Horses, Hallowe'en and Old Scratch

I'm old enough to remember the days when Russell's main street (Shaw Street) looked like a debris-covered battleground on the morning after --- All Saints Day. And such Hallowe'en mischief (as an observer, not a doer) as a vintage buggy atop the schoolhouse and toilet-tipping at households that still favored outhouses.

But times have changed, or so it seems to me; and the level of mischief has diminished.

Here are a couple of brief dispatches from Hallowe'en 1877, courtesy of editor Dan Baker as reported in his Chariton Leader of Nov. 3:

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Thursday night was Halloween and the night being clear and beautiful, the boys utilize their valuable time by celebrating the occasion in the most appropriate manner. Gates were lifted from their hinges, signs suspended from trees, boxes piled up in an astonishing manner, and a first-class buckboard was presented to ye editor by being left at his gate in the suburbs. When we saw it late at night, as we were returning from lodge, we feared we had been visited by a donation party and feared the worst; that they had also given us a span of horses. Happily our fears were not realized.

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Old father Richard Reed, living a mile or so north of town, has learned that Halloween is a noted event. On that night he saddled his horse and came to the city for the purpose of attending to some church business. On going out, he found his horse missing and the saddle on the fence. After a long search he found his faithful animal tied to the chain on the square. Mounting him, he rode on to Dave Waynick's and went in for a short chat, but on getting ready to go home he again found his horse missing and the saddle on the fence. Father Reed was puzzled, and began to think his horse was possessed of a devil, and after pinching himself to see if he was awake, he shouldered his saddle and marched home, but couldn't sleep, so he saddled another horse and returned to Mr. Waynick's to find his lost animal standing quietly by the stable. He now thinks that the boys are possessed of a devil instead of the horse.