Memory's Storehouse Unlocked, True Stories: Pioneer Days In Wetmore and Northeast KansasBristow, John T.
Philosophy
Memory's Storehouse Unlocked, True Stories: Pioneer Days In Wetmore and Northeast Kansas
Bristow, John T.
Nemaha County (Kan.) -- History; Wetmore (Kan.) -- History
I reiterate, there is no lingering malice in this writing. Collectively,
year in and year out, the oldtime Wetmore people, despite all
differences, were the best people I ever knew—and I lived in relative
harmony with them for a long, long time. I’ve lived a lot of living in
the old home town.
And, thankfully, I’m still here.
FAMILY AFFAIR Not Hitherto Published—1947.
By John T. Bristow
In the foregoing article I made reference to Theodore Wolfley’s poor
marksmanship, with a revolver. When possible, I like to back up my
assertions with proof. I now quote from a letter dated at St. Louis,
April 5, 1941, written by T. J. Wolfley to his sister May Purcell,
commenting on my writings in The Spectator, in which I likened a
Belgrade story to a hot Wolfley editorial. It was at a time when a
Hitler delegation was in Belgrade endeavoring to put pressure on the
Yugoslavs to force them into the war on the Hitler side. The quote:
“I received the copy of the Wetmore Spectator, which you so kindly sent
me. Thank you for it. I was interested in the story from Yugoslavia; and
flattered to be even remotely connected with the incident by my friend
John Bristow, who professes to think that if I wasn’t in St. Louis,
I might be running a newspaper in Yugoslavia. . . . Just as in the
political wars he mentioned, I was sometimes more friendly with the men
I opposed than with the ones I favored. But the people liked it and it
was then the accepted slogan to give the people the kind of news they
wanted. . . . John was a good newspaper man and a good squirrel hunter,
so we thought a little expert shooting might lend realism to the
picture. But I wasn’t a good shot. I couldn’t even hit the imposing
stone when it stood on the side against the wall. But I remember John
could hit a penny when it laid on the floor at the leg of the imposing
stone. So we depended upon John’s ability as a shooter to keep the
enemy away. . . . Show this to John. A good many things happened in the
Spectator office even after I quit, similar to the way they happen in
Yugoslavia. He may remember some more.”
Well, yes—I do remember one more. Always one more. But first I want
to say that Theodore verifies the point I made in the preceding
article—that he could not even hit the leg of the imposing stone, in his
gun-practice. To those who are not familiar with the mechanics of the
print-shop, the imposing stone is a heavy slab of marble mounted on a
stand about waist-high, on which the forms of the newspaper are made up.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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