The Cook County herald. [volume] (Grand Marais, Minn.) 1893-1909, 1898-02-19
JEREMIAH'S CRIME.

"Keturah, said Jeremiah, 1.-The
next time them boys knocks at our
door I'm goin' for 'em.''
Jeremiah said I, 81 couldn't
blame you ifyou did. They is things,
Jeremiah, "saysI, "that would make
a angel rise up and strike out, and
the conduck of them medicated stu
dents is ofthat sort. Once in q way"
says I; "we might put up with it.
But it is constant. Do your wust."
You may think jeremiah and me
severe, but you don't know what we
has had to put up with. jeremiah,
'he was a quiet man, and I was a
quiet woman. We had lived in the
same house thirty years, keeping our
little farm while the village growed
up about us. When the indicated
college was built they wanted to buy
our land, but we wouldn't sell. We
had what we wanted, and we hadn'
no children, and we didn't want to
save up for nobody: We was con-
tent, and kings can't be no more.
SO we said they must excuse us,
but we wouldn't sell. They was no
doubt plenty of folks that would.
And our words came truer than we
calculated, for old Uncle Pierce, he
went and sold his ground adj'ining
ON to ourn, and took and banked
the money, and went and boarded
with his son.
1t is we'll the future is not revela-
toned to us. We didn't think moth
in of his sellin' at first; didn't seem
as eff it would make no difrentz
whether there was a private house
Or a medicated college next to O urn
but as soon as it was built and NOV
ed into then we knowed.
When them young men that went
to be learned doctorin' into that
medicated college found time for to
study they knowed best. Most of
their evenin's was spent chasin'
round the village, playin' tricks on
honest folks, stealth signs and
pastin' up bills "to let,' putin
dead cats down wells, ringin' the
church bells in the middle of the
nights, hollerin ''fre" and murder
kissin' any gals they met alone in
the road, and tyin' string to knock
high hats off sabber day. You never
knowed what they was up to. They
il1etched poor Deacon Gravy onct
and made him dance jig in the mid
die of Hooker's woodses. They got
out their scalpulars, he said, and
got ready for to scalp him eff he stop:
ped, and SEEM he believed quadrilles
a sin, let alone jigs, it was hard on
him. More'n that, they stopped old
Miss Peechum goin' with basket of
eggs to the store, where she kinder
used to swap 'em off for things she
wanted, and sucked 'em all. To be
:sure they paid her for 'em, but they
.skeered her more than the moneys
worth.
In pint of fact them indicated
students upset the place more'n a
herd of buffalo run wild could hev
done, and when a committee called
son the folks that was head of affairs
to ask 'em to tend to the boys they
jest said that there was no putin
an end to these practica BILE Jokes in
none of the colleges nowhere. 1t was
something fearful the way they car
ried: on. and our house being nearest
by we caught it wuss than others.
+ When jeremiah made that there OBJ
seryation with which this here marry
tive commences we had had knocks
/ on knocks at all our doors and all
our windys mornin', noon and night.
We couldn't sot still for 'em; we'd
got to open the door. We couldn't
help that-might a been suthin' Pc
tickelar-and when we opened it
there warn't no one there. I used to
say to Jeremiah that if we had been
spirituelle we'd hev been Rochester
knockers in no time but as we warn t
we knowed it was them indicated
students and nobody, else. And Jer-
emiah had made up his mind for to
go for 'em, and he had cut himself a
real heavy, knobby stick, and there
was revenge into his eye, and the ex-
pression.of his mouth was skeertul.
"a He sot the cane ag'in' his cheer,
while we was eatin' our teas, SOS to
be ready tor 'em, but no knocks
came; and when we sot down arter-
ward, him to read the paper and me
to knit his stockings, none didn't
come neither. sTwasn't until s
clock one did sound onto the keep
in room door, and then jeremiah
was goin' to bounce out, but Istop.
ped him. 81
No, Jeremiah, saysI, mot yet,
mot until they've done it onct or
tWict. This may be a neighbor, and
EFF so you'd repent fyin at him as
81 ,,no as Won lived &. Z i