Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1911-02-08
CHAPTER "
CONTINUED from last week.

CONTINUED from last week.
CHAPTER ".
Lyons at that time was well or
the frontier. 1t had population
of three or four hundred. There
were three general stores, all on
the river bank, weekly newspaper
called the Clinton Mirror, which still
continues it's weekly visits to its
patrons; there were two attorneys
one of which became great Grim
inal lawyer and noted politician;
there were also two physicians, q
few mechanics and general popu-
lation such as was to be found in
all villages in a new country.
Concerning a house located a
short distance south of Lyons and
occupied by family with whom our
people became quite familiar, cor
respondent of a Minneapolis paper,
has this to say:
"A relic of ante-bellum days, be-
fore the proclamation of Abraham
Lincoln set free the black man,
exists in Clinton in the shape of an
ancient stone house on Bluff boule-
ward.
The house has the distinction OF
having been used as an ''under-
ground slave station during the
civil war. The name underground
station" for slaves describes those
places of refuge in which runaway
slaves from the south, who had
mada their way across the Mason
and Dixon line, were received and
sheltered. A black skin was an
open sesame to the underground
stations" Now, after the passage
of nearly half century few of these
buildings are to be found, having
lost their identity as places of refuge
for the runaways.
The old house has been unten-
anted for many years. After the
war was over it acquired an unsav-
ory reputation as a resort for
tramps and vagrants. The super
stitious, too, declared that the
spirits of negro slaves came back to
haunt the old house."
1t was toward the end of June
when we arrived in Lyons and as
might be expected, there was little
of a public character to occupy at
tention or furnish diversion. The
Fourth of July was, however, a day
to be remembered, it was the great
national holiday, the only day OF
the entire year wholly given over to
patriotism and noise; Memorial
Day, which has largely supplanted
the Fourth of July, Labor Day and
Harbor Day were then unknown.
To be sure st. Patrick's Day was
celebrated wherever Irishmen were
to be found in any considerable
numbers. but that was not an
American institution, it was mat
ter to be left entirely to the wear
ers of the green and their lively
enemies, the orange men. who
fought it out together on the lines
of est. Patrick's Day" and the
"Boyne Water" We were going to
celebrate the GLORIOUS Fourth"
and it must be done in grand style;
preparations had been going on for
some time. committees had been
appointed to cover every thing ac-
ntual and conceivable, so that moth
ing would be overlooked; every
able bodied man In the village and
most of the women had place
somewhere on some committee, so
that no one might have a reason
able cause for complaint because
they had been overlooked, while
others no better than they had been
given places where they had a
chance to show off,
All arrangements were fina lily
completed, the morning of the
Fourth broke with the promise for
a beautiful day, the little town was
in gala attire, bunting was display
ed on all buildings, wheezy brass
band had been cug up from some
where and was industriously dis
coursing patriotic music; delega-