The daily Gate City and constitution-Democrat. (Keokuk, Iowa) 1916-1922, 1918-08-31
DAYS OF REAL EXCITEMENT
DESCRIBED BY OLD SETTLER
In Days Gone by Keokuk Had Things Happen That
Amounted TO Something in the Way of Thrills That
Made Talk

we don't have any real excitement
In keokuk any more" said the OLD
Settler, apropos of the stir made by
recent happening, "but we sure used
TO have things worth while to excite
the old town"
Now, when the War Eagle carried
away span of the bridge and every
man, woman and child in Keokuk col
, lected along the top of the bluff to
see 1t, that was some real excitement"
he went on reminiscently. 1.-THE town
was not such noisy city then, and
everybody heard the prolonged series
of short toots of the steamboat whis-
tie and at that time everybody knew
all the boat signals. So, everybody
knew that boat was in deadly peril
from the whistle blasts, and the fire
bells at once Joined and rang to beat
the band. The combination brought
out the crowd until there were not
enough people left off the bluff top
to shut the windows Of a house in
storm.
The boat foated down near the
landing and sank, the bridge span
was in the river Just below It's piers,
and for the rest of that day-for a
week for that ms tter-there was
enough to talk about to keep the town
up to par in conversation.
Thrills Of the Civil War;,
tIn the last real war we had, Keo-
kuk was a point for the mobilization OF
all the Iowa soldiers before going
south-but we called 1t rendezvous
then, instead of mobilize-funny. isn't
it. that we used a French word then,
and now never use 1t when our sol
diers are going to France.
There were plenty of thrills in that
other wartime, in KeokulK. The shrill
fife and drum corps could be heard
almost any time, and soldiers march
ing in blue were as common as auto
mobiles are now.
Then, occasionally, a hospital boat
would come up the river and land its
load of wounded and sick here. Keo-
kuk was one of the biggest base hos
pital posts in America then-thoughi
we never heard of a base hospital me
old Hotel Keokuk building, the Estes
House, the old Medical college build
ing and the old Simpson house were
big hospitals full Of sick and wounded
and volunteer nurses who never saw
n thermometer and never heard of an
antiseptic. Keokuk was in the civil
war, all right.
II
When Soldiers EnIivened Things.
"And when things seemed little
dull. in that other war time, the sol
diers would proceed to livsn them up
"They made some real excitement
when they mobbed Claggetts old Con-
stitution newspaper and dumped most
of the material into the Mississippi
river. They did not like the tone OF
the paper in relation to the war, Tor
Claggett was Marylander who seem
ed to think it was awful to kill peo-
ple on any aecount-he had about the
same attitude that the more modern
pacifists had not long ago.
some soldiers simply went into
the newspaper office. jumbled up the
desks and things, and carried the type
cases and whatever was not too
heavy down to the levee and threw
it into the river. That made quite a
little excitement. but nobody in all
thority was ever able to discover
what men were engaged In the riot
' y
Tragedy and Comedy.
"a little later there was smallpox
scare that kept the whole town torn
up for a month. There We're few
deaths from the disease which scared
people as much as a Zeppelin raid
would alarm them now. Things have
changed lot, for nobody pays any
attention to smallpox epidemic now.
"But 1t was not always tragedy that
stirred up Keokuk occasionally. One
f the funniest things that ever hap
pened in the world. occurred here,
and one of the biggest practical jokes
ever pulled off by graceless young
sters. 1t was full of dynamite and for
awhile threatened to be a tragedy,
but in the end was only funny.
Zone Sunday morning, some young
men in a cigar store, wrote note
to the colored ministers in town and
sent colored man called Sugarl1p
out to deliver it. He did, and then
tho ayritep1aDt bapan