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Show THE WHITTLING HABIT. In Nauvo'o in the flush days, when a man from the surrounding country went to Nauvoo to replevin property which had strayed into that city, it was a fashion with some of the residents there of the Bill Hickman and Forter Rockwell stamp to gather around the intruder and, all whittling sticks, press upon him and in friendly voices tell him how much he must be mistaken to ever think that any lost, property could have strayed. into that city. And if the countryman was perverse or thick-headed, and kept persisting in his claim, they only drew closer to him. whittled their sticks with more and more intensity, in-tensity, and more and more emphasized their belief that he was mistaken. Hickman and Rockwell have passed on, but County Attorney Hanson and Sheriff Kmery and the News and the Smoot morning paper gather around Chief Sheets and assure him that he is certainly mistaken when he asserts that they are a lying, thieving, blackmailing crowd; that he certainly cer-tainly ought to change his opinion; that their only thought is to serve the city and Ihe parties to which they belong. And they whittle faster and faster and gather nearer and nearer, and are more and more anxious that he shall change his opinion of them and get down and out of his office. And this is just the time when the friends of Chief Sheets should in turn become interested and should see if they, too. cannot scare up a jack-knife here and there and a stick to whittle upon. It was a very fetching fashion in Nauvoo, and if it is going to be revived in Salt Lake and become a fad, why, people generally should begin to practice it. for a man might as well be dead as to be out of fashion- |