Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1901-08-22

not q llLgI6. his Oy way OF apology
for seeming inconsistency and remiss'
ness.
The Ironton House-its very founda.
lions have disappeared-was built im.
mediately upon the laying out of :he
town, by Tong & Aubuchon, and for
several years was q favorite summer
home for city people. The house was
a tw~o-storey of great dimensions and
many rooms, and in it's accessories was
quite up-to-date. If the chef was not
French, he was Irish-a close second
and the Cuisine stood the test of edu-
Gated taste and uncertain appetite. So
each summer the hotel was filed with
beauty and gaiety, and moonlight, mu-
SIC and the dance were just as high in
favor then as they are now. The dane
ing hall-the same building now occu-
pied by Mr.. III. M. Collins as a resi-
dence-saw many a brilliant occasion
when
To the music's swell
There rose and fell
The tide of rapture sweet,
And twinkled dainty feet
To the music's spell!
People of note as we'll as means did
not disdain to lend their patronage to
the fame of the hotel. Gov. Stewart,
the Clalbornes, DR.. Mcdowell, owner
of the celebrated McDowell's College.
of St. Louis, and others of no less
prominence, saw aud admired the VAL
ley in those days. DR.. Mcdowell was
q general favorite, and as he rusticated
here several successive seasons, he be-
came we'll known to the residents. |
was a youth of 16 then, and not usually
given to the company of men 30 greatly
my elders; but / fortunately had sense
enough TO admire his extraordinary
power as a conversationallst, and many
a time listened to him from an unob-
served place of vantage as he discours-
ed to an admiring circle of friends. He
was an orator, as we'll, and often took
his place on the hastings. Many an
entertaining story is told of him in this
connection. He was caustic as he was
brilliant, and no crowd of hostile hear
ers was a bar to his full and free ex-
preston of the faith that vas in him,
or of the contempt in which he held
the views and preiudices of his audit
ors. He affected to hold all foreign
born citizens in low esteem-on the
stump-and plainly and not always
decorously told them so; but they we'll
knew behind all that there beat a ten
der heart, and that nj n of them had
aver called on him for aid, in sickness
or in health, in vain.
He made q Fourth-of-July speech
think it was in 1S59-from the porch
of the Ironton House, to a patriotic
audience, whose numbers L helped to
swell. His talk was full of wit and
caustic humor, and graced with trib-
utes to the Revolutionary sires. inter-
mingled with fierce excavations upon
the hated red-coats and despised Hes
slams. Tall, white-haired, lean of fea-
ture and form, piercing eyes and in
cisive voice-he stood, to my youthful
eye, a very Nemesis to tyranny and OPP
preston. l remember an expression,
delivered with biting The
red-coats sneeringly called Marion the
Swamp Fox and we'll they might SO
designate him, for he wrung the neck
OF many a British goose!" To be per-
fectly correct, he ought perhaps have
said ''%gander;" but / set it faithfully
down as twas spoken. The good old
doctor has long since departed for that
land where the panoply OF war, the use
of drugs and the surgeons knife, and
the divisions of classes and ~nationali-
ties are unknown. But many an old
friend yet sees, in the dlmming eye of
the mind, his form and feature, and re-
counts with glowing heart the noble
deeds he did while numbered in the
flesh. The course of such a soul must
be ever onward and upward.
The first city election was held
April, 1858, and was holly contested,
the successful candidate for Mayor
MIR. A. N. Hunt-going in by one ma
jorityi I was present ut the counting
of the ballots and still can hear the
yells from the throats of the victori-
Gus, and see the heightened visages OF
the losers. The former proceeded in a
body down to the southern limits OF the
city, where Mr.. Hunt was running a
store on the premises now owned and
resided on by /. G. Whitworth, Jr.
They picked up the new-made mayor
bodily, hoisted him upon the shoulders
of q sturdy pair, and carried him to
the place where he took the oath OF
Office and assumed the duties and hon
ors OF place.
Mr.. Hunt, too, has closed his account
with this world, and the members oil
his family yet in life are in places dis
tant from the little city which honored
him, and whose best interests he faith
fully subserved In his time OF s'brief
authority" Lord, what q phaptssm
is this world! We build upon 1t, and
our foundations are set in shadow We
blind our senses and hope to continue
where continuance 10 not. For
"Like the baseless fabric OF this vision,
The cloud-eapt towers, the gorgeous palaces,
The solemn temples, the great globe itself,
And all which il inherit, shall dissolve;
And, like this unsubstantial pageant faded,
Leave not a wrack behind.
We are such stuff as dreams are made OF,
And our little life is rounded with q Sleep"
Granulated Sugar SAID a hundred