Williston graphic. (Williston, Williams County, N.D.) 1895-1919, 1902-10-02
Two Farmers Who
Fooled With Nature
7N]IERE never was more per-
gressive critter lived than my


gressive critter lived than my
uncle, old Jabez Boneset,", remarked
Farmer Ezra Baler to the corner
grocery convention. "Nary a new
thing got a-past Uncle Jabe. He'd
have filter at it whether it was
flynn machine or the latest wrinkle
in the higher criticism.
'Every time new fool squared the
circle Uncle Jabe'd get to work tlg-
urin' how he could turn his ten-acre
lot into a race track and not leave
no corners hanging over; and he
hadn't more'n read about appendi-
citis when he got a pain under his
s'pender buckle that wouldn't give
way till he took it to the city hos
pital fer operation.
"They had the old boys appendix
hangin' on the line next day. Want
nothin' wrong with it, but Unble Jabe
said he was, better off without it any
way. Twas only extra weight he
said, an some day wanderin' germ
would have crawled into it an then
it'd have been all day with Uncle
Jabe.
o"Across the valley from Uncle Jabe
lived old ST Beetle. ST was about
hundred, more or less, but he was
lively old bird. An up-to-date? Why,
old ST was so up-to-date he used to
take m daily newspaper.
"He was the only man in Buckaloo
county could keep in sight of Uncle
Jabez Boneset for pergressiveness.
Mostly it was pretty tight race be-
tween 'em. If one got ahead OF the
tother any way, the beaten one'd
stink aroun' like licked cur till he
could get even.
'Why, after Uncle Jabez put fin
keel into his 12-foot, fat-bottom row.
boat that he speared cells from, old
81 lost ten pound of weight. And it
just sent Uncle Jabe to his bed when
ST had one O. them yellow fever mos
quitoes sent him from Cuby, an kept
the critter in box fer the neighbors
to look at. ...
''Honors had been pretty easy up
to last summer. Then Uncle Jabe
got pamphlet in the mails that
made him skip like cat in a catnip
bed. It was from the United States
agricultural department and told
about bringin' rain by shootin' off a
new-fangled cannon.
"This cannon was q kind of sta
tionary blunderbuss. You pointed
her at the sky and filled her up with
powder, and blazed away for awhile,
and pretty soon the clouds would
begin to come up and there'd be a
nice. hard shower.
"'Just what I've been wantin','
says my uncle. MY melons needs a
little wettin',' he says. Il can make
one o. them things easy as fryin' lard
out of a pig He could, too, for he
was real handy about carpenterin'
and such like. I'll make on to-day
he says, AN if this pernickety clear
weather lasts I'll load up tomorrow
he says, AN shoot shower out of
the clear sky. Reckon I'll surprise
that old fogy, 81 Beetle, some
''While he was buildin' his rain gun
old ST Beetle acrost the valley was
purity busy. Some Teller had sent
him 4 pamphlet on weather maxim.
Maybe twas the same Teller that sent
Uncle Jabe his'n.
'Tennerate old Sis pamphlet de-
scribed cannon that folks in Italy
had been usin' to spoil hailstorms.
They planted their batteries toward
where the storm was expected an
fred at the clouds until they just
naturally busted and let down the
rain or hail, or whatever it was.
"'Suits me- says. old ST. MY grapes
is dom fine, this nice, shiny weather.
I'll just set out few of them artil-
lery over back on the west hill an
the next cloud that shows it's nose
there, Ill shoot the stufin, out of it.
Wonder what old Stickin-the-mud,
Jabez Boneset, III think of that for
a twentieth century notion he says.
''Thcre wasn't nothin' small about
his way of dom things. While he
was at it he made ten of them can
mons an planted 'em over on the hill
to the westward. It cost him a lot
of powder to load 'em up, but he was
well cff an, anyhow, he never
'grudgcd money to carry out new
tangled idee.
$50 there was Uncle Jabez' rain
perducin' gunpowder outfit on one
hillside, an not more'n a mile away
on the opposite hill old ST Beetles
battery of storm-busters, an neither
of 'em KNOWN anything about the
other.
Next mornin' come an not a cloud
in the blue. Uncle Jabez sized up
the situation, and says he to the
patch on the lef' knee: Here's where
we perduce some weather. says he.
'Thet is, if there's any weather with
in shootin' distance. AS pants the
hart fer coolin' streams says Uncle
Jabez, quotin' hime tunes, so pants
my melons for a likely shower, and
Tn goin' to fetch 'em one or prove
the agricultural government of these
United States a plumb liar says he
Accordingly he unlimbered hi:
weather battery and fired bunch o.
salutes in the face of the vaultin