Mexico Missouri message. (Mexico, Audrain County, Mo.) 1899-1918, 1918-04-18
How Roy Ferris
Found A HCow-slip'
A Fabulous Price Paid For Coal
Land--Thc Groundhog's House.
Cleaning Season.

mCATbHuT, OulO, ApIll ~ 1910
Dear Mr.. Beal:
am homesick, but can't come for
a while yet, for we are busy getting
out COAL They all quit work here at
$3.50, so that leaves me a little time
to myself / never appreciated Mex
leo so much before. Her industries,
her train service, her schools, her
people, and--but, goodness gra-
cious, you know it already. We have
some good people out here, splendid
people, but, say, when fellow is used
to looking at the same old court
house for so many years, it "sorter"
startles him when he looks up and
it is missing.
Everybody here talks coal, oil and
gas. You can hear nothing else from
morn till night. The State of Ohio
decided to mine its own coal the 9TH
er day-to use the prison labor. They
held an option on some land here
for S175,OO0. They were little slow
and the option ran out. The land
was sold next day for $575,OOO.
The hills here are covered with
beautiful ferns and flowers: went
to the woods Sunday with 21 boys,
aged about IL years. They told me
more about woodcraft than I ever
dreamed of. l wanted to see a cow
slip. They offered to find one. l sup
posed they were laughing at my ig-
norance, but they led the way over
looking deep ravine. There was all
that remained of Old Bossy, the
cow-where she had given up the
ghost, and they caught her by the
tail and slipped her down the hill
amid shouts of laughter. The next
moment they handed me a boquet OF
the beautiful little cowslip, or drag
on tongue, which shows boys are
about the same the world over.
had a few spare moments to no
tice the birds as they came in from
their long flights from the South.
Some came in pairs, some in fiocks.
They paired off after reaching here.
l also discovered that the story of the
male robin coming few days ahead
is true You can tell the male, for
Nature has splashed an extra coat
of vermillion on his breast. The song
sparrow, titmouse and ground spar
row, who are either too lazy to go
south or else stay here thru the win
ter to make things more cheerful, re-
fused to sing until the first birds re-
turned. Then they sang seemingly
for joy, at the return of their little
friends.
There are lots of groundhogs
here. Now is the season for cleaning
house Father Grounding looks dis
-gusted after returning from a walk
and finding things all changed, when
things were plenty good enough as
they were. The grounding really
does have a good house-cleaning at
this time of year. Old beds are re-
moved, new leaves carried in, and a
general overhauling done.
You can hear the constant boom
of the guns from Camp Sherman.
French warfare imitation, gas fights
are held, and all the practice of real
warefare is gone thru Things per-
tanning to the war is everyone's con-
versation.
Many caves are found in these
hills-so dear to the heart of the
boy Many bubbling springs, good
old chestnut and beech nut trees and
a wilderness of wild raspberries,
whortleberries in season. Great for
est fires annually destroy thousands
OF dollars worth of timber, for no one
has the time to fight it, for the cheap
est labor around the mines is $4.40
per hour.
L. ROY FERRIS.