Audubon County journal. (Exira, Iowa) 1884-1993, 1902-01-09
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
| T>HE PASSING
/ OF MIR. and MRS.
JOSEPH BRUDER
By Henry Irving Dodge.
By Henry Irving Dodge.
Copyright, 1901,
BY Henry Irving Dodge.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

v
Big Four" pulled into Beaver Mead
ows on the Rome Watertown division,
and Joseph Bruder and his wife got
down from the passenger coach that
was trailing behind six FLATS" of rails.
Bruder was six feet four and broad,
and his wife was five feet and narrow.
Bruder carried a huge valise that cost
a dollar and had done service, also an
ak. Mrs. Bruder wore mitts and
plaintive, piquant smile. In her eyes
there was standing apology for the
disparity in their sizes. This seemed
to be sore point with the little wo-
man, for she was ever on the alert for
the quizzing glances Of strangers, and
if one should stand apart and glance
at the odd couple he was sure to have
his gaze arrested by a plaintive glance
from the woman which said as plainly
as speech, "Please don't make fun of
u.s."
But the man never bothered his head
about what other folks thought. He
was woodchopper, and that's all he
knew or cared. Next to his wife he
loved his AK, and it used to be his
pride that he could put keen enough
edge on it to shave with. He used to
lay his cheek fondly against the purple
blade and pat it and call it his darling.
And the AK seemed to understand him,
for it would barlS with quick delight
when his giant arms swung it aloft and
bite the maple and bury its nose to the
point where the tempered steel joined
the softer stuff.
When Bruder got off the train, he
looked around in sort of inquisitive,
defiant way and put his hand clumsily
around his wife and drew her shoulder
over against his thigh. There was no
one at the depot but the agent, vet
eran in the business, the tenure of
whose position was due to five toes
that he had years before contributed
to the annual list of accidents on the
road. Smith had heard that Bruder
was coming to take the place of one Of
the striking woodchoppers, and it filled
him with grave concern. Almost all of
his relatives belonged to the strikers,
anu Sy MCtC uSNply Will
them. On the other hand, it fell to his
lot to show ostentatious loyalty to the
company. Beaver Meadows was the
chief ''woodin' up point of the road.
For miles the contiguous country yield
ed nothing from its stubborn soil save
stunted beech and knotted maple.
The president of the company that
supplied the railroad with wood was
Smiths hacker. A nod from him would
have dislodged that worthy from the
comfortable niche that afforded him
comfortable living. So Smith was be-
tween the devil and the deep sea. His
heart was with the strikers, his inter-
usually placid mind was filled with
perturbation when he beheld the lum-
bering form of Joseph Bruder and the
diminutive wife alight from the ca
boose of Big -Four.
Bruder had an arm as long as his
wife's tongue and could fell at a blow
either kind Of jackass, human or
brute. Mrs. Bruder was the brains of
the outfit. She took charge of the
money, when there was any. allowing
Joseph only enough for tobacco. 9th
erwise he was a teetotaler. On the
whole, this strange couple was deemed
a combination to be avoided. No one
ever knew where they came from. On
that score Bruder himself was silent,
with persstency that defied all the
subtle influences of bucolic diplomacy.
Surmise said he was an eX-convict,
and as chapter and verse of his past
were not Forthcoming this comfortable
theory crystalliZed into a very good
counterfeit of fact.
When the woodchoppers learned that
Joe Bruder was coming to take Cy Sci
denis job, they knew there would be
trouble. for they were determined
lot. There was an understanding, how
ever, sort of feeling, although no
words had been spoken, that somehow
Smith would settle matters, and so
it was determined that no one from
among the strikers should meet Bruder
at the depot and attempt by moral or
muscular force to turn him back.
Smith knew what was expected of
him by his friends and relatives; he
also knew that the suspicious eyes of
the president We're upon him, and hence
the delicacy of his position. He hated
being double faced" but he had
very comfortable niche indeed, and
times We're exceedingly hard in those
parts. He reflected with considerable
disgust that it was quite unjust that
he, who had no personal interest in the
matter. should be the one upon whose
shoulders the task of adjusting the af-
fair should be thrust.
That explains why Smith was per-
turbed upon the arrival of Mr.. and
Mrs. Joseph Bruder. 1t also explains
why he alone was at the depot to meet
the distinguished pair. 1t is an axiom
that good luck always comes to the
lazy. Smith was lazy man, which
accounts for the piece of good luck
which came to him on the morning Of
The arrival of Mr.. and Mrs. Bruder
Bah Armstrong; two-year-old baby
boy had died of cholera morbus few