Corvallis gazette. [volume] (Corvallis, Benton County, Or.) 1900-1909, 1904-03-01

walls 1t might be that the cousin Of
Shickshack's girl had not as much to
say as he had given out that he had.
But New Salem would hear him and
judge. Minter Grayham's pupils-par-
ticularly the smaller ones-were lined
up on front benches, which their own
long use had worn to the smoothness
of glass. The stranger had advertised
through their schoolmaster that he
would give the prize of book to any
boy or girl who could. at the close Of
the lecture, stand up and spell cor
rectly the word Ompompanoosuck!
Unusual war had ragged on the play
ground at both recesses and noon con-
cerning the spelling of this word.
Camps divided to play Indian or horse
thief met to wrangle over combina-
tions of letters. Some sly ones who
thought they we're going to get the
prize retired to puzzle alone. Minter
Grayham, who thought a modest
amount of spelling, the Testament, the
English Reader and the Rule of Three
in arithmetic to advanced scholars,
rant as he felt in this great matter.
Some women saw with CONSERVATION
that the boys from Clary's grove We're
gathered on the back seats, couple of
dozen young Williams, whose leader,
Redmond Clary, was the most desper-
ate rider in the Sangamon country.
The gravest charge brought against
these uncurbed youths was their deter
mination to govern the community.
its widest expression. When one of
them had a colt to break he sum-
moned the others, and they forced it
into the Sangamon river. One sat on
its back, another hung to its tail and
the rest clung about and hampered it
in every way. The untamed thing,
obliged to swim for its life carrying
weight, finally came out of the water
q subdued beast. They were ready to
deal in like manner with anything
that antagonized them. Each man had
brought an egg carefully bestowed Oh
his person, and at concerted signal
he expected to throw it at the lecturer,
for the mere sport of seeing an unin-
teresting foreigner smeared from head
to foot. But he caught their fancy.
Don Pedro Lorimer, smiling on the
plain men and women of New Salem.
told them he was travelling through
the states to urge everywhere tho
annexation of Cuba. He described the
tropical luxuriance of Cuba, and its
relative position to the continent; and
some of his hearers learned for the
first time that there was such place.
He told how planters were made to
suffer in estate by unjust tyranny Of
a dominating European power. Some
like himself had even been driven into
exile, with only a remnant of their once
large fortunes. So bad was the gov
ernment that people had starved there
in the midst of abundance. He begged
to have Cuba admitted into the union.
Such q novel plea had never been
urged before upon men who were
struggling to get living out of the
scarcely upturned sod of a new state.
Some older men smiled at each
other, thinking the. United States had
all she could do at that time to take
care of her own territory. But it was
flattering to have rich island, repre-
sented by an elegant man of the world
dressed in the best clothes which
money could buy, appealing to them
for protection; and they helped their
neighbCrs stamp vigorous applause
every time he rounded one Of his glow
ing periods with-"If Cuba may only
be annexed to America!"
har I'd al
ment that held out against the stranger.
They would give him fair play, but
they would test his arguments.
Look at Abe Lincoln" one Carolina
settler whispered to another during
the stir which followed the conclusion.
I'D like to hear what he thinks. He
can beat this fellow all hollow making
a speech
'.Abe says the fellow looks just like
gamblers he saw in New Orleans when
he went down with the f1atboat."
Il allow" said a third Carolinian,
''and have been watching him close,
that this brown gentleman. with his
shiny hair and eyes, is a runaway slave
putting on bolG face and trying to
get through to Canada. Some body
servant that knows how to wear his
masters clothes"\
What spite would Shickshack have
against runaway slave?" objected the
first man. And his hair is as straight
as that little girls at the In'ian's cabin.
Id sooner take him for a horsethief
We've had some fine looking horse
thieves in this part of the state"
Mahala Cameron's father, who, on
account Of building the mill. had
claimed and obtained the privilege of
naming the town. and had called it
New Salem for old Salem where he
was born on the Massachusetts, coast,
put in his word.
'T had an uncle" he said, that fol-
lowed the sea, and made voyages to
Cuba. It's about such place as the
man describes"
While private opinion thus see