Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1920-07-29

the last of the series on Dear Ok
Mineral Point, | will tell on I'VE
boys" BY this, | mean a few that
tifty-ive to sixty years ago was most
intimate with
Besides the boys of the mines. whom
| have mentioned in previous letter,
were jim and Elmore Hutchinson Jim
used to kind of bully it over me. but he
turned out to be such a good fellow
that | have long ago forgiven him. |
think these boys have not forgotten
how we used to poster poor old George
Kissell by throwing stones at his stable
door wonder if Jim remembers when
| struck him in the face with a stick of
stove wood. If he does he will remem-
Der why did it
Tom and Irwin Cox made another just
suck pair and Tom treated me about
as did the aforesaid Jim. When about
seven years of age, | was carrying a
couple of small pals of milk to some of
our customers and when passing the
Cox home the two boys came out and
pitched on me, causing me to be bap-
tised in the Tactic fluid |, of course,
went home bawling to my mother, who
just marched me over to Mrs. Cox,
who, dear lady that she was, sent the
boys to their room for some time on
very reduced and plain rations.
Another experience | had with sever
al boys, among them Jim Prince and
Frank Punk and Wilbur Pierce. This
bunch Of us concluded Mr.. Mayhew's
apples looked better than what grew in
our own little orchard So one night
we concluded to test them. After get
ting out of the orchard, although they
were beautiful red, we found they
were hard and UNBEATABLE, even for boys
who never stopped for future conse-
quences. so as we passed the house of
one of j. VS. tenants, we let a
volley fly at the door, whereupon the
man rushed out and up to his landlord.
They both took after us and finally,
though we were far from their homes,
they caught us. They identified each
one and assured us we would be taken
care Of in the morning, which of course
we fully expected. But as that all
'round-boys friend, James Hutchinson,
ST., was Justice of the Peace. he per-
suaded them to let the matter drop at
the same time reminding them that
they were once boys.
But that bunch of boys at the old
"diggings" took the cake for mischief
and Sonny" Goldsworthy and myself
were as bad as any of them. recall
that long after ! reached manhood,
when on a visit TO my sister Della IS
home, | was recounCing to her some of
my boyhood experiences. She remarked
that she used to think that she had
model brother, but she guessed was
about as bad as the rest after all "a and
| assured her she was a good guesser.
About fifty-fve years ago, Sonny and
| became the proud and brave owners
of muzzle- loading pocket pistol, for
which we paid whole dollar. That
was lot of money to as in those days.
We got to be pretty fine shots with
the thing could hit candle flame at a
good distance down in the drifts. One
day we were shooting real bullets at
the windIas beam, fifty feet above US,
and had just fred a shot when almost
the same instant good, faithful old
Tommy Mankey stuck his head over the
shaft and we were a scared pair sure
We used to carry the dangerous weap-
on turn about for a week. Finally ,
was willing to part with it, for one day
it was discharged in my pocket, the
ball grazing my knee and burning my
pants badly. The first could hide. but
my mother never knew the real truth
about the burned trousers
We used TO quit work at 3 p m. at
the diggings on Saturdays. One Of
those afternoons a whole cart load Of
us concluded to finish the day by going
down to Cedar Cliff for a swim was
driving old Sam and Sonny sitting by
my side with our feet on the shafts,
when, at a wink and nod from me he
pulled the pin that held the cart bee
from dumping and up it went dumping
the whole bunch into the mud. But the