Rensselaer Standard, Volume 1, Number 28, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 December 1879 — LOCAL CHIT-CHAT. [ARTICLE]

LOCAL CHIT-CHAT.

We wish you a happy New Year and hops Vou had a marry Christmas. Lyman Zee nominates "Jim" Irwin for clsrk of Jasper county, and saya he will be elected, too. Rather early? Yea, but Lyman is irrepressibl* and belitvae in taking time by the forelosk. Ho bas not been long married, and yet, when he bought his new skates and mapped out for last Sunday a jolly time on tbe ice, he perforce must leave them with a friend and he j mum at home; not that hia wife would object, oh, no! but tbea—well, you know bow it is y ourself. Where, when and how did that Ida Dodge pick up such expressions as "four aces,” "ace, right and left,’’ and other expressions supposed to belong exclusively to that class of young men who, pulling loose from "mothers’ apron strings’’ and disregarding the "governor’s” counsel, o<>nclude to "go it alone’’? My dear Ida, wby is this thus? Hot long since a Michigan City bruiser and confidence sharp tried to "spring his trap” on a Jasper county drover who was returning "in funds’* from Chicago, but ye countryman "tumbled to bis racket’’ and the disgusted tiiark found that be bad "run a foul of a snag” and that our drover was not susceptible to eithei "bluff” or "soft sawder.”

Ladies, read this when he is away from home. One of our merchants not longsinee was heard to say there were in this town from twelve to fifteen ladies (?) who were chronic loafers; come in, you know, of Saturday afternoons, trade to the amount of a nickel, or mayhap a dollar, and lounge on the couaters or the seats the rest of the day in tbe way of would-be purchasers. Young men, this calls for a declaration of rights. Look to your laurels. We drend the very n.ime of apoplexy How many a bright and shining light has by this been suddenly extinguished! How many a brilliant career cut short! So we cogitated as we saw the form of oue of oar well known citizen* topple ftom its seat, and. falling over the hind wheels of a wagon, light on its head and then sink trembling to its mother earth, a victim to—beer. No injury except a bruised head, the devil having protected his own. What an effect the grand ball had on our community 1 Young men, and women, boys and girls, and, must I say it? many estimable citixens whom we supposed above the allurements of this world, have been seen, yes, and publicly, too, practicing a new quiokstep something after this fashion: Slide out one toot quickly; bring the other down quick and sharp by the side of the first; reaoh for your partner ( understood) with one hand; claw the air with the other; come to an upright with a jerk; furtively look around to see if any one noted the display. Sometimes the effort seemed exhaustive, and the victims would sit down to

rest before moving on.

STALWART.