Show BRAUNS STONE FENCE A now linar 1 I tempted to raise it bat ab u ie job A few years r eld dutchman named braun bought a quarter section just below mine he came from pennsylvania and was a hard worker and a thrifty chap as most all pennsylvania dutchmen are my farm is fenced with barbed wire the dutchman like wire fences so in the spring he planted a willow hedge around his quarter section summer passed and the fedga was growing like a jamsen weed when J early in the fall a little black cloud which had been hangin around over in i the northwest all the afternoon suddenly swooped down our way and went rippin and bearin across branns place it leave a dozen hedge plants then the old man concluded that a fence which would stand agin a hard wind would be cheapest in the long run and by the middle of october he had bucit a stout rail fence to replace the hedge it was a beauty seven rails high with locked comers and a heavy rider on every length but we had hardly time to look over the old mans handiwork and pronounce it good before a blizzard struck it and scattered the rails over several neighboring townships rather reluctantly braun then decided to follow my example and fence his place with barb wire he put in place of the rail fence that was a wire fence which could scarcely be beaten it had large sawed posts and five heavy wires and should leave lasted a lifetime it might have lone eo perhaps but for an unfortunate occurrence one afternoon early in november another blizzard came sauntering along pulled ap every blamed fence post carefully wrapped a few miles of wire around them and sailed off toward chicago with the whole outfit when the hedge was destroyed the old dutchman merely sighed when the rail fence went he said something half under his breath when the wire fence followed it he swore then he sat down lighted his pipe and fell into a brown study bright and early the next spring he began another fence it was so methin entirely new for our country but it was a dandy and no mistake the old man set his hired hands to work ap stones and haulin boulders bowl ders together and in a few weeks he had collected enough of em to build a stone wall it was as strong as stone and cement could make it and was four feet wide ani three feet high one afternoon enst after it was completed braun was out to me the fine points of his new wall when we noticed a black cloud over agin the western horizon there s trouble over old man said L that blamed thing is jest rollin up its sleeves and spitting on its hands and gettin ready for business bei along here too in about two minutes veil let it coom then as there anything else to do we eat down to watch it it came along twisting off trees close to the ground or pulli nem by the roots cuttin the prairie grass as clean as a mower could have done it and a clean path when it reached that wall it just stopped a moment as if to look it over and I 1 could swear I 1 heard a chuckle then it stopped and caught hold of the edge of the masonry it held together well but up it came slowly and steadily jest when the wall had been turned half over the blizzard suddenly gave a groan lost its grip and loosened its hold the wall settled down upon its side and the ul izzard jumped over it and went howlin out of sight veil said braun jubilantly vot I 1 told you dot fence is a dandy dont it it is von feet higher now as before dot vind coom along and he winked the other eye south dakota cor chicago news |