Page:The Family Album.pdf/70

62 ning around. Finally the old man went into politics and joined a Republican club to keep warm in the winter.

He was a Democrat in the Summer. But their club didn't have any stove.

The picture on this page is his nephew. He was a Jake-of-all-trades and belonged to fifty unions. So he never ran out of strikes and didn't have to work. He had a wire-haired terrier that he used for a sawmill.

He'd sharpen up the wire hairs, then he'd put a flea on the pup. The terrier would scratch his back on the nearest telegraph pole. About two rubs and the pole would come down. That was a good living for about two years, when the telegraph company started to wonder what was becoming of their special messages.

So, altogether, the old man's nephew didn't get more than five or six years' living out of it. He sold what was left of the poles back to the company. He could never figure why the home town gas corporation had a "No Bills" sign on their fences, because they used to send him one every month. Sometimes they sent him the same one for years.