The Newtown bee., 1905-08-25

INTERESTING "REMINISCENCES OF THE
OLDDAYS.
Shelton, Aug. 8, 1905.
Dear Friends of the Old Home AS
ISOLATION: 1t would give me much
pleasure to be present on this the Sec
ond anniversary of 'Old Home week"
but illness preventing I will do the
next best thing and pen a few lines of
Renaissance of a half century ago. !
was born in the district Of Trapfall, in
the southerly part of Huntington, and
have continued to live in the town all
of my life, with the exception of few
years. My father lived in an old house
1 think about $50 years old, until it be-
came untenable, and he then: built a
new one few rods away. One strange
thing about the old house, I never
heard of Gen Washington being it's
honored guest.
1t was my good fortune to be the
first born in the new house, escaping
the old one about two years.
In the happening am about to re-
late, I was both an eye witness and a
participant. 1t was near Thanksgiv-
ing. My next older brother, Austin,
was spending few days at home. A
gray squirrel hunt was proposed, and
we were soon off for the woods, when
we spied a fine grey, skipping along on
the ground, and took refuge in pile
of stones. We removed the stones I'M
til I had a good view of his tail. The
temptation was too much, and without
thought Of consequences I seized him
by that appendage, pulled him out,
held him at arms length, shouting
"I've got himv' But I shouted lit
tie too quick. The squirrel had got
me. He doubled himself and shut his
teeth into the fleshy part Of my hand
and began to scratch and bite. Icould
not shake him off; he made things
lively for while. [ seized his tail
with my left hand and gave jerk that
brought him to the ground. Hesprang
for the nearest tree and was soon in
it's branches. l watched the squirrel
while my brother raised his gun and
fired, which only served to quicken the
pace of the squirrel. Said | "You
haven't hit him." My brother re-
piled, ''The gun has burst and blown
the end Of my finger Off" There he
stood with the stock Of the gun in his
hand, split by the explosion. The bar
rels were lying few feet away with
an enormous rent in the right hand
barrel. My brother had a bruise on
each cheek, where pieces of the barrel
hit him and two holes in the rim of his
hat, his left hand was covered with
blood and my right hand the same.
1t was sad plight we were in, and
the squirrel was probably in the top of
tree, chuckling to himself over his
success in putting us both out of bus
mess, without receiving a scratch him
SELF but this was no time for magma
ton: we had too much stern reality on
hand. The first thing we thought of
was getting home, which we did pref
ty lively, without stopping to pick up
the pieces. The next thing to be
thought of was doctor to attend to
my brothers hand. DIR "Jim," as he
was familiarly called, was sent for, who
decided the middle finger would have
to be amputated, between the end and
the first joint. Not having the tools
to perform the operation, he sent me
to neighboring carpenter to borrow a
fine tooth saw. The amputation did
not prove successful, as later on the
end of the finger had to be removed at
the first joint. think my brother did
not 60 squirreling after that, but when
ever I went, l had no desire to catch
them by the tail.
which was an eye witness, but hap
PLY not participant. Our nearest
neighbor was Daniel Benedict, who
lived on the top of Trapfall hill, in an
old house of Revolutionary fame, which
was called "Black Horse Tavern" ]
have heard it was the favorite stop
ping place of Gen Washington. Mr.
Benedict had son, Daniel. He pur-
posed one day to send him to Old Farm
on horseback with basket containing
10 dozen eggs. The boys had been ac-
customed to ride the horse to water at
a brook about one-quarter of a mile
down the street, and on such occasions
would often try his speed. The horse
seemed to think it no harm on this oc-
casion and soon started into brisk
canter and the eggs began to jump out
of the basket one by one. We heard
the clatter of hoofs and the shouting,
"Whoa! Whoa" Father and myself
ran out to the street to see what it
was all about. The horse had just
reached the foot of the bill in front of
our house, when he came to d sudden
stop, and Daniel with his basket of
eggs took a headlong flight over the
horse s head, coming down in gener-
al mixup on the ground. Daniel was
not hurt and soon upon his feet exam
lining his wardrobe. About this time
the elder Benedict, who bad been
wat ching the proceedings, arrived up
on the scene; with some excitement he
said, ''This is a purity job; 10 dozen
eggs worth dollar and half, gonesto
smash" Daniel said he "didn't care
anything about the eggs, but he had
spoiled his clothes" Father remark
ed, 1.-THE eggs were nothing and the