Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 35, Number 133, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 November 1903 — fred Bachman’s Brother killed. [ARTICLE]

fred Bachman’s Brother killed.

Aliiong the 20 dead victims of the terrible wreck on the Big Four, near j Tremont, 111., Wednesday afternoon, was Ferdinand Bachman only brother of Fred §achman, a much respected German, living on the Shinier farm,* about two miles northeast of town. He was a sectic n boss on the Big Four, and was >n the work train when it collided with the freight. He was 44 years old and leaves a wife audi five children. Most of the news-1 papers give the name as Fred, and some of them state he was single,' and st>me that he was 24 years old, but tsese are all errors. < Fred, the brother here, received the niews by telegraph, and went to attend the funeral, Saturday Where the Bill Sticker’s Life Is Strenuous George Spitler, the bill sticker, : says the Sweet Sunny South is a i

blamei sight more sunny than sweet, at lea|t for a northern man to stick up ciipus posters in. The country i is all bp hill or down, mostly up; horsea to haul the bill posters around are poor and hard to get, i the population is sparse and long j dist rices must be traveled to reach j many people, while barns or other J outbuildings big enough to post aj decent sized picture of the three 1 headed gu>ascutas on are scarcer than snow banks in—Florida. Moreover the white people down here seem to have it iu for northern men, at least northern circus' men and George says they “pinch” the postereand fine them on every possible occasion. If they leave, a teani untied a minute or go into a private yard for a bucket of water or any similar act, the Yanks are yanked up and fined. All the white men down there are in mercantile business, and they know that when the circus «omes it will gather in all the nigger money for 25 miles around, and that will be so much less for the white man to get in trade

Hotel and boarding houses down there are as rocky as the roads, and most meals consist of 'three courses all Of them sweet potatoes cooked the same way. If you ask for eggs they may possibly bring you what they call ‘ a egg” but hot more than that They don’t raise eggs enough there for seed, eggs being eggzotics there as the Phendig Philosophers would say, and like most of their other provisions they are shipped in from the north. Which reminds George that he saw empty egg cases in Memphis with the name of B. S. Fendig, of Rensselaer, stamped there on. Whether he had the pleasure \of eating one of Ben’s hand laid name blown in the shell, pieces of hen fruit he was unable to say, as the original fine flavor by which it might have once been recognized was somewhat faded with age and long travel and Ben’s name and the year of vintage had disappeared froth much handling. But when crops are good and the darkeys well heeled, circus business is great down there. The entire colored population turns out and all pay a dollar apiece to see, the main show and proportionate rates for the side shows.