The professional world. (Columbia, Mo.) 1901-192?, 1903-01-30
WHEN is GROUND.HOG DAY?
The Old Soldier Has Lost Track
of it-DOckery Winks the
Other Eye.
jefferson City, Mo-,
Jan. 2Sth, 1908.

Odu. AObh, lOOo'
Say, when is grounding dayf
Said the "Old soldier" to the
clerk last night. "Oh sometime
in next month" said the clerk,
"but au old settler like you ought
to be posted on such things"
"W ell ] wuz once In time, you
see grounding day amt the same
as it used to be; the legislature
changed it and nobody can keep
up with what they do. Why it
wouldn't s'prise bit, if them
fellers made law changin' Sun
day an Monday" But it looks
like you have been playing ground
hog. Where have you been keep.
ing yourself9 Well l amt been
sleep, you can jest bet on that.
I've been seein' what goes on
an hearing big lot too. Say:
are you tendin' the sessions enyi
Well I've been most every day.
l amt no lobbyist, but have
right smart to say sometimes
bout certain things. What did
You think of the lection of Stonei
Everybody thought Stone would
git it, in fact he was too smart to
let them beat him out Of it.
Some funny things have been
takin' place in this legislature: :
One Teller introduced a bill pro-
viding that no railroad company
couldn't give any more passes and
that some night writ a letter to
all the heads of the railroads,
sayin' he didn't mean it tall.
Another one brought a batch Of
bills with him to put in to in
crease the tax on liquor, but when
he got here he received barrel OF
beer from St. Louis and a box Of
wine from Kansas City, charges
all paid. And he burnt the bills
up an now won't own that he ever
had 'em. But this legislature has
got some men in it that mean
bizness an they amt afraid to
speak out either. You see Connor
of st. Joseph had heard lot about
Lincoln Institute and he got some
fellers to go out there with him to
look around and when they got
there they found everything in
good runnin' order, but when they
saw them white janitors out there
and them white men in the shops,
it wuz a dedner to 'em all and
they say they are goin' to have
things changed up out there. One
the fellers who went long out there
wuz all worked up bout them
white men and asked the colored
man who wuz drivin' his carriage
why he didn't apply for a janitor-
ship out there and the feller told
him that he had applied four
times, but could't git it cause that
board always lected white men,
and he said that wuz d-n shame
and it had to be stopped and SAID
who'd ever thought that white men
would be doing janitor work for
colored people in Missouri And
if he hadn't seen it he wouldn't
blieved it and didn't want to
bleve it when he saw it. Well it's
jest fact that the people are
gittin' tired of the way things is
ben runnin' out at that school fur
two or three years and everybody
thinks it's time things wuz takin'
a different turn and the change is
comm. But say, what do you
think of the new Board men.
Dockery certainly did wink the
other eye, didn't hei You remem-
ber l told you last summer
Dockery's winks meant somethin' +.
You know when he wuz maxim
that speech to the boys an givin'
out them sheep skins, he told them
that he wanted to build up Lincoln
Institute and he knowed jest what
it would take to do it and when he
said it he winked and that meant
"jest watt" SO you see when he