USA > Minnesota > Otter Tail County > History of Otter Tail County, Minnesota: Its People, Industries and Institutions, Volume I > Part 68
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He eats the paint off the wire screens and deposits an acid that cuts the wires. He goes unbidden everywhere. Men protect themselves with strings tied around the bottom of their trousers legs. Ladies are less for- tunate, if too proud to wear bloomers.
The hen eats the Lo-cus with avidity, and he takes his revenge by spoiling her eggs. The cow goes dry for want of feed, and the babe suffers for lack of milk. The concatenation of his disasters is endless. He stalls railroad trains and interferes with interstate commerce. His attacks on the fields is more disastrous than a hail storm. The farmer fights him without avail. The sheet-iron "hopper-dozer," covered with coal tar, dragged over the fields gathers him in by bushels. He is put in piles like hay-cocks and burned. The result is about as effectual as trying to dip Lake Superior dry with a bucket.
Man cannot distinguish the male from the female, but he knows. After the fields are bared, he prepares for the perpetuation of his species. New breaking furnishes the ideal hatchery. The female does the work. A round hole is made in the ground about one inch deep and an eighth 112 diameter. Into this hole is deposited a potential possibility of about a thou- sand baby hoppers the coming spring. The Lo-cus appears on time about as big as a flea. He brings his appetite along, and attacks young vegetation with vigor. He reaches maturity in midsummer, encased in an armour con- cealing his wings. On a sunny day, he climbs up the grass and weeds, fastens the hind feet in the same, and kicks himself out of his shell In half an hour the sun dries out his wings, and he takes his flight. The coun- try is freed of its pest.
The last appearance of the Lo-cus in Otter Tail county, in sufficient numbers to threaten danger, was in 1887. In the latter part of the seven-
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ties they spread the greatest destruction in the county, the year 1877 prob- ably marking the worst devastation. In 1878 no less than two hundred seventy-one farmers of the county borrowed wheat or oats from the county. The commissioners paid eighty cents for wheat and thirty cents for oats; the farmers received this aid by virtue of the legislative act of February, 12, 1878.
A SAD TALE WITH A HAPPY ENDING.
Billy, an early pioneer of Fergus Falls, was an individual such as is often found among the settlers of a frontier. He was shiftless, smooth of tongue and a ne'er-do-well. He was a prolific multiplier of the earth, but did little toward replenishing it in an economic sense.
One winter, when little was doing, a revival started in town and, as salvation was free, Billy availed himself of the privilege of getting some- thing for nothing; got religion and joined the church. Converts were something of a novelty in these days, and Billy's venture gave him a sort of quasi-respectability, which was more than he had enjoyed prior to his "change of heart." In a way it did him some good. He quit drinking, to excess at least, and showed a disposition to work at odd jobs, if not too strenuous, which contributed to the support of his numerous and ever- increasing family. But the confidence of the elders and brethren generally, in Billy's regeneration, was a little too precipitate. If the "ruling passion" be strong in death, it is more vigorous and active in robust life.
Some months after he had become a member in good and regular standing in the church honored by his membership, Billy was arrested on complaint of a Scandinavian servant girl, charging him with being the putative author and father of her child. The offense has a statutory name with which we will not mar the page of this chaste tale. Billy was haled before the justice court, issuing the warrant of arrest, to answer the wicked charge set out in the complaint. There he asked the privilege of consulting counsel. This being granted, the officer conducted him to the office of the attorney of his choice, where they appeared, with Billy in tears. He was so overcome with the weight of his sin that he refused to further blacken his soul by a false denial of guilt. The enormity of his offense, he said, had prayed upon him for some weeks, while the volume of condemnatory evidence was daily increasing.
He was contrite, indeed, and willing to do anything to get rid of the disgrace. It was the "disgrace" that troubled him most. His lawyer asked him why he had not consulted him earlier, when something in the way of compromise might have been effected. "Because," said Billy, "Elder Pickit and Elder Compton told me to 'live it down.'"
Billy's father being out of town, he was unable to give bail of five
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hundred dollars fixed by the justice for his appearance next day, so the sheriff had to take charge of him in the meantime. Billy asked the officer to take him home, as he wanted to see his wife. On reaching there, they found, as was natural, the wife in tears. Billy, in his best prayer-meeting tone, put his arm around her and said: "Let's forget it, Mary; let's for- get it."
The final outcome of the case was less solemn. Billy was placed under bonds for his appearance at the next term of the district court to answer the charge. Before that court convened, a Norwegian farmer fell in love with the girl, and wanted to marry her. She, Barkis-like, was "willin'."
This farmer, being of a thrifty bent of mind, not content with pos- sessing the idol of his heart, alone, bethought him to see if he could not get something out of Billy at the same time. With that end in view, he came to town and opened negotiations with the father of a part, at least, of his future family.
Billy, impecunious, of course, was ready and willing to amicably adjust matters. It was finally agreed between the high contracting parties that Billy should give the farmer his note for fifty dollars, due the next year, in consideration of which the farmer was to hold the county harmless, for the support of the child.
The note fell due, as notes have a way of doing, when the payee called to collect it. Billy was on top of a building, shingling, and saw the farmer approaching. He drew up the ladder-closed the portcullis as it were. The farmer from below made known his business. He had come to get his fifty dollars. Strange as it may appear, Billy did not have the money to meet his obligation. He expressed great sorrow and regret that he had overlooked the due day of his note. The farmer was disappointed, too. He wanted to buy a mower from Stordock & Springen, and lacked just fifty dollars of enough to pay for it.
"Well, that's all right," said Billy. "Just go down to Stordock & Springen and turn the note in toward payment for the machine. I am perfectly willing for you to do that, though as a general thing I dislike to have my paper hawked around, but it will be all right in this instance."
The farmer was happy at having his financial difficulties removed, and started for Stordock & Springen. He soon returned and found Billy still on the barn with the ladder drawn up. He said Stordock & Springen refused to take the note at any price-that it wasn't worth the ink used to write it.
"Did my friends, Stordock & Springen, say that?" said Billy. "I_never looked for such unkindness from them. It hurts me more to hear that than
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it does you not to get the money. I shall make it a point to see them about this. I surely will."
"Well," said the farmer, "come down and let us go and see them now."
"No," replied Billy, "I haven't time. I am very busy."
"Well, come down and see me, then. I won't take more than five minutes of your time."
"Not now," Billy said, "I am very anxious to finish this job."
There is a rumor current that the note was never paid.
THE FERGUS FALLS COOKING CLUB.
Someone has called this the Age of Electricity; locally, it might be called the Age of Clubs. Such designation finds justification when the list of clubs and societies is examined in this work. Many such have come and gone, but many are still extant. The longest lived and most successful of all is, with- out doubt, the one named above.
The Fergus Falls Cooking Club was founded in 1891 by the ladies alone, as a foil, defense or offset to the Men's Century Club The latter was a literary organization. It met once a month at a hotel, where dinner was served, after which the members repaired to the parlor and listened to a paper on some topic of general interest, selected by the person presenting it. As it cost only ten cents to join this club, it may be imagined that the membership was large. That sum was within reach of most all the males in town, and nearly all availed themselves of its privileges. Though the club was large, yet the number that could be relied on to prepare and read papers was small. This work, for that reason, soon became burdensome, and the organization began to wane, and at last disbanded.
The members of the Century Club whose wives had formed the Cooking Club united on a plan for protective measures. It was not conducive to comfort or happiness for these men to sit at home while their wives were off to the Cooking Club, enjoying good things to eat, and discussing, doubtless. the merits, and possibly the demerits, of their respective husbands. Every- one knows how much harder it is for men to remain at home alone than it is for their wives, home being the natural place for women, who are sup- posed to remain in their "sphere of influence." These lonesome men secretly agreed among themselves that on the next Cooking Club night they would gather and at the proper hour present themselves in a body at the club's place of meeting, pray admission and throw themselves on the sympathy and charity of their wives. The plan worked out well, and when the ladies heard that the Country Club was defunct and abandoned, they welcomed the men.
It was then agreed that the husbands should be members of the club, but without the right to vote. "Votes for Men" would be seen on no banner. The ladies were to furnish food and the gentlemen the entertainment for
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each monthly meeting. This arrangement worked well for a time. The men tried harder to supply amusements than they did to write papers for the Century Club. One night they would have charades, on another, a musical program. Once in a while a newspaper, called The Cooking Club Clarion, typewritten, was produced, full of local hits, burlesque editorials and other items of faked news. Sometimes a moot court would be organized, and charges against a member tried with all pomp and circumstance, and once an elaborate negro minstrel act was put on. These entertainments became burdensome. The subjects ran short; the actors disliked to repeat them- selves; some "grew weary in well doing," and the work became a greater burden than writing papers for the Century Club. As usual, the ladies were rather exacting, and critical of the men and their entertainments. While it was never said in so many words, still the actors felt that in the opinion of the ladies, they were not "earning their board."
About this time it occurred to the men that there were suffragettes in the club, some of whom, at times, wore bloomers. The suggestion was natural that they vary the program, and give an entertainment pertaining to woman suffrage and reform in woman's dress. Of course, it was a mistake. The men forgot to take into account the female sense of humor and inability to appreciate a joke where their sex is concerned. While there was no woman suffrage society in town, the men assumed that there was. The entertain- ment decided upon was to be in form of an address by Mrs. Bones, suffragette, to such society.
The part of Mrs. Bones was taken by one of the men, dressed in bloom- ers, a frontal wig, hat with feathers, cutaway coat, white stockings and slippers. His "get up" was surely a work of futurist art, and the ladies were justified in feeling the disgust which some plainly showed as Mrs. Bones stepped forth to deliver her address to the "Female Suffrage Society of Fergus Falls," delivered in condescending manner and patronizing tone. "Mrs. Bones" has kindly permitted us to copy "her" address, on condition that "her" identity be not disclosed. The address is here given, and completely justifies the ladies' revolt against it :
"Fellow Suffragists-Women and Men :
"Old formulas, with old injustice, are passing away. Our movement inaugurated a directness in sharp contrast to the old, circumlocutionary forms and methods. We now begin an address with plain 'Women and Men,' not 'Ladies and Gentlemen.'
"At first thought-we do not use 'blush' any more-at first thought, this may seem an undue bluntness, but its comprehensiveness warrants it. On some occasions 'ladies and gentlemen' might not apply to any one in an audi-
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ence; but 'women and men' cover them all. These methods, carried along all lines, saves an endless amount of useless nonsense.
"The homage once paid to beauty, so called, is now laid at the foot of intellect. Such attentions at one time so appealed to my own vanity as to delay, somewhat, my entry into this broader field and nobler work. I embraced the cause early. I was a mere girl in my teens. That was five or six years ago; but when I once put my hands to the bloomers, I never looked back at the fashion plates. Some of the things I have observed during my public career may be of interest to the members of your budding society here. I admonish you to be firm in the good work, and do not permit yourselves to be discouraged or turned aside by any obstacle. That is the course I have always pursued.
"I remember, on one occasion, soon after I had donned the habiliments of equality, I was riding in an overcrowded street car. Many males were standing. Females occupied all the seats. The car stopped when a thing in skirts and frills entered. Not one offered her a seat. I caught the eye of a horrid man looking at me, when he said: 'Why don't you give the lady your seat?' 'Because,' I answered, 'the lady who occupies it is resting on her own rights.' He glanced at my bloomers, and soon left the car. I have always looked back at that incident with a great deal of satisfaction. It was the first time I had ever been taken for a man.
"Not a great while after I had entered upon my chosen mission, the question of marriage presented itself. Was it my duty to take upon myself the care of a husband? It was a question I steeled myself to solve, alone. I knew too well with what scorn such a proposition would be received by my fellow workers for the elevation of our sex.
"I discovered that love and the domestic instincts were not wholly merged in bloomers. I did not think of abandoning our cause-oh, no-I only thought of matrimony as an aid to the fullest and highest development. In my heart I believed that it was not always good for woman to live alone. That a judicious union with some congenial soul, to care for home in my absence and listen with loving anxiety for my returning footsteps, was really essential to the full expansion of hope. A union with some affinity, whose heart throbs would beat in harmony with woman's higher aspirations, could be but an aid to her soul's fruition.
"Chance had thrown me in contact with a loving young being. for whom I was conscious of an ever-increasing regard. He was young, pure and inexperienced. No word of love had ever been whispered by me, but the tell-tale droop of his eye, the gentle flush of his cheek, and the happy smile with which he ever greeted me, told as plainly as words that my suit would not be in vain. This knowledge, coupled with a strict sense of what was
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his due, hastened a decision. Duty and right demanded that I speak, or forever abandon the hopes of love, home and a family. With the New Woman, to decide is to act.
"It was in the month of June. Nature seemed to have exerted her energies to create a night suitable for love. The moon, with chaste and mel- low beams, kissed the face of all earthly things and touched the heart with pensiveness. The whippoorwill sang his song in the hidden copse; the cricket chirped his love to his faithful mate, while the soft south wind, with touch as gentle as Alfonso's breath, lifted the silken locks from his noble brow, inviting as it were the chastened kiss of love.
"I took his hand in mine. Encouraged by his non-resistance, my arm stole round his willowy form and gentle drew him closer to my beating side. He was submissive to my embrace. The life-giving currents, surcharged with the electricity of love, tingled through my veins. An uncontrollable impulse impelled me to aid polarization by a closer contact. As our lips met, the equilibrium was restored at once.
" 'Darling,' I whispered, 'will you be mine; be a light to my life-a joy to my home-the father of our family?' His answer was a pressure of the hand, a quickening of the breath, as he tenderly raised his drooping eyes to mine. The moon shone on; the whippoorwill sang in the copse; the cricket chirped to his mate, and all nature seemed to sanctify that sacred pledge.
"To receive the guardianship of so young a life, just budding into man- hood, brought its weight of responsibility, and nerved me to renewed exer- tion. Much of my success in life I attribute to the pure, loyal and sacrific- ing home-keeper who pledged his troth to me that lovely night in June.
"Speaking of husbands, I want to say, particularly, to the unmarried females of your club, that some consideration should be paid to their manage- ment. They require an early breaking-in as colts. A kind, but firm, rein is necessary from the start. Should he display any distaste for the new mode of dress, you should don the bloomers at once. Such dislike must not be tolerated. I well remember my own experience in this regard. One day my husband said to me: 'You are trying very hard to look like a man, it seems.' 'Well,' I answered, 'Don't you think we need one in the family?'
"He has raised no objections since.
"A word aptly spoken is generally sufficient to silence any nonsensical allusion to our modern style of dress. One day, as I was sitting in the park, listening to the bird songs, and observing how my new pants harmonized with nature's forms and colorings, a dude sauntered by and, glancing at my bloomers, impertinently offered me a cigar. I said :
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'No, thanks; I do not care to smoke, But by jingo, if I do,
I've got the match, I've got the mouth, I've got the Se-gar, too.'
"He said some silly thing about knowing I had a mouth, and passed on.
"Under the old regime, it used to be said that women could never master the mysteries of parliamentary law. That nonsense is heard no longer. In presiding over public meetings, I have always preferred the gavel, though many-perhaps a majority-resort to tears. This latter mode of preserving order and stopping debate has never been understood by the opposite sex. Their senseless ridicule, though, is not so potent as it was in the earlier days of our movement. I notice that Mrs. Holden, the 'Amber' of the Chicago press, and president of the Bohemian Club of that city, uses, in lieu of both gavel and tears, a horn. This is very appropriate when we remember that the horn of scripture was a symbol of power.
"I once attended a female convention, called to discuss what ought to be done for our foreign sisters in Africa. They were in darkness, and in need of many reforms never suggested by the missionaries. One side argued that our dusky sisters should be first taught to resist the tyranny of man; the other that reform in dress was of primary importance. It was one of the most animated and sad discussions I ever witnessed. The tumult passed beyond control of the presiding officer. The humidity on such occasions makes it rather hard for rheumatic tendencies. Nothing was accomplished at the time, but I learned afterward that the society agreed to attempt the dress reform first, but discovered that the example of frivolous girl missionaries had rendered the introduction of bloomers utterly impossible. The benighted mind showed an unalterable prejudice in favor of feathers, skirts and furbelows in vogue under the old regime. The only hope seemed in a reformation of the missionaries themselves.
"While I do not disapprove of marriage under proper conditions, as you have heard, still, I do not advocate it. Husbands are often a great hindrance to the elevation of our sex. A few more years of development will be required to fit and make man contented with his present, proper condition. It rests with woman to hasten that time, as she has hastened her own emancipation. Yet, in view of the frail and emotional nature of their sex, I advocate patience and charity. 'Reformation' and not 'extinc- tion,' should be our watchword.
"While the crowding of men into the sphere of woman must never be tolerated, still, in his proper field, he should receive our encouragement. Male house servants should be given preference. This course has advan- tages which I need not stop to enumerate. The man-milliner should be
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patronized, exclusively, and male dressmakers the same. It is their proper sphere; besides, in the reform style of our habiliments, it must be confessed they display a more intimate knowledge, if not better taste.
"The men are superior as governors of our children and, since the introduction of Mellen's food, make decidedly better nurses. So it will not do to flatter ourselves that we are superior in all things. I hear that your good work here is encouraged by the membership of two worthy males, Doctor Welch and Mr. Hilton. Male members are proper and a due amount of encouragement should be extended to them, though I think you should check, somewhat, Doctor Welch's tendency to do all the talking, himself."
The male activities in the Cooking Club soon ceased after the curtain fell on this act. This quiescence was hastened by the ladies themselves, who gave a counter program at the next meeting, when these ungallant and ungrateful men were fricasseed and served brown and hot. Now, decorum reigns at the club meetings. Food is served and partaken with propriety, after which the men retire to enjoy their cigars, while the ladies formulate the menu for the next month; after which cards are played by all who so wish to pass the time.
Good food insures the longevity of any club.
THE VILLAGE BAKER.
That "change is marked on everything" is best seen by him whose life has extended over a period of three score years and ten. Different habits and customs, so quietly but persistently encroach upon present methods and man- ners as to be almost imperceptible. But a little variation here, a minute addi- tion there, lead to differentiations, the total results of which are, in time. noticeable to the most casual observer. The sum of all these stand for what in human conduct may be termed sociological development. Sometimes these changes result in what we term "for the better," and sometimes in what we call "for the worse."
This is best illustrated by example. The brusque, abrupt and incon- siderate manner, peculiar to this age of dollar worship, is in striking contrast to the urbane, polite and deferential spirit which characterized our pioneer merchants in the earlier day. The village baker was the living exemplifica- tion of the suavity of manner peculiar to our tradespeople. He advertised extensively, and took a pardonable pride in his fresh bread and any reflection upon that article of consumption would have been taken as a personal affront to the proprietor. All ladies know that there are times when stale bread is a necessity in the commissary department of every household. It so hap- pened on one occasion that several ladies of the village wanted to use stale bread on a particular day. One stepped into the bakery and inquired of the proprietor if he had any "stale bread." He replied that he did not keep stale
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bread-his bread was fresh. Not long after another lady called and inquired for the same article and received the same answer slightly emphasized. Soon another called, and finally a fourth-the minister's wife. The baker by this time was mad all through and cried out in a tone that could be heard a block : "What in blank nation ails all you women, anyway? More than twenty have been in here today asking for 'stale bread,' when every blank one of you know that I never sold an ounce of stale bread in my life!" It is superfluous to add that negotiations ended right here.
THE ESTHETIC SIDE OF FERGUS FALLS.
While love of the "almighty dollar" had its influence in the moral and material development of Fergus Falls, still the esthetic and artistic con- siderations were by no means overlooked or neglected. To have done so would have been to make a lopsided and only partially developed people of the denizens of the "Coming City." They were anything but that. Fergus Falls in these early days was a veritable melting pot, in which were fused the peoples from many lands, resulting in a well-balanced citizenship. impressed with the heterogeneous "kultur" of many different lands from which the people sprang. Here mingled the Dutch, German, French, Italian, English, Irish, Scotch, Norsk, Swensk and Dansk, with one South American from Uruguay thrown in-good people all, with some exceptions, of course.
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