Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1911-03-07

single tin candle stick was the acme OF
candelabra Of those days. have
moulded hundreds of these candles
myself. The tallow being soft was
subject to a run down feeling, as the
wick would burn away, frequently a
whole avalanche of tallow run down
and cling to the side Of its parent
stem. "A pair Of shutters were indis-
pensable to clip off the charred WICK
ing as the candle melted. These snuf-
fers were on the plan Of pair or
shears, cute little housing set on top
into which the smoking, pungent, dy-
ing wick would be jammed to snuff
out all the life 1t had. This gave rise
to the very common expression This
life was snuffed out" Speaking Of
which carries me back to the old
Dutch doctor spoken Of before, who al
ways carried box of tobacco snuh
and used 1t SO frequently and copiously
that his nose rivalled tallow dip In
brilliancy. Carpets on the floors were
the very, top notch of extravaganza.
The floors were kept clean by daily
scrubbing with water soap and sand;
but rag carpets did become quite gen.
eral, and these were made of strips OF
all sorts O. cloth sewn together at the
ends, wound into balls that went 70 the
carpet weaving loom. Carpet rag
bees were Of frequent occurrence,
the girls and boys sewing rags to-
gether, and when the pile of rags were
neatly converted into balls, taffy
pull and dance were sure to follow,
excepting in the homes Were dancing
was not permitted, when "blind mans
buff" pussy wants a corner" ring
around a rosy" and such innocent
amusements were INDUCED, invariably
each girl and boy with hunk OF taffy
in his hand and mouth 1t was always
a stucleup crowd at these parties even
II no one had "a shekel. The StOuts,
who lived near the fair grounds-about
two miles out, gave one of these par
ties. They had just finished a COM
Portable house that was white plaster
ed inside-the wall being marble
white as also had been the ceilings,
but Abe and John being artists had
taken very soft candles that gave off
smudge Of smoke rivalling in COM
parison, the funnel of an ocean
steamer and run strealss of that black
sniudge in all sorts of shapes and
contortions all over those pure white
ceilings! It proved to be so depressing
and disgusting that the crowd of girls
and boys who had walked out from
town and came in from the surround
ing neighborhood in radius of five
miles, gave up and went away without
sewing rag or pulling wad of taffy.
Charley Kellogg was the early and
efficient plasterer. No such work is
done In these days, tell you. When
a house was plastered then 1t meant
good for generation.
Say, talk about your "charivaris!"
When Jake Houk married Doc. Com
stocks daughter and brought her
home, about four miles out on the
Eddyville road, gang Of us fellows
hoofed it out there, with any and
everything that would make noise,
among the jangling things being a
circular saw that we actually took out
of it's fastenings In the Myers Cor
Davis) saw mill, that must have meas.
ured five feet in diameter. For once
was grateful for my sawed off
statue because thus escaped helping
to tote that musical instrument the
eight or more miles that it was car
ried on pole run through the hole in
its center, on the shoulders Of the tail
est troubadours in that gang. Then we
had bull fiddle, made of a. barrel
across the head Of which was tightly
stretched buckskin thongs heavily
rosined, across which was drawn a
bow also thickly rosined When that
horror was in action the people over
at Davenport and Rock Island on the
Mississippi were terrified! Well. it and
the jangling (but musical shrieking)
of that circular saw beaten with
wagon spoke, were actually heard in
Rlahesburg and other towns in a like
radius The fellows who carried that
saw b. raw shoulders for mon
afterward. Gus (Major) Hamilton
will swear he wasn't in that crowd.
Make him take of his coat, ETC., and
examine his shoulders! By-the-way,
major, do you remember how forlorn
and abject Major Woodward, your pre-
decessor in the seth looked, when he
stretched out the waist band of his
trousers, while so sick with dysentery
down at that hell-nole Helena, Ark,
and showed about yard Of slack, as
he groaned, Good Lord, whatll my
wife think" That look, that groan
will haunt me always. The last |
heard Of him he was an examiner In
the patent office in Washington, D. C.
He was related in some way to Law
yers Dixon and Walker.
VIM. P. Sharp was q shoe maker
and q good one He was a lieutenant
in Captain Wright's (afterward Cliff
ton's) company H., seth. His daugh-
ter Mollie married Boude, the railroad
agent. should have mentioned that
Jake Houk went out as lieutenant in
Mahon's Company E., but remained N
service only briefly. when he re-
signed, on account of Ill health E. M. B.
Scott took his place.
Joshiah T. Young, father Of your
United States Senator. Lafayette
Young, was corporal in, think, Com
pany c., 36th Ia. Jo., as we always
called him, was rather dignifled, and
scorned to use common camp Ian
but one morning at guard
he was in command of squad,
among whom was that torment that be-
came wagon master of the regiment
name not now remembered-only his
who persisted in get
ting out OF line after several cautions