Manchester Democrat. [volume] (Manchester, Iowa) 1875-1930, 1902-06-11

eyes, but l never dremp about 'em
a-bein' aney relation, fer Lem is |
great big, awkerd, overgrowed MAYER
ick whit needs curryin' en- shearin', |
while she's jist one of these here slim,
delicate women, We know-good en- all
tibet, but made frail en- clingln' like by |
Mother Naytcher.
"Then the purfesser got up en- made
the crowd another leetle speech en- said
tibet If we'd be patient he'd like to try
jist one more deal on lis, en- then he'd
givin' n nice, new bricr root pipe to the
man en- purity new workbox to the
woman tibet had lived in the states
whose p'ints 'ud count up the most.
En- he axed all the men en- women tibet
wanted to enter the contest that way
to stan up-the men on one side en- the
women on the other.
"Wull, sir, thayre WIZ jist fourteen
men en- six women went into tibet
thayre thing, en- the contest wuz might
ly spirited, tell We. Some of the men
had lived in ez NANNY ez twenty diff
frunt states, en- two or three OF the wo-
men had lived In fifteen. Lem Hull
tried 1t, en- Lew Mullicks' wife iist sot
thayre with her eyes glued on to his
features. En- Lem himself wuz no
SLOUGH ut playin' in this deal. Begin
min with Newbrasly. whayre he wuz
horned, he went east through Ioway en-
Eelinoi en- Indianny to Ohio, en- then he
come back through Kentucky, Tennes-
see, Arkansaw, AIizzoory, Kansas en-
the Injun nation to Oklahomy-all on
'em good countin' states. He made
two HUNDRED en- ffty-four p'ints, en-
about thet time Mary Mullicks looked
ez eff she thort he wuz ten spot hero
en- 'ud win out shore. Then they went
along, no Teller a-scorin' up with Lem
ontel they come to Prairie Dog Smith.
He's been all over the world mighty
nigh. He begun with New Jersey.
whayre he wuz horned, en- he come
through Pennsylvany. Ohio, Indianny,
Eelinoi, Mizzoory, Kansas en- SO on west
to Californy in forty-nine. Crossed the
plains with a OK team, he tolc me arter-
wards, en- went clear through to the
gold diggln's. which wuz shorely more'n
many Teller did. En- he stayed thayre
fer three year, en- then come back by
the way Of the istmuss. En- then he
went south durin' the war, en- come
west when ii wuz over, takin' in purity
near everything on the way. Wuz even
in Texas awhile, runnin' a sheep ranch
out west of San Antoine, whayre it new
err rains aney. don't know how many
p'ints he did have when they counted
EN- up. but 1t wuz nearly ez many ez
all the rest put together. En- the pipe
went to him fair en- square. Saw him
the other day, en- he's a-smokin' of it
yit.
"En when it come the women's turn
en- they fggered up the p'ints, ole Mrs.
Langham got the workboX. She is a
soldiers wilder, en- thayre's whole
lot of ole soldiers in the deestrict, en-
they wuZ mighty pleased ut her a-git-
tin it. Her man wuz with Sherman,
guess, en- he got hurt purity bad down
thayre aroun Atlanta. When she heerd
on It, blamed eff she didn't git right up
|; from her home in Minniesoty en- go to
him Ell nuss him. But he died by en-
| by en- left her widder She's been
a-drawin' of d pension ever sence en-
says she thinks more of it than aney
ham. She stayed down thayre In Geor-
gy fer spell en- then worked herself
west gradually ontel she got to Kan
sas, en- then it wuz only one jump over
into Oklahomy. OF course we wuz all
glad to see her git the workbox, fer
she's jlst the kind of a woman to set
store by sich things -allus a-piecin,
quilts en- a-sewin' carpet rags ell so
forth, en- ever ole soldier in the dees-
trict, Union en- Confederate, felt ez
proud eZ could be Of her en- of the pur-
| fesser fer a-honorin' her tibet away.
Some of the women felt kind of jeal-
Gus, though, en- thort tibet ez she had
pension a-comiu' in reg'lar she could
afford to buy worlboXes eff she want
| ed 'em. En- We jist orter heerd the pur-
fesser's presentation speeches. They
wuz away up III the clouds. En- then
he dismissed the crowd, en- we wuz all
a-goin' home when all to onct thayre
was almighty scrcech IN the middle
Of the schoolhouse, en- we all turned
aroun', EN- thayre WIZ Lew Mullicks'
wife with her arms woun' clar aroun'
Lem Hull's neck en- a-kissin' i'm like
| she wuz locoed. En- Lem had his'n
aroun' her, too, Ell thaye they wuz
right thayre III the crowd list a-actin'
ez eff they'd both been in the same
family, though we all knowed the
IIulls en- the Mullickses wuzn't
akwainted ut all.
| "About this time Lew run up en- wuz
a-goin' to hit Lem fer huggin' his Wife,
but Prairie Dog Smith grabbed him,
Ell the women pulled Mary's arms
loose, en- somebody else grabbed Lem,
en- by en- by we got things quieted
down en- ruther presentablelike. Mary,
though, was kind of hysteericky fer a
! spell, en- ever onct In awhile she'd
break loose from the women thet WIZ
a-holdin' Of her Ell make another dive
fer Lem, a-cryin' en- a-hollerin': My
brothers! Ny brother.
EN-, sir, when we got 'em Gained
down soze they could talk rational, Of
they wuzn't brother en- sister shore
enuff. They're folks died when they
wuz kids, eli Lem got sent back to his
gran'pap's in Ohio en- Mary wuz adopt
ed by some folks In Newbrasky; en-
they'd drifted aroun' Ell drifted aroun'
ontel they'd drifted right together
ag'ln. Here they'd been alvin five
year in mild Ell a half OF each other
en- never got alwalnted er knowed
they wuz nney relation; jist lost track
Of each other. We know. en- never ex-
| pected to see each other ng'in er even
thort much about 1t. But Mary said
she shore knowed 1t wuz her brother
the fust time she got square look at
Lem, even eff his name wuz changed;
en- Lem snid he felt kind of queer, too,
but didn't know jist whut 1t WIZ. He