ROBUST IMAGINATIONS.

Inangahua Times, Volume II, Issue II, 19 September 1881, Page 2

ROBUST IMAGINATIONS.

80ME TEBT ABLE STORJE* ALLEGED TO HATE BEEN TOLD IN KETAD.I. Yesterday afternoon, when the 1 iwyers io Justice Copy's court were waiting for the yerdict in a petty larceny case, Attorney Soderberg re lated an incident of hU early childhood in Minnesota, illustrative of the pecu> liar customs in vogr«e in th.it state : — 'I knew ad old farmer there who owned ten acres of timber land where millions of pigeons came each year toroost. They devastated the wheat crops, and the old coon used to catcli the birtld in nets and thrash them out on the barn floor. Each bird had three ounces of wheat in his crop, and it was a bad year for ' Old Thompson * when he couldn't ship 1000 bushelsof wheat to market at 2,60 dob a bushel, and it ranked A No 1 when i; reached the Chicago elevator, If there had been a few millions more of pigeons he would have come pretty near getting a corner on the Minnesota wheat crop.* . 1 1 know a planter down in Alabama/ said Kittrel, • who was fully as sharp as that. Be trained an alligator to work up and down the river and catch tbo little picaninmes that played along the bank,. The alligator would take tha little kid in his jaws and swim back to the plantation. It was a dull day that he couldn't corral three or four. The planter raised 'em carefully, and when they got big sold *em in NewOrleans at prices ranging from three to ten thousand apiece. He was rolling in wealth when Lincoln's emancipation proclamation was issued, and after that the alligator never did any more work. The man is now barely keeping body and soul together in Washington, olerking in one of the Government bureaus at eight thousand a year.' Judge Cary evidenced the greatest interests in these weird tales, and edged up to the group. ' These are curious yarns, gentlemen* but I believe them all. I bad a dog once, back in Nebraska, that I kept to herd lumber.' 1 Beg pardon, Judee ; did you say the dog herded lumber V * Yes, sir, cotton wood boards. "We always kept a dog there to bring the umber in at night,' 1 Everybody now paid the closest at* tention as they kae»v I hat the boss was at work 'It was this way. Cottonwood boards warp like thunder in the sun. A board would begin to hump its back up ab Jut 9 in the morning, and in half-an-hour it would turn over. By 11 it; "^ould warp the other way with the hea% and make another flop. Each time it turned it moved a couple of feet, always following the sun towards the west. The first Bummer I lived in Brown ville over 10,000 ft of lumber skipped out to the hilis day before I had advertised a house raisin.' l went to the country seit to attend a lawsuit, and when I got back there wasn't a stick of timber left. It Ind strayed a\v*y ! into the uplands. An ordinary board would climb n two mile hill during a hot week, and when it stiii'k timber it would keep wormin' in and out among the trees like a great snake. Every f armer in the State had to keep shep* herd docs to follow his lumber around the country, keep it together, and show where it was in tho morning. Wo didn't need any flames there for lumber. We siwed it east of the plaeo wp wanted to "se it, and let it warp itself to its destinifion ; with tnon an«l dogs to head it o^Fat the time, we never lost a stick. Well, here, comes the jury,' continued the Judge. ' 'J'he witnesses lied %o I guess they will disagree.'