The Oskaloosa herald. (Oskaloosa, Mahaska County, Iowa) 1885-1919, 1916-03-23
THE RoUsTABoUT's
History of Mahaska County.
Chan, XIu-FactOries.

Nndp. Nlll.--F dNlOlI So'
We have often wondered in these
days of "all wool clothing who picks
all the burs out of the wool. Did
you ever tackle that job? Such a
question would be wholly unneces-
sary if you had been a boy in Oska-
loosa during the palmy days of Levi
Pambleton or |. Frankel. Few OF
them escaped. In those days there
must have been high protective tar
if on wool as there were a lot OF
sheep in Mahaska county. And .
lot of cookie burs also. And
cookie burs and wet weather and
sleeps tails made an awful combin-
alton. 1t was also an unwritten law,
made to hold trade-that when the
sheep were sheared, it was permiss
able to do it in the mud and let the
soil and cookie burs go with the
wool But the burs would not &C
with the agents of the eastern wool
en- mills, so the stickers had to be re
moved. No amputations or surgica
operations were permissible, ant
burs had to be extracted by hand, nc
difference how sore the fingers might
be. Talk about husking cOrn.-that
is play beside the Old-faShiOned gin
Mag process for wool.
We don't remember what the I'M
ion scale was, but we got so much
per thousand by measure for the
burs. 1t was too hard work tC
count them. And we recall having
cleared IS cents one week, besides all
the fun we had, at our own expense.
After the stickers were all removed
and paid for, the wool had to be
packed in immense sacks. These
were suspended from big holes in
the upstairs floor and ran down into
the basement A little wool was
dumped in and then it had to be
tamped down. This tamplng bust,
ness was no joke to the fellow wh'
had to be the tamp-and if our rec
objection serves us right, we were it
about half the time. Hanging O.
the end of a rope like the monkey on
jumping jack, we were hoisted ur
and down by the rest of the force
until the aforesaid amount of WOO
was packed to a sufficient degree
or at least until the rest of the force
had all the amusement they wanted
And believe us,-with the inside of a
fellows undershirt and his hair full
Of greasy wool skinning the cat and
Ginning the elusive center pole down
in a deep bag on a July day in the
back end of ware house with TIN
roof and no windows was no picnic
at least not that kind that the Sun
day school kids sigh for.
After that we reached stage in
our career when we thought we
were some artist, as we'll as drug
gist and bottle washer. It was
when we worked for Will Mays in
the room that is now occupied by
frank Movies and his smoke factory.
Will Wells was the prescription
clerk, and ed.headed. We used to
draw fancy pictures with water col
ors and soap on the windows and on
the big mirror at the rear OF the
store,--also take care of 81 coal oil
lamps. 81 canary birds, 2S7 shelf
bottles, ,l3 show cases. IS different
oil barrels. stove and Joe Huber'e
cat. but anyhow. some fellows
standing out In front Of the store one
day. commenced to comment on our
claims on Fame One fellow finally
said. Refs! ANYBODY could do that.
Will Wells and his red hair came
to our rescue with 45-centimeter
gun end declared tnat "mavbe. Int
ne Is the only fellow around here who