50 THE COUNTRY BOY 



thought of uniforms. We wanted something 

 that would distinguish us from the common 

 herd. As it was, unless you carried your horn 

 or drum all day at a picnic, they couldn't tell 

 us from the rest of the farmers, which reflected 

 on the city. So again we levied a tax on the 

 citizens, and some of them moved out of town 

 to escape it, but under the head of education 

 they contributed according to their means, as 

 their property that lay in town would be en- 

 hanced in value by the uniforms. 



We began to receive large booklets of uni- 

 forms, shown on handsome young men with 

 pink cheeks. Ralph Geer was the only mem- 

 ber of our band who looked like the lithographs, 

 so after a long discussion we picked out the 

 ones that were on the fellow that looked like 

 Ralph, and ordered seventeen assorted uni- 

 forms, second-hand, from Lyon & Healy, of 

 Chicago. They were supposed to be all sizes 

 between such and such. The colored pictures 

 of them showed them to be a beautiful light 

 blue gray, with red stripes down the pants leg, 

 and the coat was a long cutaway, with three 

 rows of big brass buttons on the chest, and 

 large red epaulettes on the shoulders, and a lot 



