Evening star., 1927-06-01

IS tinuous hard work." / remark
ed as Mr. Cannon finished tell
ing how the Wabash immi-
/ grant cleared the forests in
those days so and 80 years ago.
Work wasn't considered hardship
then." he answered. NO set OF young
| people ever had a better time or got
more enjoyment out of life than we
| did. and none ever had better health
| except for the ague, which was the
| fashionable disease of the Wabash.
We had no eight hour law and no
child labor law in that settlement. We
all worked from morning to night in
the woods and fields and then did the
chores afterward There We're no
different distinctions in the pioneer
settlement except one, and that was
between the workers and the drone.
The latter could not remain long in
any one place. He was given his
walking papers. deported by his own
means of locomotion. From the time
| was able to ride a horse or hold a
hoe or swing an ak or grasp the
handles Of a plow l went into the
woods and fields TO take my share Of
the work.
1--WE played just as hard as we
worked. We had our spelling schools,
our debating societies, our singing
schools. our dances and our sleigh
rides. and we did not long for the life
of the city. nor did we envy other
Young people in their pleasures of an
other sort. We were entirely satisfied
with our own.
Difficult Log Rolling.
"A log-rolling was frolic, though
Il was the hardest and most difficult
work before the frontiersman. He and
his bows might chop the trees, burn
the brush and grub up the saplings,
but when it came to getting together
the logs for burning there was needed
the combination of effort. and the
whole community turned out to help.
The men with their teams, and the
hovs TO drive, came to help make those
logs together for burning, and the
women and the girls came to assist
the women of that particular house
hold to prepare the dinner and the
supper for the workers in the clear
ing. You could not imagine harder
work. but it was turned into a social
occasion and there was as much fun
and jollity as at German picnic
That, by the way, was the origin or
the political slang word log rolling,
used now by people who don't know
where it came from. You roll my log
and I'll roll yours the pioneers
phrase, came to be applied TO Con-
gressman who would support another
mans bill if that man would vote for
his.
Harvest time brought about the
same combination of effort. The farm
ers Joined in the fields if they ripened
a few days apart, and with sickle and
scvthe and cradle they made music to
accompany their work: while they
sweated under the hot sun they were
merry, and the man who would groWl
or complain in the harvest field was
as near an undesirable citizen as we
had in those days"
Reading was Recreation.
did you study by the fire light. as
did Lincoln?" asked his granddaugh-
ter.
II read by the fire light. didn't
call it studying. Reading to me was
a recreation, and l indulged in 1t
whenever 1 had a chance. Fire light
was better than the lard dip, or even
the tallow candle. Nobody on the
Wabash had gas or kerosene lamps.
Fire light was as good light as we
had, and l don't think it has been
much improved on, for there was
comfort as we'll as convenience in
lying on your stomach on the floor
with a book open under your nose in
front of a bright open fire.
''It might be the Bible, or Josephusi
or Rollins Ancient Rome or Shake
speare, or Bunyan, or Ben Franklin,