The Brownsville daily herald. [volume] (Brownsville, Tex.) 1897-1910, 1908-11-21
THE GOSSIPER

said Col S. W. Fordyce as he sat
on the gallery of the New Miller pa
tiently watching a bootblack polish
his shoes. I've been up at Mer-
cedes," he continued, clearing a
tract of land and having a house
built My wife has three young
nephews I am very fond of, and as
soon as get the house built and the
land ready for farming, am going to
bring them out from Alabama and let
! them try their luck in the Rio Grande
Valley. l haven't finished at Mer-
cedes yet and shall return there but
not until l have a little amusement
shooting ducks All work and no
play, you know, makes Jack a dull
boy. DR.. Fred Combe has promised
to visit me at the Point and with
him to help turn the ducks my way,
/ am confident of killing my share. :"
Asked if the cigar he offered The Cos
siper was his last, he replied: mo,
and l never give my last cigar away.
When | was a boy up in Ohio, away
back in the good old days, | used 10
go to mill with a sack of corn and
wait until it was ground into meal,
the honest miller taking for toll
one-tenth, l believe. The mill was
turned with water. and frequently
when there was much grinding to do.
the water. which was held by a dam,
would get too low to move the over
shot wheel which turned the large
stones that did the grinding. 1t was
the custom of the miller to attend
to the farmers who came with several
sacks of corn in a wagon and let US
boys who came with only one sack
on horse, wait. This and the fire.
quency with which the water got low
caused us boys, and there would
sometimes be several of US, to wait
around the old mill all day. with
nothing to eat unless the miller took
pity on Us and asked us up to his
house to dinner. This he once did
while / was of the hungry ones
waiting for our turns. The miller's
name was John Strong, and l will
never forget how honest John served
the pie, with which the dinner was
concluded. He counted the number
of guests, not overlooking himself. and
then cut the pie into just enough
slices to go around. One slice was
twice as large as any of the others
and in passing the pie around he held
his thumb on this large slice. Honest
old John StrOngi | can see him now
serving that pie, and l have never
forgotten it. And you will probably
now understand why l always hold
my thumb on my last cigar to pre-
vent anyone from taking it. Old
John amused me at the time, but ne
taught me a good lesson which has
stood me in hand more. than once. -
And chuckling to himself the Col
onel's fancy no doubt wandered back
to the little old water-mill in far
away Ohio, where honest John Strong
took only honest toll for his share |
and held his thumb on the biggest
piece of pie when he passed it |
around to the hungry millboys.
Secretary Magill is a wheelhorse !
and the Lower Rio Grande Valley |
Commercial Club can thank him for |
giving this section the greatest ad-
vertisement it ever got for fifty
times the money" said c. E. Ham
mond to The Gossiper. Il was at the
convention" he contin-
ued, and l state a plain fact when |
tell you, that Magill was more in de-
mand than any man there. He went
up ahead of the Brownsville deIega-
ton and when We got there we found !
everything arranged to the smallest
detail, for our reception. Through |
he courtesy of Traffic Manager DOH
erty a private car was placed at odi
disposal and in which we left Browns
Vile. This car was switched to the
I'D depot, when We reached Corpus.
Ind this lessened our march down
own nearly half a mile The line
If march had all been laid out by
,ur thoughtful secretary. and as We
marched in procession about fifty
trOng and with our band playing a
lively air, l tell you we everlastingly {
woke those Corpus Christians up au
long the line Our sugar-cane walk
ng sticks were at first mistaken for Il
var clubs, and they caused no little !
omment. And this comment was in {
Teased when the natives and visitors S
earned that our clubs were sugar
ane and that they were used as an
advertisement of the greatness of t
he Lower Rio Grande Valley We I
marched to the State Hotel and ser S
naded Mr. Bryan. who appeared on Y
he balcony and thanked us for the f
Onor. When we got to the con- t
entiOn hall imagine our surprise Z
D find that Magill had covered the {
-alls with banners. maps and large q
each of which told the S
tory of our valley When the CON I
ention met, Magill, who had be- c
ONE about the best known man in !
own. was made, first temporary. and 7
hen permanent secretary He had d
cen working to bring the next con {
entiOn to Brownsville, and as a re- e
Ilt Brownsville won hands down Ev- C
rybody wanted sugar-cane walk {
lg-stick and sugar-cane souvenir J
here were enough of the latter to 90 d
round, but there were only as many S
as there were dele c
ates from Brownsville, and these I
ur delegates gave away in short or /
l