The age-herald., 1898-02-06
TRUE STORY OFS~@
 STATE QUARANTINE
-BY THOMAS HfRDEE=
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 but Fate had better things in store for me. had determined upon making trip that day, so l secured my horse and buggy, and took to the country, and while passing out of the town, noticed that quarantine notices were posted in every conspicuous spot from one end of town to the other
 I arrived back from my trip late in the evening" and being exhausted from an all day buggy ride, I went to my room, where I retired. The next morning at breakfast I learned that the mayor and his board or aldermen had quarantined against few more places, and that every town in all the counties adjoining the one in which Reed- land was situated had quarantined against Reedland. Here I in pretty mess. I couldn't get out of Reedland, and if l did manage to get out I couldn't get back; so I decided to stay where I was. There were only two consoling thoughts; one was that there was pretty girl in the hotel, and the other that there was bar room, and the barkeeper subscribed to a daily paper.
 I was destined to disappointment when anticipated long and delightful Iours to be spent in reading the daily paper, for 1 had counted largely upon this to spend my time, as all of it was now spare time. The mayor and his bord of aldermen met upon the third night of the quarantine, and de- cided to stop the trains from putting off the mail. Things began to look serious now.
 was away from my family. and they were near Mobile, the center of the yellow fever district, and I had been communi- eating with them daily for month, and here I was cut off from them except by wire. So I went to the railroad office and wired them to let me know how they were getting along. I paid the agent 90 cents to send this message, and he said the an- swer would, probably, not arrive until the next afternoon, as the road was short of men to handle the business.
 The superintendent of the Bucktown Southern railroad wired to the mayor of standardization was the Buck town Snuthern-ta meet him outside Of the city and arrange a reasonable quarantine system. The mayor wired him back that when "he wanted to see the superintendent, he would let him know about it.''
 The mayor and his board of aldermen met again that night and stopped the trains from coming into town, the order to take effect the next day. During the next morning a special train. consisting of one box car rolled into Reedland, bringing with 1t force of hands. They took everything in and around the depot that wasn't nailed to the floor and loaded 1t into the box car took out the telegraph instrument q have never received an answer to my telegraph, discharged the agent and left the town
  least bit of the outside world
 The authorities of the Bucktown Southern railroad gave as their reason for their &C., tion that Ion account of the fool quaran- tine measures adopted by your mayor, we do not care to do business with your town. We can live without it.''
 The mayor was severely censured for his foolish action in enforcing such rigid quar- antine measures; all agreed that he made an ass of himself, and that the present local quarantine law is so constructed that a few men can ruin a whole section of country for the time being by enforcing the jaw just because it is their z 'ivilege to do so There are lots of those kind of peo- pie on earth.
 < But law or no law. here I was. I was tied up at Reedland and there seemed to be no end of 1t. No mails. No trains No nothing. Business got dull. Things began to stagnate
 The merchants boycotted the railroad for standing up to it's rights, and exercis- ing them. They said they preferred haul ing their goods twenty miles through the country to letting the Bucktown Southern haul them free of charge. The truth is, they were all afraid of the mayor. Poor folks began to suffer. Meat began to give out at the stores Provisions of all sorts were growing scarce. But the peo- pie of Reedland were going to win, 50 they said.
 LII iiit iiitdHlIIDe. was SeillDS t-i ltTPu of the thing. I divided my time in the daytime between the pretty girl at the hotel and the barroom on the square.
 At night I generally played poker with the "natives'' in an old barn standing just outside of the public square,, and also played pool with the barlSeeper in the sa- loon. In these poker games there were never more than eight people and threa dollars I got out with $1.50 one night, but lost 1t the next night, and s more on tick"
 Once in while the mayor and one or two of his board of aldermen would indulge in tho game with us. We fixed ourselves against the grand jury by doing this. The mayor was also the grand jury whenever he chose to be.
 always tried to ''touch'' the mayor in these games but he would stay religiously out of the "pot' unless he had a .full house" or better. If he would lose as much as 50 cents, he would jump the game, so we had to deal gently with him in order to keep him in.
 Thus time wore on until one day. after two weeks of quarantine had passed miserable weeks--I noticed crowd con- gregated in front of the saloon. By "crowd" I mean any number over three, for that's a crowd down in Reedland. I joined them and saw that one of the num- Der had a newspaper in his hands, which he was reading aloud.
 This was the first paper I had seen for two weeks and over, and I determined to own it if possible. So I offered the man who was doing the reading 25~ cents for 1t, having seen by the headline that 1t was an Age-Herald. and he accepted my offer.
 How that paper got into the town, one has ever been able to explain, but 1t looked As If it had seen the worst end of dozen civil wars. so torn and worn was 1t from having passed through many hands. Evi- dently 1t had been entirely around the town from one family to another, for 1t was six days old, and parts of 1t were so black and soiied that could scarcely distinguish the reading matter. I spent hours with this paper reading and re-reading 1t, and at first was deliriously happy, SO eager was I for some communication with the outside world. But the paper didn't last always, and was soon in my former state.
 knew that if this thing lasted two, weeks longer, would have to be carried out of Reedland feet foremost. Even the custo- mary nightly game of poker was getting tiresome, and the smiles of the pretty girl at the hotel were growing lonesome, and the games of pool at the barroom were be-