294 MAJOR JOHN F. LACEY 



lawn, even where once existed the foulest of the old quag- 

 mires. 



In looking back over the past it is hard to realize that 

 this is the same country that in 1858 suffered from a total 

 failure of crops and when cornbread and sorghum in lim- 

 ited quantities was the only food that could be obtained. 



Some of the old settlers may remember the " prairie 

 digs" of those days. When I was seventeen years 

 old I made my debut in life by attempting to teach school. 

 I boarded around, and at the opening of the school these 

 "digs" were confined to a single family. But the close 

 of the school showed how good a circulating medium the 

 teacher was. They were all reduced to the same common 

 level. My motto was, "Let no guilty man escape." 



But this is a painful subject ! Will one of the ' ' affidavit 

 sergeants", detailed for the occasion, please come for- 

 ward? 



In those old days barn raisings and road workings 

 were days of festival. The prohibitory law of 1857, with 

 special reference to barn raisings, provided that liquor 

 might be used for mechanical purposes. At one of these 

 barn raisings an old settler won a bet for Dr. Boyer. 

 "The frost was on the pumpkin and the fodder was in 

 the shock. ' ' A crowd was present at a barn raising and 

 Dr. Boyer offered to bet that a certain old settler could 

 bite further into a pumpkin than any other man in the 

 county. The statute against gaming and options had no 

 application, because any one who should look at the open 

 countenance of the aforesaid old settler could readily see 

 that it was a matter of certainty and not a game of 

 chance ; and, sure enough, when the pumpkin — a large 

 yellow one — was brought forward, the old settler easily 

 went crashing through the rind like a six pound solid 

 shot, and, spitting out a mouthful of seeds, Dr. Boyer 

 won the bet. 



