Clayton county humor, 1879

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Posted By: Terry Sargent (email)
Date: 3/21/2011 at 17:45:01

An Elkader man on a wager ate 2 1/2 pounds of Limburger cheese in 40 minutes. Half of that amount would have killed a Strawberry Pointer; but this feat didn’t seem to attract much attention in Elkader where that fragrant cheese is one of the principle articles of diet.

~Story was published in the “Home News” column of The Strawberry Point Press, Strawberry Point, Clayton County on Wednesday, November 26, 1879 [Vol. 6 No. 38]

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A man living near town has a melon patch. In this patch the melons grew undisturbed, from the tiny seed until the luscious fruit began to ripen. But the whereabouts of this patch became known to some bad boys who have an insatiable appetite for watermelons and the kind this man raises in particular. The owner of the patch noticed that his choicest and best melons were disappearing nightly, and being of an investigative turn of mind resolved to find out the cause of their disappearance. Accordingly he loaded an old shot gun with a large load of shot and fixing to it a string in such a manner that anyone entering the patch would pull the string and cause the discharge of the gun. But on this particular evening the boys “smelt a mice” and in order to see if everything was all right, drove this man’s cow into the patch before entering. The gun was discharged –and –and now this man employs his spare time picking shot from his family cow.

Moral – Never leave a cow and melon patch round where bad boys can find them.

~Story was published in the “Home News” column of The Strawberry Point Press Strawberry Point, Clayton County, IA on Wednesday, August 20, 1879 [Vol. 6 No. 24]