Amador ledger., 1900-12-07

INDEPENDENCE.
speakin well of the town. If he didn't
he'd set the folks down as vicious and
desperate and drive on to Tarrytown
or Dobbs Ferry. The squar' wanted
that ball as big as pumpkin, and he
wanted real gold leaf fur gildin. and
he closed his speech with an appeal to
the people to continue to be innocent
and happy. Deacon Spooner was chair
man Of the meetin, as usual, and when
the squar' sot down the deacon said
he'd made a pint. Enos Williams was
then called upon. He headed the fac
ton who wanted a rooster. Enos didn't
go as fur back as the sQuar'. He has
asthma and is short of breath, and SC
he started out with Columbus to dis
kiver America. He had bin readin up
on roosters. He couldn't find that roos-
ters was an emblem of innocence, but
he didn't want no innocence on a court
house tower. The stranger would find
innocence when he come to play check
ers or trade hosses with a Jerichoian.
The rooster was an emblem of grit and
independence. He was a bird who
went to bed at sundown, got up before
sunrise and was hustlin around all day.
A rooster on top of that tower would
signify that Jericho could take care of
herself and didn't bow down to any
other town in the state. He was out
of breath and had busted a suspender
when he sot down, and Deacon Spoon.
er raped with a cane and said:
i "Enos has not only made a speech
equal to anything Henry Clay ever got
of, but he's made thunderins big
pint in favor of the roosterites. | was
ag'in the rooster when come here, but
I've almost changed my mind. Let us
hear from Silas Bebee."
Silas was one who wanted the p'ints
Of the compass put up. He was born
in Jericho when the town had but three
houses and had been turned around fur
30 years. The only way he could tell
north from south or east from west
was to make black spot on Uncle.Jim
Green's barn door, and he never went
to the back end of his own cornfield
without gittin lost and hevin to whistle
to his wife. His speech was up to
date: He didn't go back over six
months. He said that what had allus
allied Jericho and what would allus
keep her down was the want Of KNOWN
the compass p'fnts. He wasn't the
only one who was turned around. Half
the folks in town couldn't go buckle
berryin without gittin lost and wander
in around all night. Hogs and dogs
walked around in a circle because they
was confused, and every time there
was a lawsuit most of the. witnesses
said west fur east. An emblem of in
nocence would be all right, and roost-
er would be thing Of beauty, but both
would be beaten by compass p'ints.
"Silas has made purity good speech
and purity good pint" says the dea-
con, "and I'm sorter lettin go Of the
rooster and leanin to his side. Though
I've lived in Jericho fur % years, /
can't make out yit whether my pigpen
is on the north OF west side of the
house. I'm understandin that Elisha
Taylor has sunthin to spring on this
meetin, and we are ready to hear it."
Elisha was ready. He had bin watch
In the growth Of the town hall fur six
long years, and he had had his eye on
the tower day and night. He had look
ed at it from the street and from the
roof OF his barn. He had looked at 1t
at MONDAY and squinted at it at mid
night and had come to one unalterable
conclusion-he wanted the figger of a
gilt angel to finish off that tower, and
he wanted that angel to be p'intin up
wards. same as on gravestone he saw
in Buffalo. The angel would signify
the goodness of Jericho, and strangers
would no longer stop and raise row
because they couldn't git a glass of
beer or find anybody to take hand at
poker. Her p'intin upward would be
an object lesson to the Sunday school
children, and the sight of her would
calm the feelin's of a man about to
lick his wife.
There was a howl of derision as Eli,
sha sot down, and the deacon said that
no pint had bin made. He was a dea-
con of the church and a good man, but
bed never consent to hist gilt angel
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