Dean Stone’s Poultry Poetry and Praise for Missoula’s Memorial Day – 1914
Dean Stone’s Poultry Poetry and Praise for Missoula’ Memorial Day – 1914
Caught on the Run About Town
Now doth the busy city hen, with all her main and might,
scratch up the neighbor’s flower beds, in which they have delight;
and though the patient neighbors plant all their seeds again,
the city hen just digs them up with all her might and main;
she’s the cleverest of scratchers, she’s as graceful as you please;
her specialty in scratching seems to be among sweet peas;
but she’s good with English daisies and with pansies she’s a peach;
her legs are mighty active and they have tremendous reach;
just let her see nasturtiums and she’ll do a lively stunt;
she finds the seeds by instinct and she doesn’t have to hunt;
but the city hen has one good trait – she promises fine fresh eggs;
if she only weren’t so handy with her scratchers and her legs.
But the city hen doesn’t get all of the blossoms. The display of flowers yesterday was remarkably fine, as to quality as well as quantity. The cemeteries were decorated even more lavishly than usual and there were thousands of blossoms sent out of town; the call upon Missoula was stronger than ever this season and the supply was equal to the demands. Missoula flowers had their part in the decoration ceremony in a good many towns yesterday. The local decoration was lavish and wonderfully beautiful. Even as early as 7:30 o’clock yesterday morning, there were many flowers in the city cemetery and from that time on, the stream of blooms which flowed over the graves was a veritable flood. There were few of the mounds which were not decorated by loving hands; the few which were not thus remembered, however, were not entirely forgotten; there were thoughtful women who, according to their beautiful custom, took a supply of flowers beyond their own needs and, wherever they found a grave had not been decorated, they supplied the lack. So there was a carpet of flowers. It was very beautiful.
Chief Loffnes was early at the cemetery, directing the decoration of the fire department graves which are there. Ten is the number which the department claims as its special charge. There are that many of the names which appear on the department roll, which have been transferred to the list of those who rest in the Missoula cemetery. The department is always careful to see that not one of these graves is forgotten; there were markers for the mounds and there were flowers to cover. In addition to this attention, the Missoula department, as usual, sent a large lot of flowers to the Butte department for use in its Memorial day exercises. This has been the practice ever since 1895. The Missoula department has never missed a year since the practice was inaugurated. It is a beautiful custom and the Missoula men do well to perpetuate it.
What with examinations, farewells and picnics, these are the busiest days of the year and the careworn puckers that have found place on the foreheads of our girls and boys this month are not to wondered at. The strain of examinations is always trying; but it appears to be aggravated this year to an unusual degree by the side-lines which the high-school student and the university delvers after knowledge are compelled to carry. There is not a gulch or a canyon within a radius of 20 miles which has not a picnic party in its midst practically every day. The woods are making many new friends. I am a strong believer in picnics. I enjoy a picnic myself – probably there are few people in the world who have more fun than I do at a picnic. But I believe it is possible to overwork the picnic, just as it is possible to get too much of any good thing. And when the picnic has to be sandwiched in with examinations, proms and parties, something has to break in a short time. It is bound to be the disposition of the overworked picknicker that yields first. Then the nervous system will follow and we have a total wreck. The picnic is a great institution, but like all great institutions, it can be abused.
A. L. S.
The article above appeared in The Missoulian on Sunday, May 31, 1914
Sadly, a buggy carrying 5 local people was hit by an N. P. train while returning from the Missoula cemetery that day. Mrs. Elizabeth Zanders was killed immediately and her granddaughter, Pearl Carr, died the next day at the Northern Pacific Hospital. Three other occupants were injured.