Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 86, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 April 1915 — “Knocker” or “Booster?” [ARTICLE]

“Knocker” or “Booster?”

“When the Creator had made all the good things in the world He gave the devil a chance at creation to see what he could do. So the devil made the beasts and reptiles and poisonous insects. When he had finished these he had some scraps that were too bad to put into the rattlesnake, or the hyena, or the scorpion, or the skunk. So he put all these together, covered it with suspicion, wrapped it with jealousy, marked it with a yellow streak, and called it a ‘knocker.’ The ‘knocker’ is the devil’s supreme creation. “This product of the devil was so fearful to contemplate that God had to make something to counteract it. So He created the forward looker, the man of progress. God made him a lover of a child and gave him the brain of a man. He wrapped these in civic pride, covered it all with brotherly love, gave it a mask of velvet, but a grasp of steel, and called it a ’booster.’ God made him a lover of fields and flowers and manly sports, a believer in equality and justice, a worshiper of optima am. Ever since these two creatures were made mortal man has had the privilege of choosing one or the other as his associate. . “Which to you prefer ?”—Anonymous, from the Municipal Journal of Baltimore, Md.