The Story of a
Blackberry Patch
As Told by George A. Abbott in a Word
Picture—Read by Him at the Horticultural
Meeting Last Week.
As a matter of fact the following poem, which was read by
the author at the Horticultural meeting Wednesday of last week
is self-explanatory, but we all know that to write poetry one
must have a muse. The “tnuse” in this case came to I’ncle
George Abbott one hot, sultry day, when he was working in his
blackberry patch. It struck him so hard that he immediately
threw aside his old grubbing scythe and straight to the house he
went. This is what lus pencil said :
1 had a patch of bramble that no mortal could walk through,
Where the blackberry and the horse weed and the honey suckle grew,
And the sun (lower and the ragweed and tho rambling wild grapevine
And the poison Ivy and thistle did lovingly entwine;
And every weedy creeping thing brought forth by rain and sun
From our rich Nebraska soil grew rank, as they had done,
Beforo tho foot of white man this virgin soil had trod,
When the wild man in the wilder woods knew not the white man’s God.
One day some Christian ladies from out the nearby town
Came riding by and said to me “Why don't you cut them down?
'Tis a sin” said they, “to cumber tho earth God has made so fair
With such unsightly jungles, 'Tis worse than the tiger’s lair."
With a shame faced look “I know,’’ said 1, “ 'tis horrible, but then
It’s rather hard work for a man like me, past three score years and ten,
And the weather so hot.” “Hold on.” said they, “we do not mean that you
With your whitened hair and trembling limbs such slavish work should do;
But pardon us, wo have heard it said, In fact are often told,
That somewhere you have hidden away great stacks of shining gold;
And pardon us, old man, for soon your time may come to go
Aud you cannot take It with you. as one of your sense must know.
So go and hire some younger man, some lusty school athlete;
'Twere just the thing for his muscles, he would think it quite a treat;
Besides he needs the dollars that you soon will leave behind,
So give him a chance to develop his muscles and his mind.”
“'Tis a happy thought,” said I, “and I'm sure I thank you well
For your kindly speech and manners, far more than words can tell.”
And so I started out at once and sought through all the town
In quest of a high school athlete to cut that jungle down.
And the first one that I came to was a stalwart lusty lad,
With muscles as hard as Iron, sunbronzed, you'd think he had
Been cutting jungles all his life; and it made me proud to know
I had paid the tax to school him and make those muscles grow.
In quavering tones 1 accosted him (I'm old and feeble you see)
“Would you like nlittle work to do?” “Work?” and he looked at me
With a pitying stare; “Work, old man, work did I hear you say?
What! Ask me to work? Who said I would?” his laugh was blithe and gay,
Then his voice softened as I looked abashed, “I would, old man, but then,
Today is the base hall tournament and I'm one of the main Held men.
So come and see me toil and sweat in the sultry summer sun
It’s harder than cutting jungles, but then you know it Is FUN.”
And then I tried another and another, hut all the same;
F.aob was willing and anxious to work, and after this base ball game
And the foot hall and the Held meet and the circus had come along,
And Chautauqua days were over. (It was always the same old song.)
It makes me proud to see them as with leisurely pace they stroll,
And It makes me proud to see them as with an artist’s skill they roll
Their cigaretts, ami I pay the taxes cheerfully, ah well,
I'm paid when I hear the music in their modern high school yell.
And close by the high school building, it pleases me to tell,
I can hear my neighbor’s donkeys rehearsing that high school yell.
And I doff mv hat to the real thing; for in the years to come,
When this old world is busy with the rustle and the hum
That shall feed the teeming millions, their progeny will be
Of some use to their human friends; but the two legged kind, Oh gee !
Well at last I grew disgusted, and then l said I’ll try
To cut that jungle down myself; there are many wavs to die,
And maybe I’ll get suu-stroke, and then when I am gone
The preacher will tell how good I was, how I died with the harness on.
Then 1 whetted up my brush scythe, as our fathers used to do,
When they tolled in the wild wood jungles, when this old world was new;
And early and late I labored in that rank and tangled mass
Till it's now a thing of beauty, which, 1 think, mayhap will pass
For a fairly clean blackberry plot; and as I feast on jell
Made from the luscious berries, I will hear some kind of yell.
And I'll feel I’m compensated, when their grimaces I see,
As they feed on glucose jelly boiled down from beef-foot tea.
Yes, early and late l labored, and no one will ever know,
How my old heart throbbed and fluttered, as l cleaned each tangled row;
And how 1 took their jeering as their high-toned rigs would pass,
And how I sweat and struggled in that sultry, tangled mass.
One day some fine dressed people were cutting quite a swell
In a shining, puffing thing they called an ought-to-be-in-hell,
And they laughed at the old mau working, and some smart thing one had said
And the old man chuckled, too, as he thought—their store bill isn’t paid.
But compensation is nature's law, and sometime they will find
There has come a day of reckoning for people of their kind:
For "Age and Want Is an ill-matched pair”, and some time they will know
They would better have learned athletics with the sickle and the hoe.
THE POLAR DASH
PEARY WILL PLANT AMERICAN
SET BY THE FLAG
Arctic Night to be Lightened by
Globe-Girdling Libraries Two
of 3000 Book Chests Sent
to The Farthest North
New York,-July 30.— With the
prospect of being the first printed
pages to penetrate the uppermost
polar region, two sets of American
books are today sailing the north
ern seas, snugly set up in the hold
of Lieut. Peary’s stout ship “Roo
sevelt”. Reports that these two
of their 3,000 floating libraries
were going into brisk circulation
among tLie arctic explorers when
the party finally cast off for the
pole have reached the headquar
ters of the American Seamen’s
Friend Society in this city today.
That some of this nation’s literary
works may eventually be planted
beside 'the flag at the “farthest
north" is the object of the deter
mined crew who are to enjoy their
solace in the bitter solitude of the
next two years.
Months before the ‘‘Roosevelt”
was finally commissioned for its
latest dash toward the pole, the
preparation of these libraries,
which were to occupy the minds of
the men through the long polar
night, was carefully begun. From
a list of the 618,400 volumes which
they have placed before 422,230
sailors on every sea in the last fifty
years, the oflicers of the American
Seamen’s Friend Society chose two
sets best calculated to supply the
hungry brains of the isolated ex
plorers. Those books of travel,
adventure, history, religion, fiction
and biography which have come
back most thumbed from almost a
hundred thousand fo’castles were
finally selected. In two of the so
ciety’s ship-shape book chests the
collections were arranged and sent
to be set up in the mess room of
the Peary ship at Shooter’s Island,
where it was being finally oufittted.
A dictionary, bible, atlas and Pil
grim’s Progress were included with
the fiction favorites of the seamen.
It is the more sober works that
stand the men in best stead in the
long test of the arctic night, Lieut.
Peary declared before leaving this
city to join his ship. In his last
“Farthest North” expedition the
explorer found one of these Ame
rican Seamen's Friend Society li
braries a steady resource for his
men, marooned in the ice packs.
The books which served through
that long night siege from October
12th to March 6th are today lying
in their weather-beaten case at the
headquarters of the society. The
lighter fiction is much more free
from the tell-tale dogears which
mark heavily the more serious vol
umes that were thumbed over and
over in the frigid solitude.
If Peary succeeds in planting
these treasured volumes beside the
American flag at the pole, the
twenty-six thousand libraries which
the American Seamen's Friend So
ciety has kept afloat for half a cen
tury will have penetrated every
region on the globe known to the
seafarer. From almost every state
in this country applications to set
one of these book chests on its con
stant course have now been re
ceived. Each library is registered
and regularly reported in its wan
derings to any one who may pay
twenty dollars to launch and keep
it afloat. To President Roosevelt,
who as a boy of ten presented one
of these libraries for the society,
the sight of the two book-chests on
Peary’s ship was as familiar as it
has now become to hundreds of
thousands of sailors the world over,
Corn Worth Some Money to Him
J. M. Farmer, who lives near
Peru, has in his cribs for future
sale between 4,000 and 5.000
bushels of corn from last year’s
crop. At the present price of
corn, this amount of grain rep
resents a big sum of money.
Mr. Farmer manages about 280
acres of rented land and is more
than prospering. Last fall he
bought 240 acres of unimproved
land in Kimball county, paying
seven dollars an acre for it.—
Stella Press.
A Great Artist
in the dental line can give you a set of
beautiful teeth without a plate if you
I have three or four sound teeth as a basis
to attach his crown and bridge work.
We are artists and past masters of the art
p of dentistry, and whether it be tilling,
, bridging, crowning or fitting whole plates
v, we make jour mouth look beautiful and
natural.
J. C. YUTZY
DENTIST
Falls City, Nebraska
"I*’$*’§**§* *§**§*££
| Absolute Safety J
T is the best thing we have to offer. Other induce- T,
a, ments are of secondary importance. Upon this a,
&» basis only, do we solicit your patronage. 4
t $14,500.00 I
Farmers’ State 5ank %
A^ (Operating Understate Inspection and Control)
4 PRESTON, NEBRASKA 4
t t 4
IJ 11 11 I HI I I nil I I 111 11 114
:: D. S. ricCarthy ■■
:: DRAT and ::
:: TRANSFER;:
I ; Prompt attention griven | |
J j to the removal of house- | |
I ' hold groods. ;;
PHONE NO. 211
IIH»IIIIIIIIIH'tMIII'3lll
1C. H. MARION |
AUCTIONEER. |
Sales conducted in X
scientific and busi- X
nesslike manner X
C. H. MARION j
Falls City, Nebraska |
DR. H. T. HAHN
VETERINARIAN
Office and residence first door
north of city park. Phone 203.
FALLS CITY, NEBRASKA
EDGAR R. MATHERS
DENTIST
Phones: Nos. 177, 217
Sam’l. Wahl Building
J)R: M.L. WILSON
PHYSICIAN and SURGEON
Office and Residence over
McMillan's Drug Store.
Phone 329. FALLS CITY, NEB.
WmrsE
ATTORNEY
Practice in Various Courts.
Collections Attended*To.
Notary Public. FALLS CITY
R. R. ROBERTS
idein'T'i©'!'
Office over Kerr’s Pharmacy
Office Phone 260 Residence Phone 271
W. S. FAST
PHYSICIAN AND SURGEON
S Residence 160
Phones: j offlce 55
FALLS CITY, NEBRASKA
DR. C. N. ALLISON
ID £1 N 'Tf © 'F
Phone 248 Over Richardson County
Bank.
FALLS CITY, NEBRASKA
BEGGS’ BLOOD PURIFIER
I CURES catarrh of the stomach.
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HOT SPRINGS
ARKANSAS
Curative waters, health
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mate, restful surround- I
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reation if desired, all
completely illustrated
and described in our
new booklet, also rates
at hotels, bath houses,
etc., etc.
Missouri Pacific
Iron Mountain
the
DIRECT THROUGH ROUTE
('all ou your local agent
or aridreHs
B. P. PAYNE
General Passenger and Ticket Agent
St. Louis, Mo.
SUMMER VACATION TOURS
TO TIE PACIFIC COAST
Daily low round trip rates to
Portland, Seattle, Tacoma,
SanFraucisco, Los Angeles
and San Diego, Slightly high
er to include both California
and Puget Sound. One whole
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Northwest.
TO EASTERN RESORTS
Daily Low excursion rates to
Cauada, Michigan, Minnesota
Wisconsin, Massachusetts and
New York tourist resorts also
Maine, New Hampshire and
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TO COLORADO and
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Daily low rates to Colorado,
Utah, Wyoming, Black Hills,
and Yellowstone Park.
m FAMILIES WANTED
For newly irrigated lands in
the Big Horn Basin, Wyo.
No cyclones or floods. Water
your land as needed. Soil is
rich. Timber and coal plen
tiful. Price $40 to $50 per
acre. Personally conducted
excursions first and third
Tuesdays of each month.
Write D. Clem Denver, Gen.
Agent Landseekers Informa
tion Bureau Omaha for new
folder. Its free.
Write a brief description of
your proposed trip and let us
advise you how to make it the
best way at the least cost.
E. G. WHITEORD,
Local Ticket Agent,
L. W. WAtiELEY, G. P. A.,
Omaha, Neb.