A MOTHERS TROLIM.ES.
BY J. W.
* •
t
A PAMS.
It was in the spring of 1 SGI, when death
held high ca nixal in the slavestatei of
America. The roving guerrilla bands not
oidy carried off or destroyed property but
did not hesitate t<» take life also for any
trivial offense, real or fancied.
1 he sub
ject of this sketch, with her husb^r.d and
“ children,
1 “ *
*’ * forty
*
miles
three email
lived
eolith of Springfield, Mo.
Their cattle
had all been taken and they were left to
make a living as last they could, for to
One
get away was next to impossible.
day while sitting at their noon meal, a
band of passing guarrillas shot through
the open door, killing the father, and
then rode away. The horrified mother,
leaving the children with the dead, went
to procure help. After a time she got two
boys to assist her and, without codin, the
laxly of her husband was laid away ah
because lie was a Union man and hoped
to see the old stars and strij es again
wave over an undivided country.
The
mother remained at the old home, with
out means to get away and without sym
pathy from her rebel neighbors.
She
Boon had nothing to eat save wlrnt the
little garden produced from the toil of her
own hands.
Three months had passed
since the family had tasted bread and the
mother had heard the pitiful cry of the
children for bread until it became unbear
able. Leaving the little ones all alone
she set out on foot fora mill twenty miles
awav to beg if possible a little flour or
meal, but after her wearisome walk under
a burning sun, she reached the mill only
to find the mill shut down and neither
meal nor flour could be had.
But being
permitted to sweep the floor and bolting
chest she obtained in this manner about
fifteen pounds of dirty flour which she
carried away on her back. On reaching
home she soon had bread baking in an ■
oven by the fire while she, nearly ex
hausted, lay down to rest. She was soon
awakened, however, by the children to
find that the heartless guerrillas had en
tered her cabin and bad taken not only
the bread from the oven hut the remain
ing flour also ami r<xle away.
The
mother gave up in utter despair as she
looked forward to the long winter with
nothing in store but trouble.
But for
tunately one day a company of I nion
cavalry came that wav; she hailed them
and told her pitiful story. T hey at once
sent her and her little one«- to S| ringfield
where the Northern army was stationed.
Here their wants were supplied by the
gov< rnment until the war closed.
4
LETTER FROM DAIRY.
Dairy, Or., May 10, 93.
»
To the Editor of the T alent N ews :
I thought a squib from this lo
cality might be of interest to your readers.
Dairy is a small village consisting ot
one store, a hotel and a school house. It
is situated in Alkali \ alley and is alxsut
twenty miles east of Klamath Ealls.
The name, Dairy, would naturally
bring up ideas of milk maids, gentle cows,
butler and cheese, but if one expects to
find any of these in Dairy he will be
greatly disappointed. True here are cows
nut their eyes are wild instead of mild
and if a maid should approach them on
foot, bucket in hand, saying “So boss,’
they would either toss their heads and
run or else lower their horns anti come
as if they intended to make a solid mash
on that girl and the girl thinking that she
had caught a tartar would suddenly con
clude that she was needed on toe other
side of the nearest fence. The picture of
a miik maid scaling a seven rail fence
with a wild eyed cow in persuit would
hardly comport with the common ideas
of miik*maids leading the mild eyed cow
by tiie DC I i strap across the field ot clover.
Although the girls of Dairy are not
strictly speaking dairy maidensand the
poet has not commented on "their fine
singing and the painter has not taken
them as models; they are none the I.ss
charming and would be fit subjects for a
poem or would grace a picture.
What
ever Dairy has been in the past or may
be in the future, at present the dairying
business is not flourishing.
It is an un
usual thing to see a roll of butter on the
market and if there is a cheesejt is man
ufactured somew here else. As there is in
Dairy a conspicuous absence of milk
maids, mild eyed cows and butter ami
cheese, therefore the name Dairy is a mis
nomer and should lx? changed.
I
It has l>een a very wet spring here as
elsewhere and the farmers have been de
laved in putting in their crops, but the
present fine weather is in their favor and
they are sowing their grain rapidly.
'I he farmers are expecting big erup
tion year. Although crops are rather un
certain here in Klamath county on ac
count of latg frosts, nocountry’ can lwia.-t
of more easily cultivated, or latter soil.
When a railroad strikes this county
and creates a market it will lieone of the
liest counties in the State. There is plenty
of government land here now and ..
young man will do well to take time by
the fore-lock ami takeaclaim. It Hmac<
I