The Oskaloosa herald., 1900-11-22

lift her from the pavement and haul
/ the senseless drunken body to Jail in
: dray.
"Have you husband9' asked His
i Honor.
, 1--WE got thing.'' Came the reply.
She then told plaintive story OF
, privation and abuse. Declared she
} had tried to live virtuous and up
right life and to take care of her two
J daughters in a motherly way. Swore
; she had never been intoxicated be-
fore, and was this time led astray by
an ambuscade set by coniying rela-
tives. So straightforward was her
talk, and so pleading her tones she
won the sympathy of the court and
all who heard her. Mayor Wray sent
her with a recommendation to the
board of supervisors, and they in
turn agreed to send her to relatives
in Missouri. She went away to pre-
pare for the trip and get her children
ready-but she did not come back.
The next day she turned up in a
drunken brawl at Muchakinock. Life
surely has many dark pictures and
the gloomiest panorama is to be seen
in police courts. Think of the home
that a woman of that kind with a
husband, who as she says,is drunken
and brutal, must make for two little
girls, one eight and one eleven. Here
is a problem for charity to solve, with
which Roustabout is at sea.
~ G
The burning of the Gold pork
house." or Iowa Manufacturing Com.
pany's Foundry, as it is known by
the people of today, at the corner
of Fifth avenue and 1st street, recalls
to Roustabout's mind the story of an
old saying that originated in this
city in an early day and came into
1t was common thing in the days
of the sixties to hear the comparison
"as crooked as Metz's path" and
thereby hangs tale on the origin of
the expression. A machinist named
Metz worked and roomed at the
foundry. He was fellow who was
given to the habit of taking a drop
or two too much once in a while.
One night he came to the city and,
falling in with some congenial COM
panions, spent the greater part of
the night in their company, and in
the course of the evening he took
aboard several in excess of his ca
pacity. During the hours of his en-
tertainment with the fellows, there
came heavy fall of snow, something
like two feet. The night Was dark
and the carpet of white hat com
pletely obliterated all trace of the
highway and bypath leading to
Metz's abode. There was no side
walk in that part of the town in
those days but Metz attempted to
follow the path that led by long
row of young shade trees to the
foundry. The snow was deep and
Metz very unsteady and uncertain in
his gait, but he started resolutely
through the storm to follow the row
of trees. He would go few feet tc
the right of this tree and few more
to the left of the next one, and he f.
nally succeeded in getting his trai
wound about and between all the
trees of the row. About the time
Metz arrived at his home the snow
ceased. The following morning the
: early riser from that part OF towI
followed Metz's tracks because it wal
easier to go in his tracks than breal
a new trail through the two feet o.
more OF the beautiful. The next mar
; that came that way followed the trai
made more easy by those who bat
gone before and 80 the trail soon be
came a we'll defined and hard trod
den path, winding and deviatinI
though it was. That was winter o
many SHOWS and much hard weathe
and the path that was started b
Metz was followed until the wsrmt
f the spring sun melted 1t away
r The people laughed when they say
# the path on the morning after tn
y big snow and they followed it a
n much in the sense of humor as in th
h desire of an easy footing. The ne \
e snow did not fully cover up the pat
d and so it became the easiest wa
d during that entire season. The pat
y became noted over the city and tn
,r Joke on Metz was we'll known an
,e caused many laughs. "Metz's path
1t soon became a well known outlet
the south of the city and as thel
was considerable business in thi
part of the town, there WAS muc
travel over its deviations. And |
out of the joke grew the slang g,
preston of the day Crooked
Metz's path"
THE RoUsTABoUT.