The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1922-03-23
OLD LOUIE GOES
OVER THE HILL
Hermit Who Lived Along
Oplane River Taken to
County Farm.
FAITHFUL DOG TOO
Collie Dog which Has Sup
ported Old Man by Bringing
in Game Goes with Him.

This is the story of "the greater
love"-not the greater love of a man
for woman or woman for a man,
but the love of dog for his master.
The fact that the master was down
and pretty nearly out, did not in any
way shake the friendship Of his dog,
and that love of the dog was found
to have kept alive the spark of life in a
broken old frame for more than a year
yesterday.
This is not story taken from some
moving picture scenario, but the re-
port of two county officials who went
out on a mission of charity on Monday
afternoon and invaded the shack of an
old man living along the Oplane river
bottoms in the town Of Pleasant
Prairie.
Long Desperately Sick.
They call him "Old Louie" out on
the Pleasant Prairie Bristol border line
and if anyone there ever knew his last
name, they had forgotten it years ago.
The old man is 65 years of age, un-
kempt, unshaven and tottering from
continued attacks of rheumatism and
other illness. He has lived in the old
shack in the river bottom on the farm
of Lee Benedict for the past eight
years and he has bitterly resented any
efforts on the part of his more opulent
neighbors to NEEDLE with his affairs.
The conditions in the old shack became
such that the people in the neighbor-
hood demanded an investigation and
County Agent Holderness and assistant
humane officer Parker went out on
Monday to make the investigation.
Describe Scene of SqualOr.
"It isn't possible to describe the
place in which the old man was living"
said one of the officials. at wasn't fit
for hog pen. 1t hadn't been cleaned
in years and the old man admitted to
us that he had not been able to leave
the house. He said that he hadn't
earned cent of money in a year and
half and that much of this time he
had been bed-ridden with no one to
care for him-but his collie dog"
It was some dog-sleek and fat and
out of keeping entirely with everything
about the place. The collie growled
when the officials of the county ap-
preached the place, but when they went
to the door and the old man allowed
them to enter, the dog seemed salts
fed. He went over and stood guard
like a sentinel in front of the decrepid,
unkempt old man while the officials
sought to arrange to make the old man
county charge and send him to the
poor farm.
"I'll never go to the county farm"
the old man declared. "I'm just get
ting start now" He pointed with
pride to a dozen half-starved chickens
which were sharing part of the shack
with him and to pile of unshelled
beans which had been converted into a
bed for two honey weezened cats. The
cats came up and pushed the dog out
of the place of honor and licked the
old mans hand. "Why, l got four
eggs today!" he continued, "the chick
ems are just beginning to lay and I'm
going to be alright"
"But you haven't anything to eat and
nothing to wear" the county officials
persisted. Then the old man told them
his secret. "You know, it's the dog"
he said. "He goes out into the fields
along the river and gets rabbit or
sometimes a squirrel and brings them
in and we share them"
The old man declared that for a year
and half the dog had been bringing
in the provisions in the meat line and
he insisted that he had been pretty
we'll supplied. There was evidence that
he had not forgotten the dog and his
clean, well-combed coat, and his round
ness evidenced that he was entirely
out of the picture.
1t was late in the afternoon before
the officials managed to get the old
man to consent to go to the county
farm. "I'll never go unless I can take
the dog with me-" he shouted to the
officials. Then they told him he could
take the dog. "And want my chick
ems and the CATS" the old man con-
tinued "They go right along with
you," the county agent told him, and
the old man seemed to be little more
resigned.
This afternoon man was sent out
to clean up the old man and provide
him with suitable clothing and on
Thursday morning the strange process
sion of sold Louie" his collie, his cats
and his chickens, will leave the old
shack and go cover the hills to the
poor house."