Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1910-06-25
sTO3iES-LETTERs.
AN IMAGINARY JUNIOR PICNIC.

AS we Juniors cannot have a real
picnic it is very nice for us to have
an imaginary one and we will set the
date, Thursday, June %. We then
set the place for our picnic at the
Taylor Orphan Asylum at Racine Wis
consin and we will run special car
from St. Louis, Mo-, by way of OF
tumwa to accommodate all Juniors.
AS the car leaves St. Louis it car
ries Margaret Sunley of Garfield, ave-
nue.. Many of the Juniors with
their picnic baskets filled with de-
licious picnic lunch boarded the car
as it passed the different towns. When
the train arrived at Keokuk it was
joined by large crowd of Juniors
from nearby towns. When it arrived
at Pennington it was joined by Retta
and Bertha Ruark and Inez Boise with
all the Juniors from nearby towns.
We were joined at Bonaparte by
Leona Bradford with all her Junior
friends. When the train arrived at
Eldon the Juniors were very much
delighted to meet Beryl and Norma
Eapiels and Josephine Hollenbecll
with all their Junior friends. We were
very much surprised when Josephine
and Frances Merton of Melrosc and
Lois Griffin of Abba who had taken
a. train from Abba and met our car,
stepped in. and Maude and Mabel
slsirvin With all their brothers and
sisters and ell the Juniors around
Floris also joined the car at Eldon.
When the car arrived at Ottumwa
we were met by the jolliest crowd OF
Juniors at the station, headed by our
Editor and Forest Weber, followed by
Mabel Reifsnyder, Helen Rowe and
Bonnie Sayles and many more too
numerous to mention. Leona Vest al
so came in from the country with her
brother and sisters and met us there.
We then took northeasterly course
and crossed Iowa and were joined at
many other places by happy Junior
girls and boys. We crossed the Missis'
sippi at Dubuque, which was quite a
treat to many of us Juniors. We cross
ed the southern part of Wisconsin ana
landed at Racine, Wis, which VIC
found to he beautiful town with
29,1O2 inhabitants. Here we were met
by Agnes Jacobson and several other
Juniors from the home and escorted
to the asylum.
We found the home out On farm
and a beautiful home it was.
We found beautiful place to spread
our table cloth and began empting
our lunch baskets. Just as we were
about to sit down to our feast who
should arrive but Louis and Temple
Alternately on their return trip to see
Colonel Roosevelt. Hearing CT our
picnic they rode by to take dinner
with us. We were all soon seated at
the table or rather on the ground
around the table. We began to num-
Der, beginning at the editor who was
seated at the head and we numbered
$50. The editor then returned thanks
and we did ample justice to the
good things set before us.
After dinner the Juniors all began
to call on our editor for an address
and we set the subject, How We
Juniors Should Live to Become
Wise Men and Women She handled
the subject fine and made it very
plain to us how we should live, as we
Juniors are composed of little boys
and girls whose hearts desire is to
become wise men and women.
We then called on Agnes Jacobson
to make an address on the Taylor Or.
phan asylum, which was very inter
esting.
We then called on Lois Alternately
to make us an address on his trip to
see the ex-president, which was also
very interesting It being almost time
for our car to start on our hcmeward
Journey we adjourned by singing "God
Be With You Till We Meet Again
We then started for our homes, feel,
ing we had spent a day long to be re
membered by many Junior boys and
girls.
Retta Ruark, age II,
,RF. D. No. 8, Pennington, Ia.