The Superior times. [volume] (Superior, Wis.) 1870-1912, 1908-05-30
Copyright, by Joseph b. Bowles.)

The county seat also has the distinc-
ton sometimes a doubtful one) OF
having the best band in the county.
1t always has band, and sometimes
! it has the best band, and occasionally
the best is not anything to boast of.
| On the public square in front of the
courthouse, the band stand In the
county seat had been erected and
INTELLECTUALLY it was not anything to
seat the band
! Concerts were on Saturdays, gen.
| orally, and commenced in the after
noon and wound UP about nine o'clock
| in the evening. Selections from the
latest classic ragtime were mostly in
! demand, and while the music was not
at all intricate, some of it was played
| very well, and with invariable earnest
| ness.
Saturday afternoon at the county
seat was always the social clearing
| house for the entire county; for if you
owed anyone a call, and did not have
| time to go over and see him, you
| could count on 1t as almost sure
! thing that you could find him in town
| Saturday some time, and usually in
| the afternoon So the streets and
| corners were lined with men, and the
| stores were crowded with women who
were not only doing their weekly shop
| ping, but were meeting friends and
neighbors and exchanging news and
| gossip of their respective neighbor-
! hoods.
In the summertime too, the local
| baseball club held its celebrations, in
| the way of doughty contests with the
nine of some nearby town; and the ex-
| element was always intense among
, the adherents Of the respective cham
| pions AS there were no street cars
in this particular county seat, and no
means of transportation to the scene
Of the fray except by one small bus
| the spectators generally went in bug
! gies, or even by foot There was just
as much interest displayed as at a
metropolitan game, and excitement
was always at a white heat until the
! SdultS Tel uIlHultu. nc tOuH'S SSt't
papers had elaborate accounts of the
! games and the playing of this or that
! local favorite was gone over with the
same attention to detail and the identi-
cal phraseology used as the dailies in
the great cities used in their columns.
Shopping at the county seat was a
great institution on Saturdays, es-
pecially in the afternoons; the farm
ers driving in from miles around to
make their purchases. Most Of the
stores We're general stores, with mer-
| chandise of all sorts, but there were
some that stuck closely to one line of
goods. l recollect being in one gen
eral store where they sold among 9th
er things stoves and carpets and hear
ing a farmer and his wife who had
Just bought a stove, discussing the
buying of covering for the floor on
which the stove was to be placed. The
wife wanted oil cloth, and the store
keeper, either to please her or to get
rid of the oil cloth, talked long and
enthusiastically on the beauty and de-
STABILITY of oil cloth for the room.
But the farmer was obdurately in
favor OF rag carpet. To the remon-
strances of the storekeeper and the
| protests of his wife he retOrted with
the remark, We'll, by gum, | amt
goin' to step around barefoot on no
oil cloth with the thermometer pintin'
to Is degrees below zero and make
fires ever mornin an git out ashes.
| tried that one winter, an ! want a
carpet, so'st I can make fires bare
foot, an climb back in bed till the old
woman gifts coffee ready They com
| promised on rag carpet to please the
! old man.
In the summertime there are the
/ horse races occasionally, and there is
just as much juggling and working
in ringers" at a county horse race,
as there ever was al a big race track.
l don't know OF any easier way in the
! world to lose money than to bet il on
/ a country horse race; unless it is to
| play poker with total strangers There
was a good track at our county seat
and the best way to enjoy it was to 20
out and see the horses run, and let
the other fellows do the betting.
When the county fair came, there
We're all the old and time honored in.
| stitutions Of the side show, the prize
bull, the largest pumpkin, the three
card monte man and the little pea
that held the shell where you always
guessed II wasn't Here was pink
lemonade and the harmless neces,
sarv peanut; here were the proud and
! naughty stations and curly-necked
| bulls. Here at any time you could
! hear the loving OF the herds, the
Growing Of ROSTERS and the baaing Of
silly sheep Here the farmers leaned
over the pens and stalls, over the
stys and boxes that held the cattle
/ hogs, poultry and various parapher-
MALTA Of the exhibits, and talked
gesticulated and affirmed loudly about
the merits and dement's Of different
! breeds and crosses
And here the inevitable girl and her