Putnam County herald. (Cookeville, Tenn.) 1903-1922, 1918-08-01
CRACKERS GULCH

Neck all the time, where the persim-
mons grow, and now at Crackers
Gulch. Well, if you could see him
now you would say he is in all over
his head with both feet for you have
to look up more than once to see day
light, and the sun is not up before
$3.50 and shines in only from ten till
two. 1t will not do to say too much
about the Gulch and let you see for
yourself and be satisfied that what's
the use to pay railroad fare to the
Rockies to gaze ON scenery and the
gulches when you can go southeast
from Cookeville only four miles and
turn to your left, 60 past Col.Ander-
sons and around his barn, turn to
your right and then go just a little
ways and she sets in; but to see it
rightly don't look up till you get to
the big spring just below the power
house, and don't froget to be late in
the day, for the lightning bugs use
their hearts delight UP to o'clock
and the katydids sing all day, but all
frogs are barred as Pharaoh had left
the Gulch and gone to Egypt some
tine before this particular plague was
sent on him, and besides if frog
was to make his appearance and
start to Jump he might never alight
till he landed on Crackers Neck, just
a mile south of the Gulch.
But to be serious, this is the old
DR.. Pointer mill, as it was called way
back yonder when / was a wee boy,
and long before they called the boys
kids and the girls kidos, and before
the youth parted his hair in the mid
die and was called a dude and the
girl that rode bicycle was called a
dudine; yes, be serious as well as
melancholy. Now if was to tell all
that / know that has transpired at
and around this old mill site would
simply have to write it in book form
and go way back when the Indians
had one of their mighty hunting
grounds right here, and many has
been the deer and bear and other big
game that was brought to this gulch
where water was plenty, and secure
from their many enemies and they
did not have to build trenches and
breastworks, because at the bottom
of the gulch you get way below zero
and karo and no trouble to be hero,
and got rocks and boulders and bluffs
and trees to fall back behind, then |
you can shoot Luke and give UP your
gun, as Dan Boone once said.
Its mighty hard matter to be
mild and settled down to sad facts,
but the first fine morning this year
after the ice foes had gone out was
on my way to the Gulch, astride of
General, and who should / meet but !
Arthur Johnson, the man that has l.
passed the 81 mile stone and fetches
the duns and the weekly papers and
the monthly farm news; also the
billy docs" to the dear seekers af-
ter things going on outside of civil
ization and the war zone. Arthur
knew me, fine as the day was, and
asked me which way was going, |,
and / said to the Gulch, OF course.
Then had to tell him of facts that
he had never dreamed OF. And, in
the course of our confab / told him
that / was now head miller at Col. i
Anderson's overshot, and that he /,
must spread the news on his round
over hill and dale, up the mountain
md down the mountain, tell every
body and their mother-in-law that
now the mill had a miller that learn
I'd to grind their corn fine or coarse
o suit the taste, by one who learned I
he miller's trade at the age of ten,
ind has never forgot his calling. Ar !,
hur gave one of those two by four
yrins and promised he would sure
'hoot off his bazoo so far as Uncle
sam would permit, for you may
yuess that if you toll for your Uncle
samuel that you must not talk too
much with your mouth, and not say +,
lnything against the Germans, for
hey may be going up and down see II
ng whom they can devour; besides,
is not polite to speak III of anyone, {
lot even your neighbor or your own I
riends, or your neighbor's man ser {
7ant, nor his maid-oh, you know q
What the Bible says about it away
'ack there in Genesis and Exodus, 4
md Beelzebub, and all the rest of ]
he writers of the Good Book. So,
ct her slide. G. w.