Jasper County Democrat, Volume 3, Number 28, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 October 1900 — A Tempest In a Teapot. [ARTICLE]

A Tempest In a Teapot.

The old trouble between the local Woman’s Relief Corps and the Milroy Circle ladies has broken out afresh. To get at the beginning of this trouble we will say that when the new court house was built the county commissioners dedicated forever free of charge the use of some of the lower rooms to the G. A. R., post and W. R. C., as a post hall. Of course they had no more right to do this than they had to build a lodge room at county expense for the I. Q. O. F., the M. W. A., the F. &A. M., the C. O. F., or any other of the local orders, but the commissioners did very much, as they pleased in those days and, as the rooms were not needed for county purposes, no serious objection was made. About this time the W. R. C., the ladies branch of the G. A.R., became disturbed by internal differences, caused by the black-balling of a well known Rensselaer lady, with the result that several of the ladies put on their sun-bonnets and went home, declaring they wouldn’t play in the W. R. C. yard any more. These ladies then formed what is now known as the Milroy Circle. The furniture in the G. A. R. hall was purchased by the W. R. C., when intact, and the seceders wanted their share of the same, which we understand, waa refused. The remaining members of the W. R. C., then donated the furniture to the G. A. R. s. and met in the same free hall in the court house with the bone and sinew of the order. They wouldn’t let the Milroy ladies slide down their cellar door, so the latter recently applied to the board of commissioners for permission to do so. The commissioners, “after careful consideration” and “much talk” concludedl that neither of the orders could vote at the forthcoming county election, so ordered the whole caboodle to pack their grips and vamoose. The W. R. C., however, considered possession nine point® of law’, and declined to get out. This raised the ire of the Milroy ladies again, who didn’t propose to let their sisters enjoy any privileges which they themselves could not share, so on Thursday of last week they donned their best bib and tucker and. headed by several stalwart backers in the G. A. R., order, inarched over and entered the hall and hung their charter on the wall. This was too much for the W. R. C., and they at once procured able council ana entered suit to enjoin the Milroy girls from occupying the hall, or the G. A. R’s. from interfering when the aforesaid W. R. C.. proceeds to dump the Milroy’s out of the window. They also want SSO for damages to their ruffled tempers. The controversy is most amusing to outsiders, although the interested orders are very serious about it.