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About The courier. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1894-1903 | View Entire Issue (June 26, 1897)
i-Tiyp'nWssr THE COTJ&lEfc. SHORT STORIES. IN THE lie was the oldest boy in the country school and stayed to kelp the teacher CHICKEN sweep at night. They grew confident Ul ,COOP. and the boy fin illy told of a boy's club he had be longed to the year before called the "Boy Robbtrs of the Slough." "Wo had a cave," he explained, "up the slough where we would go of even ings and have gay tinea. We stole green corn from our fathers' fields and spring chickens from our mothera' hen houses. Then some of tne boys would bring biscuits and we would have a Bpread. We got caught though." The teacher smiled. "IIow?" she asked. "I guess it was my fault; the gang was out one night and sent ma into Old Haskin's chicken bouse. They tolJ me to go in and feel along on the roosts till I felt a pair of feet and then grab for the neck so that the chicken wouldn't equall. 1 filt along on the lower roost where the young chickens usually stayed but there wasn't any there. Then I felt slowly aloDg on the next pole. Sud denly I touched some spurs. 1 knew this was an old rooster, but I wa9 afraid he would make a racket anyhow now that I hnd touched him, so I grabbed for his neck." The teacher turned the key in tho school bouse door. "Well?" sbe asked. The boy answered succinctly, "I hadn't noticed which way his toes went. I grabbed his tail." She Ftrings them all out and when she gets through every chair in tho room has a pile of tbiugs on it, from bindicg braid to crinoline. Strings and wrap picg paper are scattered promiscuously around the parlor tho truly aesthetic girl never thirks of s iwing anywhere except in the parlor. And in the fraini her woikbox has been tipped over on the parlor table and some dozen spools of white basting thread aro rolling treacherously on the lloor. Now she feels ready to take up the dress in true bobemian fachhn, whichever part comes first to hand. This is all very enjoyable. And then the training to her patience is so delightfully thorough. If a man bad to baste up a dress and rip it out about five times, stitch it up and then rip it in various places, and alter all wear an ill-fitting dress, ho would swear or else stuff the dresa in tho stove and order another from his tailor. A woaian can do neither. She calms tho recklessness that siezes her heart at times and goos on to the bitter end. As i resuit, when she grows old she finds her character is absilutely petrified. She think3 then that is a the apathy of a disappointed life that nils her but it is no'; it is just the at:ophy induced by uncongenial work. Some men are THE NEWSPAPER afflicted with what one might call the HABIT. newspaper habit. At the breakfast table he swallows coffee while he reads the columns of crime, and then tho col umn of "smiles." A little later at the office ho reads tho same things over again to an enthusiastic circle of clerks who themselves had the p per for break fatt. Off and on during the morning he finishes up tho rest of the paper. At night he rides home on the car and reads, everybody on tho car reads, the evening paper which, French fashion, gives them warmed up for supper just what they had for breakfast with a new sauce of jakes, and some patent insides telling about Pharoah's mummy, the manufacture of pins and the fan of Marie Antoinette. At the supper table he tells his wife he forgot to bring up the morning paper for her to look over, there was nothinj in it. Perhaps he gives her a brief sketch of a lynching in Alabama, a murder in New York, an execution in Ch-cago. Later in the'evening the minister calls, and while his wite entertains the com pany, the man of the house sits by the stand and fingers a pile of newspapers making desultory remarks for politeness Bake, while hel-eeps his finger at the point when stopped reading. Somebody could gain the gratitude of the race by inventing a gold cure for the newupaper habit. A girl liks to do SEWING sewing. It has the same element o f pleasure that threshing time has for the hired man. When she begins she lays out about twenty bundles of different shapes. There is a dres?. She could never think of all the things at once, the liniogs and the thread and and the Looks and eyes and all the rest. She bought things piecemeal ju6t as th inspirations came to her. Now she opens the bundles. She does not need anything at first ex cept the linings but she doesn't know just which bundle has the lining in it. CHILD He is a newspaper man now. lie attributes all of his cuccess to tho early STUDY days of his tchool life. He learned his alphabet from Iettarson tho rim of a little lava plate. He was then sent to school and read in the firet reader. Here he got his first idea of what a gloriously clean, simple stjle should bo. Ho read thrilling stories like the follswing: Does tho boy go up. Yes; the bny does go up. See the boj gj up. It is a game of 6ee saw." When the child read this fluently he wa3 sent on up to tho Eecond reader, where he read tho earne kind of stories embellished with a few adjectives and beaut Hid "by geras'of thought," some thing after the style of: "Come when you're called, Do as you'ie biu, Shut the dwr after jou And jou'll never bo chid." Now it was considered the proper thing for the little boy's re atives to send him picture books for Christiias Among them were 6om9 that proved to be his salvation. Without thm he might have come to think that the single "sea the cat catch the rat" stjle was the only one U6ed by literary people. In these picture books ho came, for the first time in his 1 terary cireer.upon the lnavy involve 1 s'y'e so suitable in after years foi impressive editorials. Toen, too, he learntd about many thirgs that came in handy when he ran out of copy the habits and names of all the animals from Greenland to Borneo in the form as the introductions said, cf "easily com prehended explanations of the most im portant i lusTdtionp." From this point oa his stjle develop ed naturally under the influence of Mother Goto and fairy etories, Sunday school books and at last the newspapers. It is no wonder that his pen as he him self puts it is "fluent and trenchant," When he was a cadet RETORT he went to the encamp ment. She sent him a COURTEOUS box of cake, with a dainty note. Dear Tom: Ono of the cakes I baked myself and I think jou had better gixe it to some other boy. I have marked it. It is called angel f Kd, 6o it might not agree with jou. Give it to Clements. Sincerely, Ethel." He answered her letter with evident haste. My dear Ethel: How can I ever thank you enough for warning me against the angel fcod that jou made. 1 gave it to Clements and it made bim horribly ill. The curious part of it is that I am sure even jet he i3 a perfect angel. There must nave been something else tho matter with the cake. Gratefully, Tom." 'ANNIE PREY. 19 SSiS'S(S5 s (m Furniture store in Webster block, $ 230"238 so. lltlx Street. :: o I P.SL rF&&-, I (5) A dollar saved is not a dollar made when such 2 VALUES I HIE ( are offered as may be found at this store. In fact prices are so low the foods are virtually yours. sess 4M-0644404440 fo0 00OOg 1897 I Established 1887. C M. SEMT25, Dealer in I B Fruits, vegetables etc IMF II) III ItfiMB Ft) Fi Mil Telephone G2U; 1107 O Btreet. frfrOoOO V4Xx-XMmX00 g9cotnm A Weekly Newspaper Is the I Best Advertising Medium BECAUSE 1 It is carefully read by the whole family, 2 It is not thrown aside on the day of issue but is fresh for a week. 3 Ten thousand dollars are spent for magazine to one hundred in daily newspaper advertising". A The weekly newspaper is not put into the waste basket. 5 Every advertisement is read. IMMMI0l0 0MMCMI0M0MMMM0StMMMMHOMMMHCMHHICM
