The Taney County republican. (Forsyth, Mo.) 1895-1992, 1901-08-01
SAM TOAiKlNS AND BETSY
Have Somethins to Say About the 0roSth
sad Affairs Gcaesaliy Ia Teaey
County.

Sos o"sn W oiu ihucy Couuty, iot
tell you right now, that she needs
some good level headed fellers who
don't come of skerry families. We
are up ngin II condition as Graner
said, aud fine spun theories won't
pan out, and keep the little ones
from going barfoot aud cryin' fer
bred this winter.
Betsy and me-Bctsy's the old wo-
man, my side pardner for nigh onto
40 years, and she Is one of them non
skerry and non reconstructed women,
who may be u lee,le strong minded,
but hss plenty Of common sense and
to spare, for | find myself frequently
callin' on her for help in that line,
not that Pm particularly short on
sense but long on experience, for
they say some people shy in the
top story, won't learn In any other
school, and | reckon | have had
enough experience If the clippings
all could be collected to I'LL book as
big as Webster ouabridge. Well
Bctscy and me have been talkin' and
thinkin' and thinkin' aud talkin, aud
putin our heads together, tryin' to
solve this drouth problem. told
her | could solve il In two minits If
they'd give me the authority.
"Ycs | reckon you'd issue bonds
or something like that"
"No," says |, "rd have 1t rain
twcnty-four hours, a gentle steady
soakcr; not hard enough to wash all
the gardens away and over flow the
banks"
"I do believe, SAM" Betsy said,
"you'd try to be funny If the worlds
on iire--and it's pretty near il, now"
"Wcll," says !. "we'd better tc
laughing than crying. We used TO
drink this toast during the hundred
days battle on the Atlanta campaigns:
Here's to them who died today,
here's TO them who dic tomorrow
There is nothing like gettin' used to
anything, and we've had plenty Of
time to get used to this drou,h,
which will be broken as soon rs 1t
rains.'
We concluded on several prOpo-
si,ions, and disconcluded on several
others. The first one was that we
ought not to sacrifice our stock and
sell il to the stock brokers for song.
Carry it over if possible. for stock of
all kinds will be high next spring.
Rnnch up your cattle and horses and
drive them TO western Kansas where
they will winter on buffalo grass and
straw. There is lots of wheat straw
ont there. You could also drive
them TO the canc brakes in the Black
river swamps.
Ii II would ever rain, Betsy said
we could sow turneps, Cara corn,
sugar cane and the like. "Ira Law.
sou told me-" said Betsy, "thnt he
wintered ten head Of horses in the
big Creek mountains aud never feed
'em a bite of grniu, and sally Anu
Myers once told me that during the
drOuth Of 81 she wintcred her cat
Ito on salt aud SCOT, with little
straw. It's simply wonderful on what
a little feed one can get along wilh.--
eating is a good deal of u habit, any
way" "Why," continued she, ii
could pull enough crab grass to win
ter our little Jersey cow-if 1t would
ever rain"
We discussed the bond issue mat.
ter. to have an election called to vote
$4,000, to build good roads appor.
toned among the different town.
ships aud give the work 10 them
who needed help. Our total taxable
wealth Is two millions aud two hun.
dred thousand dollars. The iuicres,
on $4,000 Of bonds at 4 per cent
aud we eau sell them easy would be
$500 q yenr. with a tax of one mill
lilo Of one per cent on $l,?oO,O0(