The Farmington times and herald. (Farmington, St. Francois Co., Mo.) 1902-1905, 1903-11-12
THEY WERE TOO GOOD

too modest to leave any record oil theni- !
selves. am, however, eLtitled 10 make |
a post-mortem statement, since ! was !
present at the death and burial OF tie |
and ministered to 1t in its |
last moments.
"One day a tall, bearded farmer came |
In his wagon to get me TO attend case IN !
his town. AS | was a young practition- |
TT. without any practice, was delight
ed 70 respond, | was slightly troubled |
when the farmer asked me what my
charge would he for attending patient
for TWO weeks. named modest sum,
and asked II he thought that excessive,
No said he. i think that IL is too little !
Lst us GOuble the amount. And he con !
tlnued, counting over some bills, we pay
In advance.
"a We drew near the town our road
became like a paved avenue, with never
a stone or mud hole In 1t, and never n
weed beside IT, The fences, In exactly
rvLUlar lines, had no boards missing
ana were neatly painted. As we entered
the town the houses seemed unnatural;
The white paint was all unspOtted, the
windows everywhere had evidently Just
been cleaned the door knobs were ali
highly polished, even the shingles on
the roofs bore evidences OF having been
scrubbed recently The grass in the
Cuory ards must have been raked every
day the flower gardens could not muster
d weed and the barns were just like the
houses. The ncatnoss Of everything wa
growing painfully oppressive to me; !
In,imutcd as much to my companion.
Cleanliness IS next to goodness, he
rcplcd As we battle twice a day ard
wash our clothing every alternate day
We feel that our houses and barns should
receive some attention,
Who makes such rules as these, and
who is able to enforce them on a whole
town Ike this?' I asked.
said he: we need TO rules All of us
agree about everything
But said !. what town officers could
keep a road liNc this" Who is the head
Of your town.
I'VE have no head, he answered. We
have no elections. but no one wns willing
10 be- put IN authority oror his fellows or
10 take the spier" Of IN Office
81 found that my patient was the one
black sheep In this flock. He was fat
healthy fellow, who was thoroughly lazy.
The good people out Of pure charity,
forced themselves to believe that he was
il. rather than indolent and instead Of
tarriuc and fcathcrIng him. as any other
town might have done they paid physi-
clan to attend him He took me into his
confidence at once. for he felt that his
position was secure He invited me to
sit down with him to sumptuous meal,
and related his history unblushingly.
at might be a strain on your credullty
10 give further examples of the goodness
OF these people; how they sneaked up In
the night TO cut cordwOod for their neigh.
hors or dig potatoes for them; how they
worked so hard that there seemed n like
hood Of most of them dying Of over
work In a few years how they kept their
hors so clean that the animals all died
young
We'll. the end came rather unexpCct-
eddy After had visited my patient reg
ularly for FIVE days, found that the an
uual meeting Of the town was 10 be held
ono evening in the hall My patient said
ne might arouse himself enough to at
tcud the meeting. If | desired to 70 with
him
Accordingly we went, sitting comfort
ably In the rear of the room. My com
panion prepared himself for a nap Tho
meeting opened with long invocation;
# grew so long that | nodded. and wa
almost ready to follow the example OF
my patient.
Bat in the midst of the prayor-per
hape at the end Of 90 minutes ! noticed
the Odor Of smoke. and thought heard
the cracking Of flames, Iglanccd about
the room hastily Except myself and my
patient, who was snoring softly, every
person had his head bowed and his eyes
closed tightly leapcd up with shout
for there over the speakers head tn,
smoke was rolling in volumes and the
woodwork was already aflre.
Then arose an unexpected debate The
men began shouting to one another to
stand back and let the women and chill.
dren out first; and thercupon the women
and children, even to the little ones not
to be outdone, declared they would go
last Next followed scene Of confu.
sion; the men argued with the women
individually. and pushed them toward
the stairs and the women answered still
mere ychcmently and pulled the men
toward the way OF escape.
Then | remembered my patient.
shook him till he woke up. Are you as
obstinate as these people about being
saved asked.
Me-? said he. Selling me by the arm
oh. Lord, get me out of here. quick!
All the guupowlcr in town Is Just now
stored In the basement. Help me out,
quick
Il started with him for the stairs. But
the smoke was so thick and the confu.
sion so great that could not find them
At length found window and climbed
out. in order to pull my patient out after
me. His head and his shoulders cane
through all right; then he stuck. and
with all my pulling and his kicking and
sputtorlug he remained fast.
Drop to the ground he cried, aud
run to the nearest house. Bring the AK
you will find at the wood pile, and come
and cut this window frame out for me-
81 dropped to the ground. and ran as
fast as could TO the nearest house. Just
as | reached II there was a great explo-
sion. looked about TO find that the
hall ard all the people had been blown to
atoms, and only a great hole in the
ground was left. "-Chicago Daily News.
Has wi,nl,c W,x