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About Schley County news. (Ellaville, Ga.) 1889-1939 | View Entire Issue (March 2, 1899)
SPRING IN WINTER. Surely,surely sweet; boes are humming in the muzy There’s a sense of summer sweetness in the tangles broad fields and the dells Spring, with April smiles is coming: There And a chime—or is it fancy?—of remom are lilies at her feet! bered heather-bells! Mocking birds in beach-blooms singing thrill And the mildest suns are shining, and the . with joy the is dreamy air, skies are bright with blue, And the green on the meadow, and the Aud in gardens Love Is twining all his rarest wild flowers cluster there ! wreaths for you ! —Frank L. Stanton. An Inland Iron-Clad. BY C. A. STEPHENS. Rufus Ruudlett is another instance to prove that “the boy is father to the man.” When 1(1 years of age he helped to invent an armor-clad coasting sled, “the Rantum-Scooter,” and he alone eteered it down Wilkins hill to victory over the “Number Seven” boys; and now he is commander of au armor-clad ship, quite as capable, I doubt not,of routing au enemy. The sehoolhouse in “Number Six,” where we underwent a mild form of education together, stood at the forks of the county road, with the cross town road, which led down Wilkins hill, on one side a^d Mill hill on the other. The county road extended north and south, along the crest of a fine, broad ridge of land divided into ten fertile farms, owned by as many well-to-do farmers whose families made up our school district. We young people of Number Six had always been a little inclined to look down‘on the boys and girls of Number Seven at the Corners, near the foot of Wilkins hill, for the deni zens of Number Seven were a some what poor and shiftless lot. The larger boys were pugnacious and ill disposed, and unless a schoolmaster were strong enough to thrash four or five of £hein, lie must suffer the hu miliation of being carried out 6f the sehoolhouse. At Number Six,on the contrary, the pupils were well-advanced, seif-re spectiug aud orderly. An able teacher was required, but less to govern than to instruct. Still, I now think that the contempt in which we held the Number Seveu boys was rather Phar isaical, and I do not wonder they re sented it. We nicknamed them “bog trotters,” and they retorted by calling us “bill dogs.” The two districts also belonged to two rival political parties, a fact which sharpened the animosity between them. Wilkins hill was the best coasting place iu the county. It consisted of five steep pitches, with intervals of less abrupt descent between them, which made altogether a run of more than a mile, to the foot of the bill be yond the bridge over Longmeadow brook. It had always been, and is to this day, the favorite coast of the Number Six boys. Indeed, we boasted that few, save Number Six boys,dared steer a sled down that hill. When the road was smooth and icy terrific speed was attained on the low est pitch, and any error in steering might easily cost the coaster liis life. Boys from other places w^re usually afraid to try the hill, but if a Number Six boy hail not made the “run" at 13 or 14 years of age wa deemed him a backward lad. The coasting sleds most in favor •with us were small aud narrow. They were shod with half-roundeteel shoes, which were slightly bowed to make a •“spring” space of an inch at the mid dle of the runner. Our favorite pos ture for coasting on this hill was face downward, with toes extended behind to aid in steering. Usually in start ing at the top of the hill we ran for ward, one after another, flung our selves down on our sleds and thus set •off at speed. On moonlit evenings, when there were girls in the party, trains were ■often made up of ten or twelve sleds —some of them large liand-sleds, on which four or five could sit at ease. The forward or leading sled was called the “engine” and was steered by one of the .oldest, strongest boys. Such a train,humming down that long hill by moonlight,gaining speed at every pitch till it shot past tlie Corners at Num ber Seven, going 60 miles an hour,af forded an exhilarating spectacle. There was an almost uninterrupted view from top to bottom of the long descent; and besides the steerer on .the engine there was a “hornman,” whose business it was to blow a tin horn it' we saw a team or pedestrian coming up. All the others, too, joined in a tremendous shout of “Road! road! road!” The hill was so long that not more than three or four coasts could be made iu an evening and generally not more than one during the iioou inter mission, when school was in session. A hired man from one of the farms, xyitli a span of horses and a long pung sleigh, saved ns the drudgery of pull ing our .sleds up the bill. Laws relative to coasting were not then very strict in Maine, and we sup posed we had a right to coast down the road at 60 miles an hour. Nobody had ever made any objection. The only drawback to the sport was that we had to run past the sehoolhouse iu Number Seven, iyid the bog-trotters were accustomed to rush out and us with snowballs. The place was locally known as Wilkins Corners. There had been good coasting for three or four weeks before Rufus Ruudlett devised the Rantum-Sepoter; the entire hill was smooth as glass. Nearly every morning, noon and night some of us Number Six boys were coasting, aud often there were parties ot 20 or 30. Tlie loafers and bog-trotters had jeered at us as we flow past and snow balled us as iu former years, but be fore long the Number Seven boys actually undertook to stop all Number Six coasters. They rolled great snow balls into the road iii front of the sehoolhouse and built a high fort clear across the road. Four of our boys who started to coast down were ob liged to take to the ditch. The bog trotters then rushed from tlieir fort and by pelting them with snowballs forced them to run back up the hill, They shouted that no hill dog should pass that sehoolhouse. But as their fort stopped teams as well as coasters, one of the selectmen of the town ordered them to remove it at once, and during the following evening a train of teu sleds from Num ber Six coasted defiantly by. But the next noon they played a new and worse trick on us. Eight of teu of us set off' to go down singly,one sled a few yards behind another; when, as we drew near Number Seven school house, Rufus Rundlett, who was ahead, noticed that Matthias Monsen, one of the larger boys at the Corners, was standing on one sj.de of the road and his brother Lem on the other. 4 i Look out for snowballs!” Rufus shouted back to us. Neither he nor of .... the rest , of , us that , , any saw a new rope lay across the road on the snow h i the Monsen boys raised it and caught us. Rufus sled was capsized, and all the rest of us were piled up in a , heap Some „ of „ us were scraped , oft „ our sleds, some had their sleds upset; tor the Number Seven crowd had three or four boys at each end of the rope, and as fast as a sled came along it was caught by the rope and jerked over. Meantime a dozen other Num ber Seveu boys were raining snow balls upon ns. We had to jiick our selves up, recover our sleds and get away as best we could. 4 I Try it again!” they shouted after US. 4 4 If you think von can run by Number Seven try it again!” For a day.or two we had little dis position to try it again; they were too big and too many for us to thrash, as we would, perhaps have been justified in doing, and we did not dare to try the coast; but we chafed under the re straint.and beat our brains for a de vice to break it effectually. * 4 4 Hoi” Edmunds, who, after Rufus, was probably the most energetic of our boys, proposed to run a. big mar ket pung sleigh down, taking one of the thills under each arm as he lay face downward on his narrow coasting sled between them. This feat had sometimes been performed on the hill by the older boys. Hoi’s idea was that the pung, loaded with ten or a dozen bovs, would break the rope or jerk it away from those who tried to hold it. It was evident, however, that if the rope were so held as to upset his sled the pung thills would drop and the pung come to grief, to say nothing of the danger to Hoi himself from being run over by it. It was tbeir that Rufus Ruudlett proposed to take the thills off the pung and steer it down himself, by lying directly beneath it on liis owu low sled aud grasping one pung run ner at the forward upward turn in each hand aud plauting a foot against one of the iron braces of the runners on each side. He declared he could steer the pung in that way aud be completely covered by it. The most of us were afraid, how ever, that the bog-trfftters would scrape us off of the pung with their rope. At this stage of the argument Rufus proposed making the pung into a wooden armor-clad. Dol aud he worked nearly all the following night. They took ort' the low pung-box and replaced it with one far larger and stronger, made of joist and pine boards. It covered tlie pung runners entirely, being over eight feet long by four feet wide, and the sides rose to a height of over three feet, quite sufficient to shield all who sat within them. The box was made fast to the runners and had a kind of prow in front, projecting three or four feet in a wedge-shaped tvungle. When they hauled it to the school house next day everyone who saw it, in cluding our woman teacher, agreed it was the most singular “coaster” ever seen in those parts. Rufus,when lyiug under it on his little sled to steer,was almost completely hidden from view; aud a short trial trip down the first pitch of the hill showed it to be uec- essary that he should be strapped to the little sled. Rufus was ready to start at onee, but the courage of many of the boys was not quite equal to taking passage iu so novel a contrivance. Iudoed, some little bravery was required, for if Rufus failed to steer it broken necks might be the result. Then, too, no one knew how strong the bog-trotters’ rope would prove to be or wlmt would happen when we ran foul of it. But next day, after we had eaten our noon lunch, Rufus having sent his father’s hired man, with a span of horses,down the hill In advance, placed himself under the pung iu position for steering. “Come on, boys?” he called, “who’s afraid?” * Hoi Edmunds was the first to climb i)j ( anil nine of ns fo’loiv–d him. “Shove off!” exclaimed Rufus, and in a moment move we were gliding down the first pitch. Altogether the pung, the heavy box and its load of boys must have weighed a ton. It rapidly gathered speed. Down the second*pitch it swept, hummed across the level stretch and took the third pitch, faster and faster. It was amazing that Rufus steered iso well, but he seemed to know how at once. My own sensations swung between terror and a wild elation, Down the long fourth pitch we shot, gaining tremendous headway. The pung was now going so fast that the jar and jolting motion had entirely ceased. It seemed as if the road had been oiled. The keen rush of cold air cut our faces,and brought to my eyes, I remember, was a haze of tears, through which I saw dimly a wild pro cession of hurrying trees and roadside fences, The Number Seven boys had seen us coming. As we headed down the fifth and last pitch we heard them shouting, a nd seven or tight of them ran across the road, 4 4 They’re stretching their rope!” Dol exclaimed. Jumping to his feet, he pulled off his red woolen muffler and waved it defiantly, while we all yelled like wild Indians. The bog trotters yelled back defiance and raised their rope. In their ignorance they probably thought that, with five or six boys at each end of the rope, they wuuI(1 be able to upset us . But the next moment they rece ived * im ressive object-lesson. The mo mentum of the heavy pung was some thing prodigious! We scarcely felt the when we struck it, and the next iustaut a llozen Nnmber Seven boys were taking most extravagant leajrs as they were jerked into the road behind us! All of them had been gripping the rope hard, and some of them were carried 50 feet before they could let go! They were about the most astonished-looking boys that I ever saw! As for the pung, it did not stop till it reached the foot of the hill beyond the bridge over Longmeadow brook, where we found the man and horses waiting to haul it back up to Number Six. The bog-trotter boys had not wholly recovered from tlieir discomfiture when we went by; their school bell was ringing, and when Rufus politely asked them what they thought of our blockade-runner they had little to say. 4 4 Ho!” Lem said,feebly, “What do we cave for your old rantum-scooter!” And the name stuck to Rufus’ armor clad. We soon came to call it the Rantum-Scooter ourselves, The Number Seven boys knew bet ter than to attempt to hold a rope in front of the blockade-runner again; but they still imagined that the rope would stop us, if only the ends could be made fast. Next day at noon, when we coasted down, we found that they bad drawn it tight across the road and tied one end to a tree near the school house and the other to a horse-post in front of the grocery opposite. The rope snapped like twine when we struck it. A day or two later, as we coasted down, we found that they had collected eight or ten ox chains', but they did not dare to use them; perhaps because they feared to kill some of us, or pos sibly because the selectmen had threat enecl to have them punished if they seriously molested us more. After this they no longer tried to stop us, but th y pelted us hard with frozen snowballs. For ordinary snow balls we cared little, since we could draw our heads down into tlie box as we passed; but soon ’Thias, Lem and some of the others began hurling heavy lumps of ice into the pung. To set such missiles at defiance, Rufus and Del rebuilt the box of the pung,making the sides higher,putting a top on it and covering it with sheet iron. During the following week we made the coast not less than 20 times with thi3 curious contrivance. Lumps of ice and even stones were launched at it; but no violence which the dis gruntled bog-trotters could inflict pre our m ining their blockade <3 , a3 th9 g Jod coa Hi ig weather la -tad.-Youth’s Companion. The directors of the poor of North umberland county, Penn., have de cided to abolish salaried physicians in the various districts of the county, and hereafter pay a reasonable fee to the doctors employed outside of the atmshouse. SHEEP OF BLUEST BLOOD. MERINOS WITH LONG PEDIGREES IN THE HILLS OF VERMONT. They Are 11*1,y »n<t Dirty, Wear Silver Kiii-rings and llnve Coin in a luled About IllOdil Apiece — Their I’tirlfy of lilooil Guarded Sacredly — Came From Spain. “The bluest-blooded, most aristo cratic of all domestic animals iu the United States is the merino aheop, ” said Aaron Spencer, a New England stock breeder, “aud nowhere else in the world, not even among the hills of Spain—-the original home of the meri no—is this animal found iu such per fection and purity of breeding as among the Green Mountains of Ver mont. There are merinos in that re gion, and particularly in Addison county, whose pedigree is traced buck without a break in the record or a blot in the blood for more than a century, directly to the ancestral pas tures iu Spain. “To look at a merino sheep, unless yon know all the points of one, you would scarcely think it was worth driving to pasture. Greasy, dirty and uncouth, its fleece, blackened by an oozy, gummy substance which, to put it mild, is by no means fragrant, hanging to its body in rhiuoceros-Iiko folds aud wrinkles, the eyes barely visible, aud nothing but the nose showing from the greasy, sticky, ill smelling' mass, the royal blooded mer ino is not a sight to cause much en thusiasm in a spectator who is looking for outward beauty. But the blacker and gummier and rhinoceros-like its fleece the better it is. Breeders think so much of that dirty gum on their merinos that they carefully shelter them from showers, and even heavy dews, to prevent a particle of it from being dissipated. Members of this aristocratic family of sheep of theVer mont breed have taken on this unpre possessing and uncouth appearance and rank smell to such a degree that they have easily commanded $5000 apiece from eager breeders. I knew an Addison county flock of merinos, thirty in number, to Vie sold just as they stood iu the pasture for $10,000 cash. “For centuries the government of Spain prohibited, under heavy penal ties, the exportation of merino sheep, knowing well the great value of that product of its mountain slopes, and being resolved not to share it witft any other country. In 1802, Colonel Havid Humphrey of Connecticut was United States minister to Spain, and he made himself so popular at the court of Madrid that when he retired f rom 0 q ice [ n that year his request to be permitted to fetch with him to America a number of merinos of known superiority of blood was granted by the Spanish government. Those sheep were placed on the Humphrey farm, near Herliv, and from that Original stock the present royal breed of Ver mont merinos sprang. ✓ “But there is au aristocracy even among blue-blooded merinos, and the family known as the Atwoods may be said, merinos to be iu the this Mayflower country and stock the of high- all est iQ degree in any country except Spain. Tfiey hold tbeir heads above the most aristocratic of their kind, not because their blood is any better tliau other Vermont meriuos, but simply because they are Atwoods aud 'nothing else. Two or three years after Colonel Humphrey brought that first flock of merinos from their na tlve blUa in Spaln ’ a ^ onng f am f r named ^ e phen , Atwood agreed to ™ rk a whole year on the Humphrey fai ' m fo1 ' 1™* oue ° we hom ^ nal importation of merinos. The con " a8 fulfilled, and from that ewe and a Humphrey x merino ram thepres ent Atwood merinos originated. At wood transferred Ins sheep to Addison county, and there the purity ot tbe blood has been sacredly preserved, au association of breeders having been formed for no other purpose than to maintain that purity. Descendants of Stephen Atwood controlled the flock until a lew years ago, when it passed into other hands. A half interest in 0116 of the rams brought $2500. Hie Hock was separated, but the Atwoods remain still tbe merinos of highest de gree. When a lamb of this ultra blue blood is born its ears are pierced and silver labels, one with a number on it and the other with the owner’s name, are attached to them. The number, and name are entered on the books of the association. If the lamb is sold or transferred, the owner must notify tlie association, so that every move ment of that lamb from its birth to its death is always known. No sheep has any standing as a royal-blooded merino which doe3 not wear the ear rings and can have no certificate of pedigree. Today the merino sheep a re raised all over the world, Aus tralian breeders being the largest owners; but even from Australia, that garden spiff of sheep laising, as well as from every other sheep-growing country, the breeders come to Addi son county, Vt., to obtain scions of the original stock whenever they want to improve their flocks.—New York Sun. only Hermits Should Try It. Eatiug au onion every other day is the latest remedy for improving the complexion and injuring the breath. —Atchison Globe. --------«------- * CLERICAL CAME WARDEN. I.tveft with II Ik nnifM, Flahr*, Hiinlii *n4 SulrtliU Upon tli« KrmilMi. Calhoun county, Michigan, boasts ol the only clergyman game warden iu America, the Rev, Isaac Collier, who is known throughout the State as tlia Henry D. Thoreuu of Michigan, as he has for many years lived alone with his dogs in a cottage on the shore of Goguac Lake, summer, winter and every season, spending his time in fishing and hunting and iu the study or books aud nature. A passionate regard for nature has led this unique clergyman to li\e among the flowers and trees, the birds and animals of the woods. Yeiys of botanical training make it possible for him to understand the flowers \vhich he piuck* by the roadside or ii* the fields or forests. Never does a day puss that the venerable character, with his fishpole, may not be seen wending his way to the water’s edge for his customary fish. His export knowledge of angling makes him known among the tishermen as “Our I/.aak Walton,” and he lives out his title. Not only does ho fish, but he studies Ins prey. He knows the fish and their habits, and is at home among them. A strange place is his cottage, un lathed, unplastered, but the home of a contented man. He subsists entirely upon the results of liis hunting and fishing. Ho not. only sells his fish for the few groceries and supplies which he requires, but lie is fond of them as a regular diet. He i3 his own cook. His tea he makes from the wild plant blossom known as the Jersey tea, and the only coffee which he uses is made from the hickory nuts which lie gath ers. Above all, lie is liale, hearty aud healthy, although sixty-eight years of his life, have passed. But he says, “I live close to nature, and so I do live, not exist.” Greek, Latin, Hebrew, Chaldaic, Syriac, Freuch and modern languages are read bv the quaint character, and no matter how busy a day he has spent among his fish friends lie closes it by reading a chapter in his Greet Testa ment. Apart from the world, lie never neglects his religion, and studies re ligious questions of modern and ancient character. The Rev. Isaac Collier was born in Greene county, N. Y., and in his mere childhood he astonished his parents by declaring his intention to enter the ministry. He took a coarse of study in the Ooxsackie (N. Y.) academy, and then the grammar school at New Brunswick, N. J. He received his diploma from Rutgers college, follow ing this by a three vears’ theological course. His first call was to- Coey inatis, on the Hudson river, where he preached for five years. In 1866 he entered upon his duties as pastor of the Hutch Reformed church of Battle Creek, leaving iu 1871 for Richboro, Pa., on a like call, where he remained fourteen years, returning to preach as a Congregationalist in the ^Yupfustii chur h. After his return to Battle Creek he took up bin Thoreau-like life, and has continued ever siuce in this plan of living. He has just been appointed Game Warden for Calhoun county by State Warden Chase Osborne, aud an nounces emphatically th t he will use the same vigor in the fulfillment of the iaw as in the expounding of the Scrip tures and the traveling of the woods for nature study. No one can fail to understand why he i3 called the Henry 1). Thoreau of Michigan. How They l)n In Paris. “They do things differently in France. ” It would seem that even the Paris rogues have learned to appreci ate this distinction and to live up to it. The other day a lady went into a store in the Rue Richelieu and pur chased a silk dress. A man, well dressed and of fashionably appearance, entered the store behind her and watched the transaction with a pained, troubled 'expression. As the lady drew a 200-franc note from her purse to pay for the dress the stranger rushed forward, gave the lady a box on the ear and tore the note from her grasp. “I had forbidden von to buy that dress,” he cried, “but I have watched you, and you shall not have it.” With these words he lifted his liat to tlie clerk and hastened away. The woman fainted. When she recovered the proprietor of the establishment ex pressed regret at the violent scene aud pitied her for being dependent on so brutal a husband. “My husband!” cried the lady, eagerly. “Monsieur, that nupi is not my husband; I do not know him; I have never seen him be fore.” But not only thieves, but the police “do things differently” in Paris. The pretended husband was ar:ested a few hours later.—New York Times. Jealous the Anglo-Saxon. These Anglo-Saxons are a boastful race. The Americans are jubilant be cause tlieir mod rn, well-equipped, fully maun d battleships blew into et.-rnity a much smaller force of Span ish cruisers, sans ammunition, sans coal, saus everything. The English free lance Kitchener has now swept a few thousand badly armed, worse-led Africans off the face of the tarth, and his countrymen are overjoyed at his victory. But it would be quite a dif ferent thing if Tommy Atkins were pitted against European enemies.—► Vienna (Austria) Reicbswekr.
