The Yazoo Democrat., 1859-11-19
"ZEAPORA MUTANTUR ETN0S MUTAMss
Or IN ILLS"

"TEAPORA MUTANTUR, ETN0S MUTAMs
OR IN ILLS"
There was time when one Of our greatest
sources of amusement was game Of Marbles.
Now, however, we have lost all taste for that for
merry to us, most interesting pastime. And so Of
q great many other things. Our taste for them
has left us, we know not when nor how. We pre-
sume it is 80 with other persons. What man has
not spent hours together, when boy, at that
most classic game, "Mumble- -the-Pegf" Or,
who has never had blood blisters raised on the
dorsi Of his manual digits for lack of skill in the
game of " Knucks ?'-or his ribs nearly broken
by loaded ball in 'Bull Pen" or 'Roley HOle?
If there be any such men, they had not the honor
Of our acquaintance when boys. In those days
we have been more troubled by losing dozen
marbles at Sweepstakes" than we could be,
since man, by losing our last dollar at "Seven-
up" or "Draw." We have distinct recolec.
lection of being the happy possessOr, at one time
Of q large "white alley" 1t had been our "taw"
whole school. A strange boy, whom we have
since been led to believe was ''sharper" got uG
into a game of I" Sweepstakes" one day, and
among many and all our other valuables, consist
pocket combs a large brass button and "bar
low" knife, we lost cur favorte, the Galley
Never will we forget our chagrin at the close Of
that game. We have met with many losses and
long ago, but the memory of that days losing
will cease only with US.
Alas for the game of Marbles. We believe
1t has nearly gone out of date, and "alies" are
Hole" played any more, and :" Bull Pen" is re-
memhered among the things that were. In their
places we have humming tops, kites, ct eetsra.
We sappose there were hummng tops and kites
when We weVe boy, but we never saw themr and
SO they might as well never have existed. so ia,
as we we're concerned. Indeed, we know there
were kites, for we remember having seen the pic
ture of one. The reader may remember that pic.
ture. An old man with Quaker hat was flying q
kite in q thunder storm; the string of the kite
passed through the handle of key drawn in mis-
cradle proportion to the rest of the picture. Zig
gag lines in the upper part where the kite was,
represented the lightning. There might have
been hummiDg tops, too, in those days, but we
never even saw the picture of one. True we had
kind of top, but it was no hummng top. Ours
was made by putting straw an inch or tGo long
through the middle hole of bone button. The
little machine, when twirled by the middle finger
and thumb, would spin most admirably When
we could not indulge in such luxuries as bone but
tons, we bsred a hole through the center of an
acorn hull, and put straw through that, which
made Top that answered our purpose. We
feel bound to record an especial dislike both to
humming tops and kites. If there is anything
that we dislike more than a cross child, it is the
windy weather that generally visits us with
March. Now there is something in the noise of
humming top that always reminds US of the
bowling of the March winds around the angles of
the house, albeit we be snugly ensconced inside.
This is why we don't like humming tops, and we
hope the man that invented them has goe his re
ward. Our antipathy to kites was never fully
matured until mule on which we were gracefully
turning corner pitched US about twenty five
feet ahead. when he wheeled and fed in the op
posite direction. AS we completed our somerset,
we saw most interesting boy with large kite
on his head msde in imitation OF the Amercan
Flag. If our text is true as regards the pastime
of boys, it is no less so concerning "children of
a larger growth"