The Mena star., 1898-03-30
eooVr A TEAM OF GEESE
SoveI Descent of the Ohio River Falls Many Years Ago.

xoveI Descent of the Ohio River Ths FaIls Many Years Ago.
 -oL Harper was an odd man. He
 "a to Ohio Falls. Ind, from New s..tls, England, and was employed by sI M. & I. Railroad company in its 'n He was a good mechanic and s 5 of his fun. It was in the summer ts7n and there was to be a grand yo,rth of July celebration at old camp = uo1t. in which not only the shop
 an hut hundreds of others were to .aL. mart. The managers of the affair
 r.~e very anxious to make it a grand .,ccess. and for that purpose racked .be;r brains for novelties, but when Tack Harper proposed to tame team of .oe.e and attach them to a washtub. in
 gbich he proposed to sail down over the ,.nids of the Ohio, and land just be- low the picnic ground, they were par .lvyed. especially when he insisted that # could easily be done, and to prove his assertion began forthwith to train his nroposed team of four geese.
 Many of the persons who took inter- aet one way or another in the picnic are at;ll alive. and some of them reside at indianapolis. These will remember that Harper began to train his odd team on the quiet waters of the Ohio above the falls. He put queer, three-comered vokes upon the necks of the birds, and hy means of these attached them to his frail craft. He guided them by means of roins attached to their bills and a. long, straight switch. It took him nearly three months, and much pa- tience before he had his birds in trim. but the geese showed themselves much more intelligence and teachable than they generally get credit for, and the people of Jeffersonville had the satis- faction of knowing that in their city was the only four-goose team in the world.
 Long before tine Fourth of July the queer outfit was the talk of the three falls cities, and when the great day ar- rived there was a concourse of thou sands ut the picnic grounds waiting to see the novel Lohengrin descend the river. It was near noon when he launched his unwieldy bark from the Indiana shore at the government dam, and began his descent, the geese swim ming proudly ahead and drawing the teetery vessel in which Harper was bal ancing himself. The falls of the Ohio are not safe for a good well-manned boat, unless the crew understands the n be better imagined than told what a risk Harper ran in his washtub. But he bravely went on. keeping his geese, who swerved occasionally from the channel in the way they should go by means of his switch. He managed his team ad- mirably in spite of his uncomfortable and delicate position In the tub. and the crowd cheered him as he safely passed one danger point after the other, but as he swung around the bend to the deep and swift waters of the big eddy the wind rose to almost a gale and water began to dash over him and into his tub, and to make matters worse. the geese became unruly and would not obey his guidance.
 He must have been a coo-headed man not to have lost his head. but he did not, and with great effort and much coax ing and whipping he managed to turn his refractory team in shore and reached land safely amid the huzzahs Of the crowd. He was completely drenehed and worn out. Since then no one has attempted to descend the falls Of the Ohio in tub drawn by team Of geese.--N. Y. Dispatch.