The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1916-01-13
Aunt Sally
Bike
BY M. QUAD
Copyright, 1915, by tho Mcclure
Newspaper Syndicate.

Poolsville had got into perilous state.
Not tin peddler had entered the
town for six weeks, and half the pans
and coffeerots were leaking
/; Business was so quiet that an order
for q whole gallon Of molasses was
almost towns talk.
One of the inhabitants Of Poolsville
was Aunt Sarah Tooker. She was wild
owed six years before and lived with
her daughter Aunt Sally had always
been a hustler, and when dull time
, came to Poolsville she had always been
ready to bestir herself to end it. She
was ready to help end this. She went
to Deacon Thatcher and Indignantly
asked:
care you men going to let this town
fall into its mudhole and" give last
gasp"
"Why, Aunt Sally, what can be
done?' he asked in reply. 1--WE are in
a rut here, and we've got to stay in
that rut till Providence boosts us out
Of it."
Aunt Sally went home to say to her
daughter:
Hammer, am going over to Gull
ford to sec sister Kate for two weeks"
1t was in the early days of the bike.
The machine had been adopted In al
most every other town around, but
Poolsville frowned upon it.
Aunt Sally Tooker knew just how
the bike was regarded in her home
town, and she knew that she was six
ty years old and was expected to set a
good example for the younger folks.
Nevertheless, she had only reached
Guilford, when she said to her sister:
"Sister Kate, have they bikes for
sale in GuilfordY"
"Why, Of course" was the reply.
'"Then get on your bonnet and go
with me to buy one"
"For nephew?"
"No, sir; for yours truly, Aunt Sally
Tooker! have come over here to
learn to ride the bike, and can't get
at it a minute too soon."
"But you are not going to ride the
bike In Poolsvillew gasped the sister.
Why, they will mob you over there"
"Let them mob and be darned.
That's where I'm going to ride the
bike. The old town is in rut, and
I'm going to wake her up"
In week she could ride up hill
IL mi TIM firnn che hO6
given herself to remain in Guilford
had expired she started for Poolsville |
on her bike.
The highway leading out Of and into
Poolsville Is hill with gentle slope
half a mile long, and it was the hour
Of noon one day when Aunt Sally
Tooker reached the brow Of this hill.
There she rested and looked down |
upon the village. It seemed asleep.
It was after Aunt Sally had survey"
ed this peaceful scene for five minutes
that she uttered three or four long
drawn screams and mounted her bike |
and started down the hill. Though her
screams aroused the town as the re-
port Of cannon would, all of sud-
den people appeared at their doors
and their gates and exclaimed to each |
other:
"What in heavens name Is that? |
Has the Judgment day come at last?"
It hadn't, butzkunt Sally Tooker and
her bike had.
She was coming down that long |
grade, holding her bike steady with
one hand and waving her bonnet with
the other. She went through that vii
lage like a cannon ball.
At the farthest outskirts of the VII
lage Aunt Sally turned about and came
whizzing back to dismount in front OF
the postoff1ce, where the crowd was
thickest.
"Now, ma, you have done it!' was
the greeting of her daughter as she en-
tered the house.
Eyes, have woke up Poolsville, and
you are going to see things hum" was
the proud reply.
1t wasn't an hour later before the
"hum" was heard and seen. The min
lister Of Aunt Sally's church appeared
to ask:
"Sister, is that your bike?"
II paid $S5 for it, parson."
"And are you going to ride it in
Poolsville?n
Morning, noon and night and some
times in the afternoon"
"Then, sister, you must take the con-
sequences
II will, pars0n."
The consequences were that charges
were preferred against Aunt Sally.
The charges against Aunt Sally were
for riding bike In the public streets
and thereby injuring the cause Of re-
ligion. In FIVE minutes her lawyer
tore these charges to shreds. In five
moro those 1.,hn ,,odn Thorn were made |,