Dakota farmers' leader. (Canton, S.D.) 1890-19??, 1906-12-07

oA Rotten Peach
Story on Capt. Dixon
of Sioux Falls.

Ulle putting up Ol WHICH, was ollotl dii
''infant industry
He said: II came to Mt. Vernon,
Iowa, in the fall Of 1856. l came from
a great fruit growing state,
where we always had plentiful sup
ply of apples stored away before bat
tering down the old cellar door for
the winter. Many an old man now
remem bers what such a provision
meant during the long winter even
ings of his boyhood. Coming west, !
found myself, in section entirely
destitute of all kinds of fruit, except
the wild, native crab-apples of the
prairies, and it was the ambition of
Iowa housewives to see who should
excel in the variety of forms in which
they could preserve those sour little
descendants of the forbidden apple,
the eating of which taught Adam and
Eve something they had never before
dreamed Of. If the apple they ate was
a crab-apple of our western species,
how the old serpent must have chuc-
kled over his success as practical
joker. At hotels, restaurants, board
ing houses, and in private families,
the tenderfoot of those early days
met with the products of those native
symptoms of fruit in every concelV-
able form, from the plain, picked
abomination to that last limit OF gas
tronomic depravity in civilized man,
crab-apple pies. During my first win
ter in that fruitlesS country, L really
suffered for one little bite from the
smallest little apple of the bushels |
saw in visions, then spelling at home.
1t seemed to me, many times, man
grown as | was, that / must take the
first stage 1--WE had no railroad into
that section them and get back to
Gods country-the land of sweet ap-
pies, sweet cider, and sweet girls who
spoke Pennsylvania Dutch with a ma
tive accent.
Stopping at the same little half
shak- -half-house, cottonwood tavern
where l found quarters, (the landlord
of which if he had lived a few years
longer. might have had the distinc-
tion and satisfaction of being a BROTH
er-in-law of mine) were several young
fellows from Ohio, all as fruit-hungry
as myself. Among the number was
young married man, who afterwards
became Captain Dickson and now
lives at Sioux Falls, and was not then
old Cap Dickson by a full half cen
tury of eventful years, and L will
guarantee that he has 4 vivid recol-
lection of the incident l am going to
tell about, when l get to it. If he
recalls the incident at all, it will be
with vividness, for he never INDUCES
in reminiscent memories less scintil-
lating than athree-thouSand-ca -candl lie
power arc light. I believe it would
be approaching too near the danger
line, for any man to insinuate, in the
Captains presence, that l ever have
told even fish story that was not
strictly true in every detail, except,
it may be, as to the size of the fish
and who caught it. I believe, after
knowing the Captain for fifty years,
l am equally champion of his verac-
ity, when not too much of tug of
war; on the credulous trust of old
comradeship.
When the winter-imprisoned cote
rie, of whom have been giving some
preliminary explanations, would be-
come tired of burning their shins and
freezing their backs by the old corn
fed stove of the little thin-walled
hostelry, we would sally out and bic
from grocere to groceri, to see if, by
some legerdemain Of transportation.
some sort of fruit might possibly have
arrived by reindeer express with
which we might, once at least, ap.
pease that gnawing hunger. One
cold, stormy night, while on this
hopeless errand bent, four of oul
crowd brought up at grocery store
the proprietor of which knew what
we were after, and who Informed u.
that dog-train from Davenport had
that afternoon brought him scme
thing entirely new in his shop-noth
ing less than lot of canned peaches
fresh from the trees; not even having
been allowed to touch the ground il
their passage from trees into the tins
None of us had ever heard of canned
peaches. In jiffy we had 'chippet
in the acknowledgements just for
starter of a lively winter trade. Witt
an old jack-knife, the proprietor Gu
out the top of the can and exposed
the contents We found a full quar-
of dark-colored semi-liquid mixtur
of about the consistency of tomat'
catsup. 1t emitted strong smell o
old peaches and had the taste of
peach that had lain too long on TIN
ground. That odoriferous smell 0
peaches was enough for us. The com
pound seemed to us both ambrosia
: and nectarean-bo food and drinl
for the gods; especially for that spec
les found tramping Iowa SHOWS wit
buffalo-skin shoes drawn over pot
metal boots, with wildcat money b
the bale in their pockets. The groce
brought plates and spoons from th
back room, and we soon poured th
v coagulated juice into four dishes, an
~ l. r,4x, x,v,