Evening Republican, Volume 18, Number 309, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 December 1914 — LOST LAND MARKS [ARTICLE]

LOST LAND MARKS

Where is now the stern Justitla, who, in saintly days of yore, filled the "Bugle,” every issue, with his loud and frenzied roar? How he kicked about the taxes weighing-down this weary land! He was hotter than old wax is, when he took his pen In hand. How he roasted office-holders, called all their deeds a shame, bitted right out from the shoulders—though afraid to sign his name! If the town would spend a dollar for Improvements here and there, this old fraud would up and holler till he split three miles of air. Vanished Is the great Justitla, gone art thou, hide, hair and feet, and we really do not miss you when we read the crossroads sheet! Where Is now that polished stranger, most adroit knd smooth of frauds, urging that our shack's in danger If we don’t buy lightning rods? In the days when we were youthful he was seen in every lane, trying, striving to be truthful, but succumbing 'neath the strain. To our farmhouse he would caper, sell of rods five hundred weight: when he’d gone we would discover that we’d mortgaged all we owned, and the bailies then would hover round us while we wept and groaned. Though I wonder on the highway, on the turnpike far and near, nevermore, in lane or byway, does this grafting gent appear. Wi»3re is now the old tin peddler, with his wagonload of wares? Gossip he and tireless meddler In all countryside affairs. You have seen him driv* Ing slowly in the dusty wagon tracks, charging prices .most unholy for his calico and tacks. _ Women saved their' rags for ages, till the peddler man cam a there; then the merriest of sages bunkoed them, nor turned a hair. For a ton of scraps of linen, gathered up with toil intense, he would hand them, weirdly grlnnin’, three tin plates worth seven cents. Ah, we do not hear him speaking, spieling at the farmer’t door, and his wagon wheels are creaking on the dusty roadsffio more! All such landmarks have departed from a world they used to fit, and we marked not when they started, and wa care not where they HL Whether they In hades sweat or bask in heaven’s atmosphere, we’re convinced the world grows better as the landmarks disappear.