The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1912-07-04
.FORGRAVf ATE THE PIE.
1t was One of Henry Kern's Famous
"SizzIebite" Pies, but Lyman
was EQUAL to the Gdn9'S Plot.

WV
was Equal to the GANGS Plot.
Colonel Lyman ForgraVes, who
for many years has held the respon
sible position of Building Inspector
of St. Joseph, used to live in Leon
and he still has so many friends here
that you couldn't count them all on
the longest day in June. He ar
rived here and at manhOod's estate
almost simultaneously and with
mighty little change in the pockets
of the very tight trousers that draped
his exceedingly slim legs. In less
than twenty-four hours after his ar
rival here everybody in town called
him Lyme and referred to him as
an old acquaintance and recognized
him as the Invest wire that had ever
connected with Leon. He was the
original double-jointed, self-propell-
ing booster, with unlimited horse
power and a motor that never missed
fire and never baked on the steepest
grades.
First he raised Sweet potato plants
to raise cash. Then he made and
burned bricks and raised brick
blocks and court house. He laid
the bricks himself while they were
still hot. and it took a small army
of tenders to keep him in mortar
and brick. He bossed each job him
self, and when he hollered more
mort" people miles away out in the
country heard the call, while every
man on the works jumped into
frenzied activity and the idle by
ISLANDERS burst into sympathetic per-
spiration. Lyme certainly could lay
brick in those days, and he will ad-
nit it himself if you ask him.
But the main object of these writ
ings is to tell you truthful1y of the
time Lyme ate the "sizzlebite' pie,
this episode being unique, inasmuch
as it was one of the two occasions
when the Colonel failed to score on
his celebrated feather-triggered
"come back" The other occasion
limited at being when he busted the
cannon celebrating Tilden's election
and came near disrupting the dem
ocracy-which is another tale.
One fall when the word came that
the ducks were flying, Lyme For
graves, Henry Kerr, Charley Ward
and Charley Allen prepared to go
duck hunting down near Mt. Moriah.
Their covered wagon was we'll stock
ed with provisions and contained
everything recommended by Billy
Perdue and Doctor Hildreth as nee
essary and desirable for duck hunt
ers, but they had no cook. And
they couldn't hire cook, possibly
because it was the common belief in
the community that the man who
ventured into the wilds of Missouri
with this aggregation of alleged
sports was pretty sure to get the
number ten gun accidently projected
into his system. They offered double
wages for cook, and it is said that
they agreed to pension the widow OF
any unfortunate cook who lost his
life while on the line of duty through
the accidental discharge Of fire arms
in the hands of any member of the
hunting party. But in vain. AS they
couldn't hire a cook they determined
to do their own cooking, each of the
party to take his turn in the skillet
department. Lyme, being well up
on legal phraseology, drew up an
agreement, to which all subscribed,
which covenant provided that any
member Of the party who found any
fault whatsoever with the food
placed before him, or who made any
remarks derogatory to the ability or
skill of the cook de facto, or used
language that reflected upon the an
cestry of the said cook, or cast re-
Elections upon the moral standing of
himself or family, was at once to
take the job Of cooking upon himself
and he had to hold that job until
somebody else kicked in violation of
the agreement aforesaid, etc.
This matter having been disposed
of, the party finally got under way,
and after tedious drive pitched
their tent on Goose Lake. Henry
Kerr, who had been flim-hamed into
taking the first turn at cooking was
still on the job, but showed signs of
1t will occur to
you who read this that the compact
entered into regarding the cooking
was admirably adapted to stimulate
invention and experiment on the
part of the cook, and indeed it did
lead to excursions into unknown
fields of culinary endeavor which
might have been of value to us in
these days of high-priced food stuffs
had the results been tabulated with
accuracy. However, there was lack
ing incentive for painstaking care in
the cook tent, and the gloomy hours
Of the dav We're the meal hours,