The Owosso times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1897-1926, 1899-03-17
RATIFIED HIS GIRLS.
NOVEL SCHEME or A FINLAND FARM
GR IN WISCONSIN.

Drawing IN Amusing Scene.
The Finnish settlement. q few miles
south Of Maple, Wis.,, has been In .
state Of great excitement over q re-
markable succession of events. Tners
are about two hundred residents In the
ssttlemsnt-all farmers. thrifty and
nearly all In comfortable circumstan-
COS. There II q large surplus Of un-
married young men In the community
and scarcity of manageable young
women, 80 that every female old
enough to be courted receives the at
tentions Of from one to dozen rival
lovers. A widowsr named Hanes Dorf-
kis Is one of the settlers, and has been
living, since the death of his wife. with
three pretty daughters In q little log
house somewhat removed from the
main settlement. Lately Dorfkis met
with a number of revsrses which Grip
pied him financially, 70 that while his
neighbors saw plenty on hand the old
man saw starvation looking into the
faces of himself and three daughters.
Something must be done and the wary
old Finlander set to thinking out q
scheme for replenishing his depleted
sxcbequer.
The old man, Dorflkie, held a confer
once with his three daughters, and I'M
folded to them his plan for making
money. He proposed at first to have
an auction, and to sell them, one by
one, to the highest bidder, but the
young women shrank from such q bar
porous suggestion, though they signi.
aed their willingness to acquiesce In
any legitimate scheme of money maxi
Ing that the father might devise. At
last the old gent thought It might be
q good scheme to have q raffie, and 20
informed the three dutiful young wo-
men.
So It was whispered about tho neigh
borhood that Farmer Dorfkie had de-
cided to raffle of his daughters, and
the day later the whisperings were
confirmed, for Mr.. Dorfkie himself ap-
peared among the people with q bas-
ketful of pasteboard cards, upon each
of which the information was con-
tanned that the holder thereof was en-
titled to one chance on ona or another
of the three maidens fair. The tickets
went like hot cakes at 81 apiece, and
within q few days the loving father
had exchanged his basketful Of paste
boards for q like measure of shining
silver and gold.
The day came for the great event
and the schoolhouse was packed to
tho outer door with men, women and
children. Two hundred and fifty tick
cts upon each girl had been
sold, and the arrangements was
that each prize should be dis
posed of separately under the aus
pices Of a committee selected out Of
the audience. Tickets numbered to
correspond with those sold were placed
In one box and another box contained
$40 blanks and one number marked
"Prize." Lwo young girls were then
selected to preside over the boxes, and
the drawing commenced, the tickets
being removed from both boxes stimuli
taneously until the lucky number drew
the prize. For half an hour the audi
ence sat In suspense, while the two
girls slowly withdrew the numbers
and compared them, under the vigilant
eyes of the committeeman, but at last
the number 115 was responded to by
the exclamation "Prizel" and the first
rattle was over. Then followed wild
skirmish for the holder OF the lucky
ticket, and when found he was carried
natured crowd. The holder of the
winning ticket proved to be thrifty
young man of the settlement, who had
long sought for the hand of the cid
est daughter, Hulda, whose husband he
was now to become.
Next came the rafile for tho second
daughter, a rosy-cheeked lass Of twen-
ty-two summers. This time the win
| r,fv ktalx nk hal h. -
richest men In the town. but unfortu-
nately, he was married man with
large family. This caused q long delay
In the proceedings, during which the
entire audience entered into q heated
discussion az to what disposition
should be made Of tho ticket, but 1t
was finally agreed that the lucky mum.
Der should besold at auction then and
there. This was done, and, after con-
siderable bidding, Miss Minnie, the SEQ
ond daughter, became the prospective
bride of q middle-aged widowsr, who
paid $50 for the prize,
Then came the raffie for the young
est daughter, and things were pro-
crossing smoothly enough, when an er-
ror was discovered which caused
bitter alteration between two ticket
holders, and came near precipitatinS
. free-for-all fight among the specta-
tors. Through carelessness the win.
ming number had been duplicated, and
there were two claimants for the hand
OF daughter No. 8. At length a gen.
erai row was avertsd, however. by the
adoption of happy suggestion. The
two claimants resorted to a game OF
freeze out" for determination Of the
matter, and for two hours they sat at
q card table, surrounded by an excited
crowd OF friends, manipulating the
pasteboards for q bride. Slowly the
stack of chips in front Of the unlucky
player dwindled to q paltry few, and
at last his opponent swept the board,
and the game was decided In favor of
A young man named Gustav Johnson,
who labors by the day on the farm Of
his father.
True to their promise the three
daughters allowed themselves to be
led to the altar by the three lucky
winners.
A Unique Postefaes.
A curious postoffice. the smallest,
simplest and best-protected postofacs