Audubon County journal. (Exira, Iowa) 1884-1993, 1905-06-01
"A Court House
New or Old. What Is Needed :?

@A. m0 ouO uy 111eAus AoV VIC
read with much interest them articles
in your paper by "A Taxpayer and
IA Citizen" and believe them fellers
are darned .smart chaps. We won
dered what that "A' stands for and
concluded that it stands for the men,
ber OF the hoss tribe that has long ears.
We farmers who pay our taxes twist a
year, notice taxpayer is feller who
sits around on dry goods box, squirts
tobacco juice and howls kalamity,
while citizen puts his thumbs in
his sleeve holes and tells how the
president should make treaties with
Venezwelie and them other furrin
countries, while they, if called upon
to defend their country run like thun-
der. But that amt about the court
house. We notice all the Audubon pa
pers are telling us how little it is going
to cost us to put up $65, 900. Well, me
and my friends have lowed as how
they get we'll paid for the stuff they
run and we don't blame them. No.
body believes them anyhow seems as
how they are paid to toot their horn.
Then feller by the name of Mantz
he writes letter. 1t OF to be called an
essay. We don't know who he is but
guess he must be come feller who
wants to run for Office and wants q
better Office to shine in than he has
now. He didn't say anything though.
No school boy can fool the people.
Then Bill Hannah of Oklahoma took
dip at it. He pays lots of taxes. He's
one of them there ''citizen fellers.'
Guess he wanted to remind the peo-
pie how bad he got skunked for may
or down where he is.
Then there's some fool farmer over
in Greeley who can write doggerel
verse, but publicly acknowledges that
when he goes to get. his license
he's 30 ratified he can't tell livery
barn from court house. Just such
chaps him and them other hired fel.
lers who are drivin' around will try
and fool you into not votin' at all,
thinking your not doing so will lose
them one vote. but it won't. 1t will
gain 'em one. So vote and they will
lose two. DON'T FORGIT THAT.
Now we figgered that all the
glory that them Audubon fellers
talks about won't shine so very
bright on to us farmers. Talk
about county pride! Why thundera-
alton there amt half hundred people
outen the county that know we don't
have q court house with marble halls
and gilded dome. Our county officers
go galivantin' off to some convention
once in while and brag on how ugly
our court house is, and the chances
are they come home and want to in
crease the expense of the people they
have bamb00Zled into vOtin' for them
by gettin' prettier place for them to
loafin.
Me and my friends kind of believe
that the talk of them waits not being
fire proof is all bosh. If they are not
now they want when they were made
and our deeds have been in deadly
peril 20 years. We don't believe that
Charley Van Gorder and e. ]. Free
man and John Nash and Frank Stotts
and Cap Stuart and them fellers would
build or accept court house where
the waits were not good. No them
waits are all right, and you, Mr. Court
House Booster, can't fool old Reuben
into more taxes. He pays more than
you fellers now.
Now about spoilen the looks of the
court boute by building on. A brick
l5xl5 wont spoil the looks mite and
besides if they don't want to do that
the sensible thing to do is to put your
vault under the ground. That's it. Put
it under the court house.
Now my feller farmers let's see where
we are at. They say this is rich coun-
ty. Yep. Land is worth $75 to $1O0 per
acre but burned little is selling at any
price We are taxed on that basis but
you know you can't raise any more
corn than you could when it was only
$50 per acre and you can't get any
more for it either. You can't buy it
any cheaper either. So you are in this
boat. Your land tax is higher because
the value has been increased. Your ex-
expenses is the same or more. You
can't get burned cent more for your
stuff. So you are up against it hard
and pay enough already.
Now if lived in Audubon I'd vote
for it. You farmers would then pay
for raising the price of my property.
1t will do it too. It's just a scheme.
They don't need it any more than my
old eve sheep needs two tails. And if
you blamed farmers don'tturn out to a
man and give it black eye you are
foolisher than you get credit for.
A FARMER.
The out of town teachers depart.
ed to their respective homes Satur-
day and Sunday.