Willmar tribune. [volume] (Willmar, Minn.) 1895-1931, 1904-12-14
I A HOUSE BUILT
( UPON THE SAND (
. 51! NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS;

& +
Observation-Disclosures
THE haze of lovely day in October
lay on Jamaica bay. A gentle
southwest wind stirred the water into
shining ripples.
Afar on the horizon the salt mead
ows resembled the islands of the Blest.
The wind, blowing over a thousand
leagues of heaying sea, was redolent Of
salt and freighted with stimulation.
Craytish Bill is bayman. He lives
on Ruft1e bar, four miles away from
shore as the crow flies, in the cabin
of an old canalhoat drawn up on bar
and surrounded by piles driven into
the sand 10 protect it from the ice.
"Say, JIM" said Bill, as his visitor
came down the cabin stairs, this
ERE cabin amt no Aston hotel, with
French cook, but can give you some
oysters right out of the bay"
Fifteen minutes later the visitor
drew a cracker box to the table. The
menu consisted of oysters on the half
shell, soft clans roasted in the oven
With a slice of bacon otsr each. milk
toast made of bread four Jays old and
condensed milk, and tea brewed in a
Tot black as the stovepipe that pro-
jected from the top of the cabin.
After this meal was finished and the
cats were fed, Bill lit his pipe and his
tongue began to wag. Said he:
"You amt been here since lost my
house last March,
where did you get money enough
to buy a house?" said the visitor in
playful irony.
Il saved it," said Bill. ut cost me
about SIS. s'pose I'll never have so
much money again at one time. I'm
over so and amt so strong as used to
be.
"This ERE is the oyster season and
I'm watchin' the oyster beds to keep
the thieves away. l watch nights and
tong oysters in the daytime. I s'pose
you never tonged for oysters with
tongs II feet long in strong tideway ?
well, it amt no childs play. A
days work is boatful of oysters, and
you have to Gull 'e1o after you've dug
'em up. You don't do much dreamin'
nights after you have been tongin' oys-
tiers all day-you're too tired.
1T took me two years to save that
money to build my house. got per-
mission from an oyster planter to
build house on one of his bars.
had a kind of feelin' that Id like to
own house that was all my own and
that didn't cost me nothin' for rent,
and when I shut the door l could look
aroun' at the stove and the cupboard
and the hunks and the dollar clock and
say to myself:
This ere house is all my own.
built it with my own hands, paid for
it with my own money. Laid every
timber in it and drove every nail, from
the cellar to the tarred roof.
'Of course, you understand, I'm only
jokin' about drivin' nails in the GEL
lar, cause there wasn't no cellar. At
high tide there was two feet O. water
where the cellar ought to be-.
II had that there house all planned
out in my mind for a year before I
started to build it. even to the vinegar
barrel was goin' to have settin' out
side the door to catch the rain water
from the roof, cause you can't get
Croton water in the middle of Jamaica
bay"
Bill laid his knotty, brown hand up,
on lis knee and looked with unseeing
eyes up through the companionway.
He WAS aroused from his reverie by
his visitor, who said, with a grin:
Ibid you build your foundation Of
stone or of brick?"
mo, SIR" said Bill. my founda-
ton was built of eight-inch piles, ten
feet long. There was a contractor
drivin' piles over the Canarsie side of
the bay, and he had dozen piles too
short for his use. I bought 'em for
half what he paid for EN-
How did you get the piles over to
Ruff1e bar?' said the inquisitor.
made q raft of 'em and tomed 'em
over behind my skiff. Took me seven
hours to do it on aco,4nt of the tide,
which carried me and the raft down
to Barren island. There were blisters
on my hands as big as walnuts VIXEN
got over to Ruftle BAR
"How did you sink your founda-
tion?" said the visitor, seeking to dis
turb Bills serenity.
t1t's queer about that" said Bill
"On them bars in the middle Of the
bay the tide rises from four to five
feet, accordin' to which way the wind
blows. A Worcester would blow the
water out o. the bay so there wouldn't
be foot O. water on my lot. AND
then agin a sou-wester for two days
would make a tide six or seven foot
high. Consequence is I had to sink
my piles at dead low water" r.
did you have a piledriver to sinh
1 your foundation" e ~ -
d None o. your guyin,' son." said the
-'eteran II chopped one end O. the
piles edgeshaped and worked EN-
down Into the mud and sand. I'll