The Kalida venture. [volume] (Kalida, Ohio) 1841-1865, 1853-06-10
THE OLD GARRETT

| li'-Y A'S' fPut tHo imUeunile CTcOlt
"Erchange Paper" TO the snbjoned nd
mlrable picture OF San Old Garret."-
Ihere5ls many an overpraised novel, il
these latter days, that does not posses
bali The naiuralness and :rDe feeling o
This lll'le skelch: Knickerbocker.
"Sacaslic people are wont TO say thai
poets dwell in garets, and simple people
Ibellve i. Aud others, neither sarcasl!,
nor simple, send them up aloG, amons
lhe rubbish, Just because they do no
know what 10 do with ,hem down stair,
and among folks and so they class then
under The head Of rubbish, and consigr
Them 10 the grand receptacle of dilapida
ted 'hasbeens' and despised 'used,lo.
be's,' the old garrett.
"Tbe garre is 10 The other apartments
Of The homestead what the adverb is 10
the Pedagogne in parsing: everything
they do not know how TO dispose Of is
consigned To the list Of adverbs. And il
is for this precise reason that we love
garrets; because they do contain The rel,
.ics Of the past souvenirs OF other and
happier and simpler times. ydeg
"Ibey have come 10 build houses
now>a. days without garrets. Ippious in
novaiion!
"You man of bronze and 'bearded
like the pard,' who would make peopl,
believe, if you could, that you never
were "a toddln' wee ihing;' ,ha, you
never wore "a rife-dress,' or iingled a
rattle. box with infinite delight; that you
never had a mother, and that she never
became an old woman, and wore caps and
speciacles, and may be took snuff; 90
home once more, after all these years
Of absence, all booted and whiskered,
and SIX feet high as you are, aud LEI us
go up the stairs together; in that o.dsfash.
oned, spacious garei, that extends from
gable to gable, with is narrow oval win
dows, with spIder-web of a sash,
through which steals "a dim religious
Light upon museum Of things unnam-
able, tina, once figured below stairs, but
were long since crowded out by the Van
dal hand Of these modern times.
"Tbe loose boards Of the Aour rattle
somewhat as they used TO do--don'l
ihey?-when beneath your little pa.ter>
ing Zee. they clattered aforetime, when Of
a rainy day, 'mother,' vearied with many
iongned importantly, granted the Let
us 60 up garret and play And playf-
Precious little Of play have you had
since, we'll warrant, with your looks of
digni'y and your dreamiugs of ambition.
"IIere we are now in the midst Of The
garre,. That old barrel-shall we rumm
age il? Old files Of news spapers-dusiy,
yellow, little tai,ered! IT'S the Co
lumbidn STAR How familiar tba, type
looks! How il reminds you Of old times,
when you looked over The edge Of the
counter with the Letters or papers for
father!' Aud those same Stars, just
damp from the press, were carried one
by one from the fre.side, and perused
and preserved as they ought TO be. =
Stars? Damp9 All! many star has
set since then, and many c new-lurfed
heap grown dewy and damp with rain
that fell not from The clouds. "a
"Dive deeper into the barrel. There!
A bundle-up !. comes, in cloud Of
dust. Old Aimanacs, by all that is mems
ofable! Almanacs, ,hin-leaved ledsers
Of time, going back toilet us see how
far: lS4A, lS3=, lS2-,-before our
when our mothers were
children. And The day how blolI>
ed and blurred with many records and
many tears!
"fhere, yon have hit your head against
tina, beam. Time was when you ran to
aud fro beneath il, but you are nearer 10
il, now, by more than The altitude of a
'copine.' That beam is strewn with Cor
gotten papers of seeds for next years
sowing;a a disIaff, with some few shreds
Of fax renainng,is thrust into crevice
Of the rafters overhead; and tucked away
close under the caves is 'lhe little
wheel, that used 10 stand by the Ere in
times long gone. Its sweet low song
has ceased; and perhaps perhaps she
that drew III, SO flaxen threads but
never mind-you remember tle line,
don'I you?
"Her wheel at rest, the matron charms no more
"Wtll, lei ,ha, pass. Do You ste that
lille craft careened in that dark corner9
| was red once; il was the only caskel in
The house once. and contained molber's
Jewels. The old red CRADLE, Cor all the
world! And you occupied il oncejay ),
great as you are, il was your world once,
and oyerii, the only horizon you beheld,
bent tho heaven of mothers eyes, as
you rocked in that little bark Of love, on
lhe hilher shore of ,ine--fost by a
mothers love to a mothers heart.
Sand there, attached to Two rafters,
ire the fragments Of an unlwisied rope.
Do you remember ii, and wha, il was
fpr, and who fastened il there? Twas
the children's swing You are here in,
Iced, bur where are Nelly and Charley ?
There hares his little cap by that VIII
low, aud there The little red froc-. she
lsed 10 wear A crown is resting on his
,berub brow, and har robes are spotless
n ,lle better land"