Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1902-08-20

Two men stopped the Rock Islan'
passenger train ten miles south o
Waterloo at 9 O'Clock Friday morning
In what was supposed to have been ;
daring attempt at holdup in broad
daylight. Their attempt to board the
train, however, was failure and late,
both men were placed under arrest.
Members from the Maccabee tent.
OF Waterloo, Cedar Falls, Nashua
Waverly, Usage, La Porte, Charles
City and others, have combined tc
form an organization to be known as
the Cedar Valley Picnic association OF
the Knights of the Maccabees. Their
first picnic will be held at Waverly
on the date of August 30.
The largest fish ever caught in the
Mississippi river near McGregor was
caught last week by Ed. Clark, bag
gage man on the Milwaukee railroad,
who had set trot line. The fish
was six feet two inches long and
weighed 116 pounds, and made fine
eating. The fish carried Clark some
two miles down the river before he
was able to land him.
A singular case of suicide occurred
at Monona last Tuesday. Joe LEM,
a stone mason, was discovered by his
little daughter, hanging to the roof of
an ice house, the rope he had used
having been tied so long that his feet
were touching the ground and his
knees were bent. He was sixty years
of age. He is thought to have been
crazed with drink when.the deed was
committed.
DR. W. T. Knapp, who returned to
Charles City from vacation in Mi
chigan last week, brought back a
number of interesting heirlooms.
They were a Kentland flintlock rifle !;
a compass and sun dial combined ma
reaping hook or sickle. The rifle was
made in England, prior to 1776, cal
ibre 7-16th of an inch, length of stock
&c inches, rified barrel AZ inches, ram
rod made of hickory stock. 1t was
made by two different firms, the flint
lock by I. Ketland & Co., and the
barrel by Hutton & Towner. On the
butt of the stock is profile of Wash
ington, in silver. A cover is on the
lock to keep the powder dry, made of
two pieces of leather sewed together.
The age of the rife is known to be 200
years. The compass and dial is en-
closed in brass case and is in a per-
feet state of preservation.
A Missouri exchange says: "The
weather has been so hot in this county
that livery men have had to stand
their horses in water an hour each
day to keep their shoes from coming
off, and wagons are going around
with their tongues out. The catfish
kick up such dust in the bed of the
Gasconade River that it has to be
sprinkled before you can go fishing.
A spark from an engine set the big
railroad pond on fire and burned up a
wagon load of bullfrogs The ground
is so hard and dry that the crawfish
holes in the low places are being pull
ed up and shipped off for gas pipes.
"The lark was up to meet the sun
and carol forth its lay the farmers s
son took down his gun and at him
blazed away. The busy bee arose at
five and hummed the meadow DER !;
the farmers wife went for his hive
and robbed him of his store. The
little ant rose early too, his labors to
begin, greedy sparrow passed that
way and took his antship in. Oh,
birds and bees and ants be wise; in
proverbs take no stock, and Hike the
mossback do not rise till half past
nine O'Clock. "
The intelligence that Roy Bowers,
of New Hampton, had suicided at the
age of 90 reveals a strange trait in the
family. He came to his death by
his own hand and was found by his
mother near the barn near his home,
having shot himself in the right tenn
pie. A strange thing about this
affair is that in the fall of 1897 the
father shot himself in the centre OF
the forehead with 22-calibre rife,
about four miles northeast of that
place. He was found lying face
downward near log, and at the
time it was thought that the gun had
been accidentally discharged while he
was stepping over the log. The coro
ner's jury at the time rendered.a yer.
dict of death by his own hand by
accident. Then in the spring thai
followed, some six or seven months
later, Ed Bowers, a young man about
"a years old. was found in the same
niece of wooded land within half 3