The producers news. [volume] (Plentywood, Mont.) 1918-1937, 1927-05-13
Written for the Sodbusters Edition by Howard NJ Lewis

ty to sixty feeC long, WIN udy-
shift and a night-shift of from two
to five bartenders. The bar fixtures
cost hundreds of dollars, and in some
cases thousands of dollars. Every
ones check was good, and the note OF
a stranger had the same value as a
Treasury Certificate.
The two rival towns put on cam
paign which made the adventures of
Lycurgus and Lysander look cheap.
A full band (the word is used ad-
visedly), two orchestra, a brace Of
vaudeville performers, moving pic
ture show, and public speakers, were
transported, largely by automobile,
to practically every school house and
town hall in a territory almost the
size of the New England states. They
gave dances and dinner; and every
voter had belly full Of beer and a
pocket full of cigars. Plentywood, a
little country village, put in elabor-
ate water works and sewer system,
openely advertising that no laborers
were desird who were not eligible to
vote in the fall election.
An expensive ball team was hired,
which nearly fulfilled at least half of
the two requirements made upon it
by Mayor Bolster that, eve want
ball team which will win every game,
and be gentlemen!'
No sooner was the turmoil and
confusion of the county seat fight
ended than some underpaid clerk in
the Weather Bureau overhead dug up
an old file and found that the farm
ers of Sheridan County were getting
something for nothing; that they
we're shotgun farmers; that Eny,
Meny, Miney and Moe farmed, who
knew nothing whatever about it, and
did a poor job Of it, but made money
nevertheless. And, for the good Of
all PHILOSOPHERS, and more fully to es-
tablish our cOpy-books maXims that,
of truth, honesty is the best policy,
and that early to bed and early to
rise is an excellent thing, and that
one cannot long get something for
nothing,-a stOp-order was issued on
Sheridan County's prosperity.
And those were the days of kings
in the County Commissioners offices.
Seed-grain was furnished to all and
sundry, almost like the waters of sal
walton, often without money and
without price. And, at this distance,
whence comes some enchantment and
much clarity Of vision, it must be adj
mitted that most of that seed grain
was worth about what it cost, name
ly, nothing.
Worth less than nothing, for the
rich lands which might feed an en-
pire were soon infected deeply with
the virus of foul weeds and of wild
oats. And probably the only one who
ever really profited from this lar
gesse was the man with one hand in
the hopper and the other in the bag!
Come time when a county officer
was sought to be ousted from office
by the use of a fountain pen loaded
with green ink, and tallies which
were added to the election returns, in
five's and tens. like the price-marks
in q Woolworth Store.
Again, when a worthy woman
sought to make a short trip and Wis
it-for all the rest of them did-an
executive order from the place of the
kings forthwith and Immediately de-
prived her of office. A half dozen
Paul Reveres, with iron in their souls
and manure on their shoes. rode
lurching Fords all through the night.
And the next morning, when came
the dawn, an Auditors office hum
med like a hive of angry bees, it's
sides bullying with embattled farmers
with pick-aXe handles in reserve.
The tumult and the shouting have
died. And many of the captains and
the kings have departed, most of
them poorer, and all somewhat wiser
The bars in Plentywood are shorter
than they were; and the fixtures
are not half so ornate. Came the
Great War; and the farmer bow left
for his Adventure, amid the wailino
of the women at the railway stations
The Flu; the Red Cross; the make
shift hospital; the Council of De-
Tense; Armistice Day; a state sena-
tor, about to be put in jail because he
declared that Germany could whir
Great Britain, kicking open the door
of store-building and establishing
a hospital for the treatment of fiji
patients, and spending hundreds OF
dollars for his chosen people.
Some dozen or so of lads, undraft.
ed, volunteering to go to war, and 90.
ing, in spite of everything, theiI
names on no roster of any Company
Regiment or Division,-iust went
along, and saw the Big Show, anc
had as fine a party as thought they'd