Jasper County Democrat, Volume 21, Number 94, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 February 1919 — LETTERS FROM OUR READERS [ARTICLE]

LETTERS FROM OUR READERS

Elmer Arnold Writes From North Dakota. Emerado, N,. D., Feb. 14. Editor Jasper County Democrat. Dear Sir —It has been a long time since I wrote a letter to your paper. I did not take the paper for about eight years, but did not realize what I was missing, for it takes im more territory in regard to news than any other paper I know of. And to read over the items from different parts of the county and noticing familiar names brings back fond recollections. And also reading the letter from Mr. Herbert See of Idaho gives me an inspiration. It brings me back to the old Farmers; Alliance days, when his parents used to sing the well-composed songs of the F. A. and I. U., as well as some of their own composure. And then it brings us farther back in the eighties when Blackford was practically the center of the world, especially on Tuesdays and Saturdays, which were mail days. The population of the surrounding country would gather at the store. The ladies garbed in brilliant calicoes, while the men would assemble around a hotly contested game of marbles or horseshoes.

Those were the days to be envied. We youngsters were so familiar with the people at that time that all we had to do was to examine the ba'refoot tracks in the dtist to tell who ha/l gone for their, mail, so familiar/ were we with their exquisite andlplaborate shapes. And then to go farther down the line, when we used to attend the spelling schools and protracted meetings with no other way of conveyance but to walk 'for miles, not having the pleasure to own a bucking broncho. And then to notice the name of W. A. McCurtain as vour congenial auctioneer brings back recollections of the times . when “Al” was just about as bad as the rest of us, when we used to pester the Christian people of Brushwood and vicinity, and some of the boys claimed to owii the controlling interest in the schoolhouse, having paid for it in fines.

’But those good old days are past and gone, and the people are widely scattered, and some have gone to that great beyond. But, nevertheless, I am blaming the Jasper County Democrat for causing me to write, and if the editor will not shove this into the waste basket perhaps someone else will take up the cue and write a -bigger and better letter regarding eany days in Jasper county,. I remain, yours respectfully, ARNOLD. „ J. B. Shaw, .worker in a factory ht lola, Kas., made $52.56 in a week recently by cutting 67,248 buttons.