The Lakeland evening telegram. (Lakeland, Fla.) 1911-1922, 1916-05-11
How thu Town of
Ladybird Was
DepOpulated
An Episode of May Day
By F. A. mitchell

ssssssssssssssssssssssssss
What we now call the middle west
was settled up in spots by very differ
ent peoples, and these spots, now cities
or towns, show the differences to this
day. One place will have been settled
by refined people, and their descend
ants are refined; another will have
been settled by a rough class, and its
population will be rough today.
When one Of these spots was in en-
bryo-we will call 1t Eaglebird-its in
habitants were not naturally rough
/ but they were all men, and men with
out women will in time degenerate into
wild beasts. No woman would go to
Eaglebird because there were no wo-
men there. One or two of the men
went east at different times 70 marry a
sweetheart, but came back alone. When
the girls learned that Eaglebird was
exclusively a man town they invaria-
bly, declined to exchange refined sur
roundings for a den.
There was a town not far distant
from Eaglebird that we will call Lady
bird. When the former was settled the
latter had been a town for two dec
AIDES. True, the Ladybirdians had run
out the Indians, but they had all come
to the region, men and women togeth-
er, from Connecticut, where there was
college, and there was not a poorly
/ 81, n,,t
Ladybird had not been favorably To-
Gated for trade, and its young men
when grown sought buster fields of la
bor while their sisters remained where
they were Instead of manufactures,
there were libraries and the old folks
and the girls were very intellectual.
Eaglebird had been settled for land
speculation. Ten men with money had
purchased a tract for n song and Sc
cured others to join them in settling 1t
by offering a share in the property. In
this way some forty men. mostly young
and all unmarried, were secured as
emigrants for the enterprise. They
built town, but no more men came,
and owing to the absence of women
there were no children.
O'Brien, who was the originator of
the scheme, one day called a meeting
in the town hall, building IL by IS,
used principally for poker parties. and
thus addressed the gathering:
Gentlemen, IL we can't get some wo-
men for wives we'll have to give up
this scheme and go somewhere else.
I've a proposition to make. There are
more than fifty single women in Lady
!. bird. Efforts have been made to In.
duce some of them to marry our fel.
: lows, but they have turned up their
: noses at us. What do you say to
= swooping down on 'em and carrying
'em OFF,"
The idea took like wildfire. Natu
rally, the youngest men were the most
: enthusiastic. Thirty men agreed to jolr
the abductors, and no one of them was
over thirty years DID, while the great
majority were not twenty-five. This
! looked well for the scheme, for the
. girls they were to run Off had nearly
all been born since the settlement o.
Ladybird and were therefore young.
The very next day after the propose
of the abduction scheme lady and he
= husband who We're driving through tn,
. country with view to establishing al
u emigration scheme stopped at Eagle
bird and asked for entertainment 70
y the night They were accommodated
- and so long had 1t been since the mel
had seen a woman that they treated
the lady as though she were queen
20 Every man In the town offered to serv
her In the evening they asked If sh
:, would not talk to them. 1t didn't mat
u ter what she said; they only wished t
listen to the sweet, soft voice of
woman. She consented, and all ad
" journed to the town hall, where tn
" lady was given a seat on platform a
one end of the room. This is what sh
!, said to them:
:, Gentlemen, don't wonder you wis
- to listen to q woman's voice. You ar
a all refined men, roughened by Twin
;. without woman's quieting influence
= What you need is wives
!, There was howl OF response to thi
!, that broke in upon the address. On
:, man whose voice drowned the other
a gave away the scheme to abduct tn
9 young Ladybirds. He was howle
10 down for doing so, since 1t was to b
expected that he had rendered 1t abol
"A tive. When some sort of order was +,
=. stored the lady spoke again:
4. 81 am not sure but what your pla
n may be advisable"
,e This drew forth a burst of applaus,
IN Perhaps many of you," the lad
n. continued, "who are educated me
may call to mind how those men VIII
ey settled Rome as you have settle
N. Eaglebird invited their neighbors, ii
er Sabines. to a feast and carried o
their daughters. The women BEGAN
of attached to their husbands, and whe
,r- their fathers and brothers attacked IL
of Romans the women interposed an
stopped the fight"
Sc After another howl of approval Il
rs. lady went on:
en- II wouldn't advise so treacherous
method as inviting the Ladybirders
KS a feast. 1t is not necessary. Rath
wait for some celebration during whiC
he the girls are out in body. My hu
IN band and l intend to pass throus
or Ladybird. and l will make inquiries
to to a favorable time for your enterpri