Wauwatosa news. [volume] (Wauwatosa, Wis.) 1900-1948, 1922-12-21
wADE's TRIP
Pelham

4
One good way to sell an article that
viii not sell itself, is to show your
customer some similar article of less
merit first. Likewise, if ones lines
seem to have fallen in rocky places,
he can always sell, or dispeI, or trade
his gloom for glee, by getting in touch
with those who are still less favorably
situated. These remarks are offered
as a psychological introduction to the
fact that our cousins, the Harwoods,
wanted to show us the oldest town hall
IN existence in the State of Massa-
chusetts.
To those of our Wisconsin readers
who wonder why there needs be any
introduction to such fact, let me say
that IN Massachusetts one may not
even speak to q neighbours dog without
a proper introduction, lest the owner
point his finger and say, Behold, an
unsalted man from the west. Now the
road from Enfield to Pelham was not
charted on my good roads map, but
Benjamin said he knew the way. 1t
was matter of ten miles as the crow
flies, but fifteen on the speedometer.
owing to the fact that in Massachu-
sets the hypothenuse of a triangle is
greater than either of the sides, and
we seemed to be going up one hypoth-
enuse and down another all the way
| burned out q brake lining going
down one Hill and resolved to go a-foot
next time.
Long before we got there guessed
why cousin Benjamin had insisted on
paying for the gasoline at the filling
station as we started on our trip that
morning. A sort of peace Offering or
an apology, for putting Lizzie and me
through such a course of sprouts-I
said "course of sprouts" but that ex-
preston is not, in this case, a figure Of
speech. The State of Massachusetts
recognizes that it is better to have
these miles and miles of abandoned
farms continue to be owned by private
parties than to have them come bacI
to the state for non-payment of taxes
so it taxes such as "sprout land" at
nominal price such that one can afforf
to pay it, merely for a place to ge'
firewood, Boston bean poles, and fencs
posts. They use fence posts to incloso
graveyards. Sometimes they .1cg"
this "sprout land" / saw with mine
own eyes many logs six inches in d
ameter, and was reliably informed
that these would be stabbed and made
into "a by 4s" or at least 20 by 4s;"
and then / started to say how my
father logged in northern Wisconsin
40 years ago and never cut anything
less than a foot in diameter, and ther
let the land go back to the govern
meat, and how this same land around
Rib Lake up on Taplor County, is NO
cultivated as splendid farm land just
the reverse of the history of the east
ern farm lands.
The reader viii wonder when / ar
going to get to Pelham. So did the
writer; and the course of sprouts am
putting you through is as nothing com
pared to that we went through; but
wrote pelham" at the head of thi
column as a guarantee that would
not forget where we are headed for
I viz: the oldest and deadest town in
Massachusetts,. There is another towr
called Dedham, but expect the las
survivors of Pelham to change It's
name to West Dedham, or Greater
\ Dedham. In writing story one can
get to Pelham any old time he wishes.
4 therefore, we are now at that place
/ 1t is Just a crossing of two such
4 reads as above described. On two di
agonal corners there are ancien
dwellings,. One corner that used to be
! inhabited is now occupied by
''sprCa,,V" The fourth corner contain
very Cid church and q very much
older tow, hall. Here we tethered our
car on she VILLAGE green" and alighted
with the Intention of ascertaining
whether there yet remained life in Pei
ham.
was just about IL stick my wife's
bat pin into something to ascertain;
when lol there came bounding into
our presence a perfectly i've collie and
he wagged himself all over and fairly
yelped for Joy that some real humans
that understood his language had
come to town. He was more than
delighted to see that our car was not
the hearse he had expected. He evil
IDENTIFY wanted to rehearse his lessons,
so / said "shake hands," he gave me
4 his left paw which ] shook. Then
/ I said: "Give me your right paw" and
he complied. Then said "now stand
up" and he obeyed. Then said