Democratic Sentinel, Volume 18, Number 9, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 March 1894 — The Wise Men of Gotham. [ARTICLE]

The Wise Men of Gotham.

As King John was passing through the village of Gotham, on his way to Nottingham, he proposed to make a short cut across the meadows. The. villagers, thinking that whatever road a king took thenceforward became a public road, objected, much to Jqhn’s annoyance. Shortly afterward he sent some messengers from his court to learn the cause of the villagers’ rudeness. Hearing of the coming of the king’s servants, the villagers hL upon the following plan of turning aside the monarch s wrath: When the messengers arrived, they found some of the inhabitants engaged in trying to drown an eel in a pond; others were busy rolling cheeses down a hill, so that they might run to Nottingham for sale, while a third I set were employed in placing u hedge I

round a bush on which a cuckoo bad perched, in order that they might enjoy perpetual spring. The king’s servants thought they bad come among a village of fools, and, having reported what they had seen, John formed the same opinion, and troubled himself no more about what he considered their Incivility to him. Hence peopje have talked about the “wise men," or “the fools," of Gotham. There was much wisdom in their folly, however. There is to-day, so it is said, a bush growing on the site of the one whereon the cookoo perched.