Evening Republican, Volume 20, Number 302, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 December 1916 — The Otis Thanksgiving Turkey [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

The Otis Thanksgiving Turkey

An Apostrophe. Before the gates of mom were opened or the gleaming arrows of light had pierced the slow retreating darkness the night you g-o-b-b-l-e-d and g^-Jb-b-l-e-d! You found the early worm in dishabile and stayed not upon the order of your ruthless intrusions, but, gathered her in with the gentle dew upon her curl papers. Alas! Alas! You daily saw'the level rays of the young summer sun as they broke athwart the fields and meadows of Roselawn and smote the filmy cobwebs and clover blossoms and tall grass blades with a glorious irridescence. You always knew the time and the place of the fatted grasshopper, and in order to take him you feared not to walk thro cold wet stubble lands in your shining boots, while the morning air was yet chill and before the strident munmer of the Cicada children had begun! You strode in lordly fashion thro - the grain fields of the Otis domain and took your ample toll While denizens of the wheat pit were tearing their hair on account of immediate deliveries and Number One Hard meant $2.00 per bushel! But your wattles reddened for the last time at the call of your bronzed lady friend, and your funny purple snout wiggled into your eyes and out again as you responded with what was your final gobble! How you strummed the earth with your stiffened tail coverts in that final futile essay of pride! Oh me, and alas! And then the minister of the First Church and his Hungry Five got you! Your epitaph shall be “He left this worldly world and entered the Presbyterian Ministry.” The above article was contributed by C. T. Otis, the Roselaiwn ranch owner, who makes his home in Chicago, and was written by Reverend Doctor Covert, of the First Presbyterian church of Chicago, and chaplain of the Indiana Society of Chicago. It has been the custom of Mr. • Otis for a greaj; many years to present his friends with turkeys, raised on the Otis ranch at Roselawn.