The leader., 1902-10-22
Mr.. Summers Writes Again.


Editor Leader: -Joe's last piece
in The Leader reminds me of the
fellow who strained at gnat and
swallows camel. He is plainly
beating the devil around the
stump. Evidently also, he has
been hit, for it is the hit dog, you
know, that bowls. He comes and
maintains his modesty in ODE
dience to the command of Billy.
In so doing he reminds me of an
article written by Josiah Aliens
wife. Josiah was a back-woods
fellow who never had much atten-
ton paid him. One day he re-
ceived from the railroad company
what he and his wife thought to
be a pass over the railroad. Any
way, Josiah used it successfully as
a pass for a year or so. Ere
quently he would tell his wife
that he always knew he was pop
ular man; but very few people
knew it till recently. Finally his
imagined popularity became so
great that he decided to become
a candidate for U. S. Senator. Be
ing sure of his election, his wife
went to Washington to make ar
rangements with Pres. Arthur
for his seat in the Senate, and to
secure him board. In her absence
a young lady who had been serv-
ing as school trustee came out in
card declining a reelection. To
the surprise of Josiah, she was
unanimously reelected. So 10
siah decided he would try the same
racket in his campaign for U. S,
Senator. He writes a lengthy let
ter setting forth many reasons
why he declined to be a candidate.
His chief reason livery much like
unto Joe's) was that his liver did
not act we'll at times. About the
time his card got the town red hot
his wife returned, with every
thing in readiness at Washington.
She found Josiah with his head
down and on inquiring the reason
for this he showed her his card
and informed her how successful
such a plan had worked in the
young lady's case. She got good
out of sorts, of course, and said,
Il always knew you were a fool
and that l could never teach you
anything"
Now you have exposed your ig-
norance to the public, | shall have
nothing to do with it other than to
make you stay at home awhile and
attends to the old mare and hogs.
After taking about all he could
stand, Josiah said: my dear
wife, please let up, for you have
almost given me the palpitation
of the heart now" you scoun-
drel," she exclaimed, you had
better say population of the heart,
for more men die with population
than with the palpitation of the
heart"
His good wife finally forgave
him, but decided they would have
to resort to farm life again to OBJ
tain a livelihood. Josiah insisted
that he was too popular with the
railroad to 60 to farming again
and suggested to her that they 60
and have his pass renewed with
her included in it, so that they
might ride on his popularity
whenever they desired to do so.
His wife insisted that she would
have to stay at home and look
after the old mare and the hogs,
but Josiah said, "No, we will turn
the burned old mare and hogs in
to the woods and have a good time
ourselves" His will prevailed
and they went to headquarters and
presented his pass for renewal,
when 10! and behold, it was only an
order from the railroad company
for him to move a hog pen he had
built on their right of way. So
Josiah took crack at creation for
being a set of selfish, bigoted
dudes, swearing that if the rail
rroad company had a track all the
way through the State, they would
be so much in favor of expansion
they would want a bridge across
the river to interfere with the lit
tie fat-boat fellows. The discre-
ton of his good wife suggested
that they had better 90 home, look
up the old mare and hogs, confne
them to their own premises, and
90 to work in earnest, for rumi-
mating, you know, won't support
anyone.
There being no argument in
Joe's article against a partial
stock law, this is about all we pro-
pose to do now; for to attempt to
follow him in detail, with all his
crooks and crosses, would almost
break the backbone of a black
snake. We do admire the nice
way Joe had in getting out of his
assertion that the South can
many times excel the North in
stock-raising and food-stuff; also
by frankly confessing my posi-
ton. (See his articles.) But we