cup Maybe there is no
way to regulate the flow of the foun-
tain. and maybe there is. Who can
tell? Suppose somebody tried to regu-
it.
There is a phraseology for about
every sport and game that was ever in
a man who had never heard
any baseball shop" talk wouldn't nave
a very good idea of wha a lot of base
ball players were talking about. 1t is
the same with football and everything
else. But of all the atrocities inflicted
the uninitiated, the ak one hears
about a card table where a game of
slough" is in progress, is the worst.
A lot of printers were playing slough
in a card room down town the other
day, and two men who didn't under
tand the game were looking On. At
conclusion of the playing of a hand
wherein there had evidently been some
mistakes made, one of the players ex-
why didn't you lead that spade and
his dink, so ! could have come back
led through him with the king? In
stead of that, you let him slough all his
clubs -"
Good Lord said one OF the specta-
tors, what's that Teller talking about?"
Choicest line OF WHISTLES in the CITY