The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1899-03-22


ton $500 for the privilege, was little
| anxious to get out there on time and go
| to work. You understand, of course,
| that grating is managed on strict bust
| ness principles. Every man that was
| with me received fixed salary, and
| could depend upon him to turn over to
me all that he got from the suckers.
As l say, it was long jump from Penn
| sylvania to Iowa, and we didn't reach
our town until the second day of the
| fair. l got bite of breakfast and hur-
ried out to the grounds ahead of the
boys, so as to pick out some cappers to
start the games. l hurried into the
grounds, and saw four or five Reubs
| standing together in front of lemon
| ade stand, so hauled them to one side
and said 10 them. Here! There's go
| ing TO be fellow out here pretty soon
selling buggy whips. He'll be in an
| open carriage. AS soon as he finishes
his talk each one of you fellows go UP
| and buy whip for So. As soon as YOU
| do that my agent in the crowd will put
| So more in your pocket, and you can
| keep that Well, | gave them the mon
| ey, and hustled off to pick out place
| for the wheel. In little while saw
my man with the buggy whips drive in
and begin to draw crowd, but wasn't
paying much attention to him until ]
| heard lot of bowling and laughing
| over his way, and then one of the boys
| came running up to me with his eyes
| bullying out: Say, where did you get
them boosters" he says. told him ]
picked 'em out down by the gate. We'll,
he says, the crowd won't stand for 'em.
They're all from the insane asylum
across the road / hurried over to the
crowd, and sure enough, here were the
pluggers with their So bills and my boy
| up in the carriage so mad he couldn't
see. Get 'em away!' he hollered at
me. They're all daffy.' Then 1 no.
riced for the first time that all these fell
lows had straw hats and linen coats
just alike, and wore these carpet slip
pers. l had an awful time dragging
'em away, and they came mighty near
queerin' the graft for all day. When the
boys from the crazy house began to
butt in and buy whips at So apiece the
farmers knew something was wrong.
There must have been 200 of the
boys from the insane asylum on the
grounds that day. They stood around
everywhere blocking off good money.
and, of course, they were all dead ones.
not having 10 cents apiece. The ladies
of the Methodist church were serving
meals in the dining pavilion out at the
fair grounds, and when 1 went over tic
get my dinner l told the woman who
was taking tickets that | was the new
chaplain over at the asylum. She said
she was little nervous, having all these
crazy people on the grounds, and then
told her that one of 'em had stolen
saw and got under the grand stand and
was saving down the support when we
caught him. / told her that in 10 min.
utes more the whole stand would have
fallen in and killed hundreds of peo-
pie.
"About an hour later | happened to
be going past, and L went over and told
her that one of the patients had just
tried to set fire to the floral hall. Then
little while after that 1 called in and
said: 4 s'pose you heard what hap
pened over in the chicken department"
She said she hadn't heard word about
it. Why 1 says 'one of the men from
the asylum just chased little girl and
nearly bit her thumb off, Well, she
was up in the air.
ga little while before supper time
went in and said to her: I'm going to
bring one of the patients in here to sup
per- You'll see him come in with me.
He's tall man with black mustache,
and he's all right as long as he don't
drink any coffee. He always asks for
coffee-that's his mania-but if he
drank cup of coffee he'd begin to rave
in less than five minutes. When he asks
for coffee don't pay any attention to
him. Now, there's another thing. This
man is kleptomaniac. He'll steal any
thing he can lay his hands on, so you
want to watch him while he's here
'In little while l came in with one
of my men, a fellow named Eddie, and
one of the best in his line. He was
fiend for coffee-drank it all the time.
When he sat down three of the women
came and stood across the table from
him, watchin' every move he made.
Eddie thought they were stuck on him.
He was swelled up there like toad in
thunderstorm.
'The first thing he called for was cof-
fee. Nobody paid any attention TO him.
They brought him milk. He told the
woman to take it back and bring him
some coffee. She took the milk away,
but no coffee would she bring. He
asked everybody around the place for
coffee, and all the satisfaction he got
was to see them line up and watch him
en- that he wouldn't steal ANYTHING. AT