The Bellefontaine Republican. [volume] (Bellefontaine, Logan County, Ohio) 1855-1905, 1899-10-17
THE SEQUEL
To Commissioner Elders Long and
Dreary Ride.

One afternoon, not long since, Com
missioner Elder found himself in our
city, with desire to remain over night.
Why he desired to stay, we do not
know, but it was probably the night be-
fore the day that Commissioner EastOn
was to take his place as President of
the Board, and he wished to sit up with
| the Presidency,to look at it and admire
it, and get the last drop of sweetness
out of its last lingering hours. But be
that as it may, he wanted to stay bad.
And the more he wanted to stay the
bladder he felt about it,.
But he had left home with promise
to be back in time to feed the pigs and
milk the cows, and look after the gen.
eral welfare of the family, and he
couldn't think of going back on his
promise. So he hurried out into the
street, and for two hours craned his
neck, and stretched his legs, and bang
ed store doors, in hopes of catching
some neighbor, by whom he could send
word to his family that he wouldn't be
home.
For if he didn't make his appearance
his good wife would worry-frst her.
self, and then him-and the family
might think he had been waylaid, or
that his horse had run off and left him
a dead corpse lying by the wayside, Or
| well, in fact, in such cases there is no
telling what people might think.
So he soliloquized to himself, SIT
won't do; must find some way of send
ing word home, or I must go myself" !"
So he hurried around looking for man,
that he couldn't find, till the shades of
evening gathered, and he had to go and
hitch up and start on a long, dreary
twelve-mile drive, with not cent of
mileage in it.
The nights were cool then; so he
wrapped himself up in his horse blanket
and his meditations, and logged along.
Many familiar scenes on the road loom
ed up to keep him awake, and that sad
dest of all refrains, sit might have
been," if he could only have found some
one to send word home by, ran through
his mind.
where several poor fellows have had the
life crushed out of them, and got safely
away from the D. L. & N. without be-
ing run over by the night express;
| fo1x dain for, hoy fl,o
will-o'-the-wisp are often seen at night
lsqueezing the juice out of milk weeds;
and on past the old Mcpherson fort,
casting a lingering look at the In
irmary, without meeting a man or a
ghost. Flat Branch was passed, and
the ghost of the good Indian that lies
| buried on the banks of ''Cherkee Mans
Run," ratified his bones as J. K. crossed
the bridge, but he looked neither to the
right nor the left. Absorbed in the
thought of how all this might have been
avoided, if he could only have sent word
home, he logged along-''go long, go
Hong; go long, go long; git up! git up.
whack. whack! with the whip, and he
whirled through Huntsville, passing the
Ipublic pump without even letting the
poor horse have sniff of water, and on
out the Lima road as if his house was
on fire, and he like Sheridan,
twenty miles away. Then he unused
lover the pike. How he and his father
and his brother had worked on that
pike when it was built, hauling gravel
and paying taxes, and opening out one
of the best sections of the county fol
: cultivation; and how many times he
, trotted in and out over that pike, court
| ing his girl, goin' to meetin', and car
| rying Logan county on his back!
J And finally he reached the reservoir
| and heard the splash of the big bas!
: jumping out of the water, he turned
} into the lane, put up his horse, entered
} the house, struck light, and there, the
/ first thing he saw staring him in the face
, WAS THE TELEPHONE CONNECTING HIN
WITH BELLEFONTAINE, WHICH HE Hal
HAD PUT IN A FEW WEEKS BEFORE!
Then he thought of how he had gon,
around among his neighbors near ant
far, whenever he had an idle day, tell
ing them WHAT A HANDY THING I,
WAS TO HAVE A TELEPHONE IN TIL
HOUSE!
And he has been ashamed to look
telephone in the face, ever since!