Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1899-1903, 1900-08-28

frankly acknowledged as much to his
audience, but this effort was full Of
interest and was closely listened to by
the hundreds of people crowded
around the platform. Major Spilman
said:
ut is indeed an honor and privilege
to be the guests of such a people on
such an occasion. We are not I'M
mindful of the labor and effort neces-
sary to provide such an entertainment.
We were glad when the committee de-
cided to come to Charlton; glad be-
cause we knew something of the peo-
pie and the royal welcome awaiting
us; glad because we We're to be car
ried by that splendid railroad which
never does anything by halves-the
c. B. & O.; glad because we were to
visit beautiful and progressive little
city in most delightful and prosper
Gus county; glad because of the OPP
portunity to meet old friends and re-
new old acquaintance and glad of the
opportunity to make new friends and
of forming new acquaintances and
new friendships among such hospit-
able and delightful people. We re-
joice with you in your prosperity, and
in a measure share in your blessings.
| say blessings because you furnish to
John Morrell & Co., large proper
ton of hogs and in turn use our prod
uct.
you have your bread buttered on
both sides. Added to a surface as
rich as nature can make it, you have
an ineXhaustable supply of coal be-
meath. Nature has done all it could
for you, but nature unaided never de-
veloped country. 1t takes energy, la
Dor, sacrifice. 1t is the people who
make a country, and as l look out up
on your beautiful city with it's happy
homes, churches and school houses,
your fertile fields and active mines,
and all the manifold blessings of our
Christian civilization, l say this is a
people whose God is the Lord. They
tasted of the gospel of hope. They
are looking forward to better things,
discarding the faults and follies of
their ancestors and emulating their
virtues. They are leading lives of
earnest, patient, faithful effort and
this kind of life has succeeded already.
Viewing this inspiring scene | ask,
what of the future?' | know of no
| way of judging than by comparison.
| We who are older can better under
stand and appreciate the progress of
the past forty or fifty years and for
the purpose of comparison | will brief
ly refer to some OF the conditions of
that time.
Il remember as a boy, of being con-
graduated on being permitted to live
in an age when science had done so
much to tighten the labor of the agri-
culturalist The grain cradle had SUI
perceded the reap hook, except in
stumpy ground We still cut our grass
with a scythe but no longer rake it by
hand. In the early winter the farmers
would bunch their hogs to drive to
market. This was work of days,
weighing them one at a time in
breeding made for the purpose and
using what we called hog beams OF
large steelyards. Each hog had to be
caught separately, and as hogs were
bred for speed in those days you will
understand ii was no easy task. AT
ter the drove was weighed they were
driven to market, which required from
eight to ten days, from where | lived
1t was in this way that l started in
the hog business. We carried oul
provisions, corn bread and bacon, in
baskets. We would drive all day and
by night the corn bread would be froz
en- so hard it had to be thawed by the
fire before it could be eaten. On one
occasion one of the more progressive
suggested that the time would come
when railroads would carry stock tc
market, but he was denounced as 6
crank, and an old patriarch said: II
the Lord had intended hogs should sc
on wheels, He would have built then
that way That settled the argu
ment.
THE old wooden mould plow hat
been discarded and the cast iron pillow
substituted. We carried Ratchet o.
hammer and when the point became
dull, we turned the pillow on its sidt
and Clipped it off until we made al
edge.
I'VE had the same primitive meth
DDS in our schools; slabs from thu
. saw mill for seats, and pins stuck il
the wall on which the slabs were plac
ed for writing desks; fire place il
one end of the room and over the doc
; two or three pins on which was laid
nice selection of long, 1.-THE water
, beach tools. They did not spare tn
TOu ana spoil lne Cullu III tHoSS udys
: The windows had no glass, but pape
was pasted over the aperture an
creased with lard-the older citizen
insisted that bars oil was much bel
ter.
Every well regulated family ha
the old-fashioned fireplace with
, crane on which to hang the kettles
: and only the well-to-do could affor
cook stoves. Buggies were scarce an
, the spring seat had not been invented
We threshed our small grain with tn
fail or tramped it out with horses
There was machine in use but tn
straw, chaff and wheat came out tt
gether, and besides there was belle
that small grain threshed with ms
chine would not grow.
"rhe merchant had sign readin
something like this: Dry goods an
Groceries, Hardware and Queenswar'
Hats and Caps, Boots and Shoes
. Paints, Oils and Dye Stnffs, Drugs an
Medicines The same man attende
to all the departments and likely ru
a small farm on the side.
81 have referred to the past that W
might draw the comparison and the