Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 40, Number 65, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 April 1908 — John Henry's Luck. [ARTICLE]

John Henry's Luck.

John Henry Smith was a poor hoy, hut full of ginger. The neighbors were unanimous In heralding him as a coming success. Accordingly, when but eighteen years of age, he tied a can to himself and left his happy homo in Mulligan's alley for a chance at a fortune of great dimensions. For many weary days and nights he walked without food or shelter and at last wound up In the Klondike with a Job-lot of sftghtly warped asplra-, tlons and a package of Eatanutta. Those were his sole earthly possessions, aside from the clothes on his back and from fifty to seventy-five cents worth of extra hair on his head which he had not had time to market at the mattress factory as he drilled past. There was plenty of work to bo had at good wages, however, and he soon managed to save enough to buy himself a tooth brush and a bottle of oan-de-cologne. With these evidences of culture he set out for the Interior, where In less time than It takes to miss s fly on a bald man’s head, John Henry had traded hlfl bottle of ‘.‘sweet smell urn” to “OldMan-Dirt-in-the-Ear” for a repeating rifle and a tame goose. With his new possessions tarefully guarded, he again set out for the “extra” interior. At last ne came upon a veritable Utopia In the forest primeval and decided to drive stakes. With a mammoth clam-shell and a hickory stick for a handle, he chopped down sufficient first growth timber from which to build a log house 16x24, with a hay window and a billiard parlor, j At the end of the six days he rested, and on the beginning of the next work day, erected a goose house and furnished It throughout with Chippendale furniture. (There was also hot and cold water and a telephone in the hall-way of both edifices.) When all was finished, John Henry sat down to spin, and In no time had a long line on the goose, whloh he turned loose without breakfast The goose wandered far into the Innermost recesses of the wood and when wound in at night was full of grub-worms and tickle-grass. Again was the goose sent out to browse, and yet again. And on the fifth day, along about thirteen minutes before sundown, back she waddled, at the end of the winding string, with her crop full to bursting of GREAT YELLOW NUGGETS OF GOLD! And John Henry lived happily ever afterward!