Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1905-06-08
A Missouri Shiveree

SSSSS~SOS~SS0S S~S~SSSssSSS ~
A Missouri Shiveree
did you ever take hand in a reg
ular old time Missouri shiveree?"
asked the man who is now an Iowan,
but had lived a long time in Missouri.
Never but once I said, that was
the democratic national convention
last year at st. Louis"
II don't mean that kind" said he;
that is spelled charivari. I mean
regular shiveree-the kind the neigh
boring population pulls off when
couple gets married-one where they
have shotguns and cowbells and
piece of an old hollow stump to
pound on. and tin buckets and so forth
and where the man who Is getting
married unexpectedly comes out the
side window and empties an old mus
ket in the crowd. Sometimes they are
mighty exciting and it surely is won
derful the number of boys that one of
them old muskets can stick shot
into at one discharge Why, I've
known as nigh as twelve fellows to
carry off an average of five pellets
from one of those performances and
they carried them off at a reasonably
fast gait. too. Why. down there a ma
tive born Missourian who hasn't got
at least twenty bird shot under his
hide is put down by the residents as a
Sissy boy He hasn't fully enjoyed the
advantages ofsthe community.
Zone time there was family moved
over from Indiana to the town lived
in. This was in northern Missouri.
They had one boy-a long, gangling
kid about 10. He was one of the kind
who knew how to make his mother be-
lieve he was kind of weak and couldn't
move around very much without max
ing him still weaker. OF course us
boys soon sized him up and we de-
cided to try him out the first oppor-
tunity. We all made it point to get
him to come out on the street with us
at night and we soon had him SO that
he thought we looked upon him as a
leader and about the best thing that
ever happened.
Finally about the time we got him
to feel that he would have to go
against almost anything that came up
in order to keep up his reputation, one
of the boys who lived about two miles
from town gave it out to us that he
was going to get married. He was a
/ good fellow-in fact he was one of our
crowd. He came in one day and got a
few of us together, and told us that
now was our chance. We could tell
our new member that enc of the crowd
was going to get married and that ii
was our solemn duty to shiveree him
He said: Now you must all tell the
new kid that my old man Is holy
terror; that he'll shoot, cut, and throw
rocks; that when the gang came cut
to shiveree my sister who got married
two years ago, that the old man shot
seven of them before they got away;
but tell him that I've got to be shiver
eed if it takes every boy in the county
and that he is just the one to leat
such a daredevil undertaking. We'll
). put the old man next and when vol
come out to the house the night of the
wedding, you be sure to get the cal
up in the front line, and then the OLE
man will come out with the shotgun
and we'll have footrace.'
$50 it was fixed up, and for the mex
week the whole gang put in the tim,
telling the new boy about what ter
ror the father of the prospective bride
I6lOOu was. GdCu OllS VI US separate
ly and then the whole gang collee
lively told him that it was going t
be an awful job but that it had to b
done, and he was the only fellow VIII
: had nerve sufficient to lead the expe
= dition
by the time the wedding day al
. rived, we had that kid just about read
to commit suicide-he was scared s
3 that he would jump at any little noise
: even in the daytime, but his reputation
: wouldn't let him back out. That even
) ing it was decided that I had bette
E take him to our house for supper, be
e cause we were afraid if we let him g
= home he would play off sick or some
thing of the kind.
my sister was going to the maj
: riage, and girl-like, she could not tall
\ of anything else She wasn't next t
f our plans, but just as we sit down t
t the table, she asked me if we were &c
2 ing to shiveree them tonight. Tha
= scared the kid SO he couldn't eat hi
supper. We soon got through with |
however, and then we went dow
town to find the boys We decided w
would start out about 8 o'clock
"The father of the fellow who's wa
] going to get married, was a prett
, good sport himself and he went int
I the game like billy goat at a flu
!. commissioned Japan will have a nav
OF such formidable proportions an
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