| Summary: | Newsletter of the North Dakota School for the Deaf. THE NORTH DAKOTA BANNER ted to the bur and after a few yearn was 'practicing law in Du!nth. In 1894, both Smith and I were nominated for Congress and both of us were elected, representing respectively Michigan and Minnesota. During the time the returns were coming in, I was watching the papers closely for news of Smith’s victory, and with pleasure I saw the figures creeping higher and higher, although at first his majority did not equal my own. Then we began telegraphing to each other. Mine began with, “Get a hustle on von, Billy! I have seven thousand." He replied, “Charlie, count again! Yon are not in it! lam now between nine and ten thousand and still climbing." The wires were soon humming with my message, “Go along, Hilly! I’ve gone up to ten thousand.” Smith had the last word in this banter; for he wound up with twelve thousand majority, while I had something over ten thousand. According^, we met in Chicago in February. 1895, and proceeded to Washington to look over the job. We called upon President Cleveland and gave him our unsolicited advice upon the conduct of his office, and also took council with the leaders of Congress and mapped out a great program for their benefit, to whose merits they seemed strangely oblivious. About the second day we decided to realize upon our valuable assets as members of Congress elect, namely the right of access to the Senate floor. * We sat on the settee on the Republican side of the house and watched the slow re* volution of that august machinery with awe, admiration, and envy. After sometime spent there, we started back to the House of Representatives. We were both silent, and it was evident that a profound impression had been made upon each. By and by 1 said. “Well, Billy, how did you like it'f' “Charlie,” he answered with deep conviction, “by gosh! we picked out the wrong house!” “Well,” I suggested, “let's make another compact^ Let’s agree to go to the Senate.” So we shook hands on that also. In the following December, we were duly sworn in by Speaker Reed. It is the custom to administer that oath to members two by two, and I moved that Billy should make a request that, we two be sworn in together. The rule is to take the States in alphabetical order and so proceed; but Billy wouldn’t hear it, saying, “Fate will decide that also.” And so Fate did; for we were both called at the same time, both Michigan and Minnesota. We were never able to keep the Senate pledge literally. I beat him but a few years, although I stayed for only a short time. Heisthere now and serv-ing his State with credit, and giving infinite pleasure to his friends of the olden days, who rejoice to see in his career an exemplification of the opportunity afforded by our institutions to the grit and persistence of a bright American boy in however humble ci rcumsta nc as.—Selected. < < < <• St. Patrick. St. Patrick was born in Scotland so he was not an Irishman. Patrick was not his real name which was Succat. W hen he was a boy, about sixteen years of age, he was seized by Irish pirates and taken to Ireland and sold as a slave to a rich owner of sheep. Once he escaped from his master and returned to Scotland, but he was captured and again taken back. Some years afterwards, it is said, he had a dream which informed him that a ship was waiting to take him buck to Scotland. He accordingly tied from his master and went to the sea-coast where he really found a ship waiting for him. Upon his arrival in Scotland, he felt sorry for the Irish people who were pagans. He took up a course in theology and went to Rome where he was made a priest by the Pope and given the name of Patrick. (Patrick, an alteration of patrician, means noble.) He soon afterwards returned to Ireland. He went through many difficulties and suffered many hardships in order to teach Christianity to the heathens. He labored among the people for nearly lifty years. Upon his death, the people called him Saint Patrick. He is the patron saint of Ireland.—SdecUxl. a A a A The Alaska Mail Dogs. SOME dogs are better followers than others, as some are better leaders. In a blizzard the best of them lose the trial, but invariably find it. When on the trial, they eat but once a day, then at the end of the journey. After feeding, like weary children, they fall asleep and are never quarrelsome. It takes on an average twenty pounds of food a day for a team of eleven dogs on a hard route. The dogs of the mail team consumed last year three tons of bacon and one of rice. The rice and bacon are cooked together with frozen fish and eaten hot. The dogs are permitted to eat all they want. Onca a week they are fed on fresh meat bones. When too hot, they let it cool in the snow. If near the sea or a river, they cunningly pull the vessel out on the ice and test the temperature of the contents with .their long tongues until the mess can be eaten without burning the mouth. Frozen fish is the staple food for all native dogs. In severest weather the dogs are unprotected save by the thick coats of hair that nature provides. In April and May the dogs wear mocea-sirs or moose of deerskin, for the thaw of spring sunshine freezes at night and the ice cuts their fe°t, When a roadhouse is reached, they often share its shelter with the carrier: but not infrequently they burrow into the snowdrjft and curled up in their warmth, wait until hidden to move on. Once on the trill, the dogs are unmindful of every discomfort, every danger. ['heir one fault is playing truant from the line of duty in chasing the snowbirds that Hit across the trail. So enticing is this sport that often tin* driver is at the mercy of the team, which quit the trial and, in eagerness to catch the flying coquettes of Arctic winged life, roll the sledge over and over the snowbanks until the birds arc theirs. Nona* i' the mail distributing depot for Toward Peninsula, the gateway to Northwestern Alaska. Mail from the States comes from Seattle by steamer to Valdez, four days’ journey. From Nome to Valdez is an overland route of more than fifteen hundred miles. This distance is covered by four-dog team relays, each let by the government to separate contractors. The government-pays $4,000 a year for carrying the mail from Unalallik to Nome. Out of this sum the contractor pays carriers and all expenses. — Onr Dumb Annuals. A A A A Switzerland is the only country in the world where the goat is placed ahead of all other animals, and eveu of human beings. If a boy plagues a goat he can he fined and sent to jail. If a person nieets a goat on the path and drives him aside, he can be arrested. If a goat enters the yard of a person not his owner, and is hit with a club or stone, the person found guilty of the offense must pay thirty cents. If a railroad train approaches a goat on a track the train must halt until the animal cun be coaxed to remove himself.—Ex.
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