Twice-a-week plain dealer. (Cresco, Howard County, Iowa) 1895-1913, 1903-12-11
STORY OF THE MAIL CARRIER OF PASSAQUoDMUsH

is true, itfGl flashes of freight danced
occasionally ,,its upon the farther side of the
plts lending weird, uncanny contrast
TO- the inky landscape, for the. blue col.
umns OF smoke climbing silently upward
we're very suggestive of wrait.ls ascend
tthhg s,l nom on what might-be easily taken for
their funera! pyres below.
But for all, to a nervous or worse. a
, oaSreless person, F1ddler's Hill was not a
pieba s1,il place to narrower having either
d nn4alky morse Or u poor driver.
al, nose s VINO Travelled 1t, met. within GER
lam aI hours, morning and evening, a bug
s sSit Always g drawn by gray horse; with a
, p1ay or the buggy; Occasionally when the
ms ,i huing over the woods and impeded
a few feet in front of them. a shrill whis-
fie would startle some drowsy traveller
IRON arSI ms dreams; he would pull aside,
and something for all the world like an
apparltion would glide by and disappear
INTO the mist again.
=. rms was the mail driver, strange
.acitufn KIND of man, who had for twenty
years carried the mails from Passauuod-
muSh to the railroad, winter and summer
n ,liEs after night, without a single inter-
Whether this silent avocation (for the
Journey was accomplished. back and forth
i nva s ieagles each way, between sunset
temperament of the man would be diff
cult to decide; those who had known him
from p9,yhood remembered him only as a
lost in the secrets OF his own mysterious
nature and holding little intercourse with
d dnose around him. beyond what business
with some show of reluctance, that be-
You'd this odd disposition of his, this
aversion to being. as they said, zone Of
Which SO persistently shrouded his
thoughts and feelings from Others one
fs no not wish a more inoffensive neigh
based solely, therefore. upon these pecu.
iarlties and It is more than probable
that what excited this dislike more vio-
lently than anything else among the peo-
pie was the logged, unconquerable, cast
IRON nature of the man and his aversion
to all forms of sympathy.
small farm, upon which he worked
in his spare moments with incredible
perseverance. But his own stubborn ma
the soil, and despite these incalculable
eNertions in suhduing them, the weeds
seemed to flourish with an Abnormal per-
the task of combating the parasitical
growth in despair and have exchanged
the farm for one which would yield more
readily, but the infiexible spirit of its
owner would allow of no such surrender;
it was a question of himself or the weeds
being choked finally, and there seemed
which he continued to uproot them as fast
as they succeeded each other that pos
sessed in it an element Of the super
human and diabolic.
There was another way. in which the
same, spirit was manifested. Ten leagues
"a day, especially in the hours set apart
by nature for rest. will speedily wear up
a horse despite good feeding and atten-
ton; SO for efficient service two or~three
We're requisite If the contract We're TO be
held, which depended upon the punctu-
atty of the service, and SO far during
his tenure of office seconds delay had
never occurred through the mail drivers
negligence. His method Of treating a
refractory horse was unique. No one had
ever seen him use a whip in his efforts
to overcome even the most stubborn that
fell into his hands. His tactics with these
creatures were precisely the same as with
the weeds--he pitted his endurance against
theirs and in the long ruin he did master
them.
But his perseverance, was stupendous
With horse which showed an unwilling
Simple; allowing plenty of time, he
would mount his seat and take the reins
in his hands. urging the ill-tempered
steed to move forward by a gentle move
ment of the bit. and If it failed to re-
spond he would wait patiently. renewing
his solicitations in the same gentle man
overcome or business would allow of no
longer delay, in which case the animal