Jasper County Democrat, Volume 20, Number 74, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 December 1917 — HAPPENINGS IN OUR NEIGHBORING VILLAGES [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

HAPPENINGS IN OUR NEIGHBORING VILLAGES

JACKSON TOWNSHIP, JfEWTON COUNTY

Mt. Ayr’s new school house is practically completed. We had our first taste of that “mild, open winter” last Saturday. A number of farmers in this vicinity will finish husking this week. Well, Jerusalem ought to be used to being captured by this time. What? The last few days of cold weather has helped corn some in the way of drying it out. Scott Brenner contemplates spending the present winter in a more congenial climate —probably Oklahoma. Mrs. Christine Robinson shipped fifteen turkeys recently that brought her $65 clear of all expenses. The skin of the lowly muskrat is worth $1 to $1.50. Time was when it hurried this varmint to bring a dime. In Short, if we catch Woodrow’s meaning, its “Lay on, McDuff, and damned be the man that first cries hold, enough.” Ira Chupp trotted out the little old wood-saw this week, and for the rest of the winter Ira expects to be a mighty busy man. Miss Beth Perrigo, formerly of Morocco, has been appointed to the position of stenographer in the department of mines in government service. W. D. Stevens of Morocco has resigned as superintendent of schools in that city and now has a clerical position in the quartermasters department of the army. Truly the American government is patient and long-suffering. F'rinstance, the disloyal German element has not been requested to » observe a krautless Tuesday, a limburgerless Thursday or a pretzelless Saturday. Pass the horse, please: Montana, according to newspaper reports, offers 100,000 range horses for food, and asserts that in the northwest 1 -there are more than a million useless range horses that could be profitably used in this way. The cold snap, we are told, caught some potatoes in this part of Newton county. A Beaver township citizen is reported as having lost thirty bushels by frost. However, taking it all in all, the damage probably was not heavy. Clem Williams, at one time a resident of Beaver township, but. now living at Murpheysboro, Illinois, underwent an operation recently for the amputation of his'

foot, the result of an injury received a few days previous to the operation. Salt is being uesd quite extensively in this vicinity as a preservative for soft corn. Those who have had experience with this treatment assert, as a rule, that t'he best results from the use of salt are obtained where the corn is free of husks and silk, with a reasonable amount of ventilation. On February 11, 1861, Abraham Lincoln said to his neighbors at Springfield: “Today I leave you. I go to assume a task more difficult than that which devolved upon Washington. Unless the great God who assisted him be with me and aid me I must fail; but if the same omniscient mind and almighty arm- that directed and protected him shall guide and support me I shall not fail —I shall succeed.” Speaking of camouflage or whatever it may be called, Albert Anderson, Dutchman and patriot, is probably the greatest camouflager in these parts. Observing Albert from the rear one would readily affirm that it was a hip-roofed cow shed, sagging at the southeast corner, while a front view would tempt you to bet your last dollar that it was a painting of a western sunset circled by a field of alfalfa. In order to keep in touch with conditions on the “Western Front,’’ one needs only to observe our immortal Abraham Bringle, the mail carrier. If the English and French are having the best of it Abe whistles and sings and anon relieves his chest of a war-whoop of the most blood-curdling nature. But if the Germans have advanced ten feet a deep gloom pervades the little old U. S. mail wagon, and a school for the deaf and itumb would seem loud and boisterous compared to the silence of A. B. One day recently Voor Carter of Brook drifted into Mt. Ayr and inquired ill a loud, mud-colored voice if there was any trotting stock within the sacred precincts of the burg aforesaid. Firstly, Ed Harris owned 'a horse, “Rags” by name, that could trot circles around any Brook horse that ever happened. Secondly, Jap Wright was the proprietor of a critter that contracted the habit early in life of coming in ahead of all competitors. This animal had a leg out of commission at the time, it is true, but a threelegged horse was plenty good enough to put the kibosh on any equine that ever came out of Brook, and so on, and so on, after the manner of hot-airing that has preceded every horse race from the time that Levi Iscariot’s gray mare executed a mile dash with old Bell-

shazzer’s chestnut sorrel out an the | plains of Judea. Arrangements for a half-mile race were soon made, Harris and Carter doing most ors the arranging, as Wright and his threelimbed beast were considered unworthy of notice. Well, to cut this narrative short, it was the story ot the hare and the tortoise repeated. While Harris and Carter were playing to the galleries, Wright’s decrepit steed, that game leg working like the arm of a Dutch windmill, attended strictly to business, and shot under the wire a safe winner amid the plaudits of the multitude.

GIFFORD

Will Steel has been on the sick list this week. Jess Nuss and Bob Grimm were Medaryville goers Saturday. Mrs. Lizzie Swisher visited Miss Vesta Brown’s school Friday afternoon. Albert Akers of Tefft spent Sat-' urday and Sunday with relatives here. Mrs. Lemma Hankins and children visited Mary Obenchain Monday evening. George Lambert and daughter took dinner with Guy Zook and family Tuesday. There will be church services here Sunday at 7:30 p. m. Let everybody be present. Mrs. Laura Antrim of Range Line is here visiting her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Bob Steel. There was no school in Miss Ruth Kennedy’s room as she could not get a fire in the stove. Mrs. Maude Jenkins and two sons came Monday to spend the week with relatives and friends here. Harry Ballard, who has been overseeing some onion harvesting this fall, returned to his home near Indianapolis Monday. Ralph Timmons and Ralph Ballard of Medaryville were in our burg Monday. Will Obenchain purchased a pet coon of the latter. John Akers, Jr., went to Brook Monday to husk corn. Jess Grimm and Grover Norris, who are also husking there, spent Sunday with home folks. Mrs. Charley Walker and Roscoe Zook were called to Demotte Sunday, as the latter’s mother was very ill. She >was reported some better Tuesday.

MT. AYR

(From the Tribune) N. C. Shafer of Rensselaer was a business caller here Saturday. W. R. Lee was a business visitor in Chicago a couple of days this week. August Bengston, who works for George Ade at Hazelden, spent several days here visiting his brother Otto and children. August is a single man and owns a good farm near Remington. Mrs. Sperry and little son, who have been visiting her sister Mrs. J. R. Sigler, left for their home at Allentown, Illinois, Tuesday. After looking after matters there for a few days Mrs. Sperry expects to leave for Hot Springs, Arkansas, where she will spend the winter. Mr. and Mrs. Albion Nelson, Mrs. Edward Bengston, Oscar Bengston, her son, and Edward Nelson of near Wolcott, and Ernest Nelson and wife, Ole Bengston and wife and Otto Bengston were Sunday guests at the hoThe of Gus Bengston, north of town. The gathering was principally in honor of Mrs. Bengston, who recently came to this country from Sweden.