The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1909-04-23
And be didn't That was

GrA4 L-HCD44 6 O4G AUE last SlE
Stanton says that one OF the stories
appropriated as one Of Abe's actually
originated in the court house al Har
lal, in Shelby county. Iowa. and that q
lawyer by The name OF Joe Smith was
the originator. The story and the cir
cumstanceS OF its origin are thus re-
lated:
AS already stated, ny place OF the
Pigeon was about half way between
The county seats OF Shelby and HarrI-
son counties | often entertained the
court aad bar as they passed from one
county seat 10 the ether Tney we're
g kitty and bright lot OF fellows, but
poor IN purse. raeir clothes mad seen
long service and represented all the
styles before the war. Joe was great
W., and, unfortunately, always broke.
Once while attending court at Harlan
and while waiting for his own case to
be called, be got quite interested IN
the case which was being tried The
seats Of the trousers OF one Of the at
torneys who was trying the case was
worn through, and as he wore sack
cloth coat and while addressing the
jury would lean forward, one could see
through the hole in the trousers the
white shirt within. philanthropic
brother attorney had drawn up a sub
scription paper and passed II around
among the lawyers for signature, the
purporr OF which was to buy the broth
er attorney new pair OF trousers
Seyenty-fye cents in those days would
have accomplished the mission. When
It came Smiths turn to sign, he. BE-
ing broke as usual, wrote the following
endorsement on the subscription pa
per: On account Of MY financial con-
dition ! am unable TO contribute any
thing toward the object in view
Mr. Stanton describes in vivid Ian
guage winter on western prairie in
e4rly days, when the mercury sank in
to the bulb Of the customary Their
l. meter and it required a spirit her
mometer 10 register the cold One
night 1t touched forty-four degrees be-
low zero. Clerks who slept in the
stores froze their ears while in bed
! Wooden sidewalks lined the streets OF
the town. and all through the night
there was fusilade of thuds ike shots
from muffed guns. 1t was the nails
springing from the boards, caused By
the intense cold. Worse than the
clear cold were the billiards which
usually lasted three days The near
est building TO his house was within
about $50 feet. He recalls one par
ticular blizzard lasting the usual limit
during which he never once caught
sight of that building He recalls also
a snow storm which covered TO the
depth Of three feet a hog lot il which
there were one thousand hogs, which
were later dug out with scoop shovels.
After one storm the Northwestern
never turned wheel for thee weeks
| The author saw a freight train of forty
cars in cut completely covered over
with nothing in sight but the smoke
stack of the locomotive. The train
men had retreated to the nearest farm
house. He heard of a span of horses
coming into town with the driver sit
ting upright in his seat, reins in hand
, frozen to death
What do Indians know about Mason
Try? The inquiry is pertinent in view Of
, an incident related by Mr. Stanton
: The story can best be told in his own
! words:
nile was attending a meeting OF
the Masonic lodge of which / was a
! member, az the little frontier town OF
Dunlap, Iowa, we were called to de.
. TEND the town from threatened at.
tack from the Omaha tribe of Indians
, he indians had been camped for a
; couple o. weeks by the Boyer river
about mile from town. The chief
i was Yellow Smoke He was great
gambler, and a successful one at
that He often visited the saloons OF
: the town for game of cards and to
see what show there was to get his
hands on some fre-water. Yellow
Smoke, unfortunately, sat down one
night in game with some toughs.
,, who purposely got him drunk 10 rob
MIN. They stole his money and an eIe.
CANT fur robe, and in the melee Yellow
Smoke was killed The toughs fed
the town. As soon as the tribe heard
OF Yellow Smokes death they came
2 for the body and demanded the men
} who killed him The body they took
{ away and buried, and sent word tn
!, the town authorities that they wanted
the men who killed their chief. There
were four hundred bucks in the Indian
camp, armed to the teeth, and as Dun.
lap had only about five hundred inhab-
: itants all told things began to look
/ little dubious. The authorities sent
back word which was the truth. thar
the men who killed Yellow Smoke
were not residents Of the place and mad
fed the town. The Indians wouldn't
believe it and demanded the me-, ar
once or they would come after them
We all knew what the result Of thar
expedition would be. A committee Of
which was a member. from the lodge
visited the Indian camp to try to an
pease them and assure them that The
men had left. AT the suggestion Of
one Of the members we dressed in orr
Masonic regalia What a fortunate
suggestion To the establishment of
all OF US, the Indians on our approach
greeted US with Masonic signs and as.
sured Us that they would believe what
we told them. Our statement proved
satisfactory. The Indians having oh
tanned Masonic signs in some unac.