Rensselaer Republican, Volume 15, Number 45, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 July 1883 — UNION ITEMS. [ARTICLE]

UNION ITEMS.

FeV horse flies. Plenty of mosquitoes. Corn rather short. Rye all cut, good crop. Wheat harvest also, but thin. Potatoes doing extra well. No lack’ of stock water. Meadows are rank, but have been too thoroughly drenched to make good hay. Pastures are weak and not doing very well. Mr. Abe Garriot lost a good horse last week, with lung fever. Ho has another afflicted with the same.

Isaac Alter is kept busy cracking corn for the neighbors on Fridays. Our Sabbath schools arc in good working order. There will be a basket meeting near Alter’s mill at Rose Bud on the second Sunday in August. “The Methodist” officials will hold their quarterly conference at that place on Saturday. All are cordially invited to attend. Wo visited De Motte in Keeaer the other day. The Fourth of July was there arranged in white linen with the American tlag waving over his head, with a bunch of tire crackers in one hand and a glass of lemonade'in the other, ho mounted the rostrum and in thunder tones gave us the birth and subsequent history of our nation. After shaking the uust from his feet on the dancing floor with the Keener girls, he departed and was soon lost to view amid the gloomy forest in the direction of Rose Lawn. Several new ditches were located in Union recently, many of the citizens are “squealing” and talk remonstrance on account of high and unequal assessments. But we should remember that to assess all who are benefited is the only way ot accomplishing successful drainage. We are hemmed in by marshes which produce nothing but disease in return for the taxes we pay upon them- Our best farm land lies in these marshes. We cannot reclaim them without expense. On the present plan the work will not cost over #4.00 an acre, to drain the lowest land, which is now worth nothing, but will be worth #2O an acre, when drained. Js this not a better investment than Jay Gould ever made, in proportion to the capital invested.

It is true our ditch commissioners arc fallible beings subject to mistakes, the same as school girls and congressmen. But when we consider the uHßculties attending an assessment in a wilderness of swamps, without even the section corners being marked to guide their weary steps, then if by mistake they assess us 5 or 10 dollars too high we should not complain but give our hearty aprobation of the work and be ready to exclaim “well done thou good and faithful servant.”

BILL BAT.