Wyandot County Republican. [volume] (Upper Sandusky, Ohio) 1869-1903, 1869-12-03
Nyandot Count Republican
Saturday Night.
BY T. DE WITT TALMAGE.

We read Ruskin in the art gal
lery; we read Longfellow by the
sea; we read TX Marvel under the
trees; we read HEARTH AND HOME
on Saturday night. When the week
is past, and we gather at the even
ing stand, with the world put Off,
and our slippers put on, give us a
good family newspaper. 1t is the
hardest thing in the world to make.
Family newspapers only a few
years ago were dolorous things.
The columns were full Of dolorous
things. The columns were full of
accounts of boys and girls who al
ways sat up Straight, and kept their
faces clean, and wiped their feet on
the door mat. The theology was
cast-iron, and the story wooden,
with i long moral, not growing out
but tagged on; so that the children
took the moral with a wry face for
the sake of getting the story, just as
they swallowed the calomel with
the promise: "There now, you
shall have sugar plum !"
The world has learned that a
thing is not necessarily good
because it is dry There is no reli-
gion in chips. We never could see
any sanctity in husks. The donkey
hath no hilarity in his voice, and no
nonsense in the twitch of his ear.
He never was known to dance-yet
he never gets higher than his feed
box. While the robin and the lark,
from the tip of bill to tip of claw,
all life and joy and merriment, with
their wings brush the door-latch Of
heaven. I will like it the more if
the editor dips his pen in the dew
to tell me of the morning, and in
roseate to describe the sunset, and
into the purple watts to suggest the
vineyards and then he fasten his
sheets together with a blue band.
torn from the forehead of heaven.
There is yet to be such a thing as
holiness on the bells of the horses;
and when Religion shall have com
pleted the conquest of the earth,
expect to see all the diamonds of
the universe flashing in the rim of
her tiara.
The family newspaper must have
a touch of romance. Alas for this
day of naked facts We deplore
this unromancing Of every thing
We have a rail-track to the top Of
Mount Washington. the trees under
which Henry Clay walked are cut
up into walking sticks. They have
turned Passaiac Falls into a mill
race. Be not surprised if Indepen
dence Hall gets to be an oyster eel
lar. Dear old Santa Claus has been
pushed off the top of the chimney
and had his neck broken. Facts !!
Facts Facts Give US in our fam
lily newspaper little romance. 1t
will do no harm to hear Of moon
light ramble, and sail on the lake
with only two in the boat; and
while you despise elopements as
unwise and dangerous, do not fear
to tell us of the father who wanted
his daughter to marry some old Dis
agreeable, while the young man was
ready with hard hands and loving
heart to earn for her a home in the
cottage. am glad that the ladder
did not break, and that Timothy
Hardest won the prize.
Give US more spice in our family
newspaper. We meet in our daily
walks so much that is depressing,
give US in our family newspaper
whole bundles ofspice: jokes that
you Can understand without labori
Gus explanation, conundrums, quips
and qu!rks, harmless satire, carica-
lures of the worlds foibles, and
looking glasses in which to see our
failings. Yes, give place occasion
ally to the much abused pan. Those
only despise the pun who cannot
make one. Take the quill, and
after you have sharpened it down
until the point is keen enough to
puncture the toughest inconsistency.
Let the sheet be fresh and healthy,
in it smell Of cedar and new-cut
grass. Let us hear in the rythm of
some Of the sentences the moan of
an untravelled wood, and the sweep
of the wing of partridge. Instead
Of the artificial dye of stale imagery,
crush against the printed leaf a
bunch of huckleberries and snmac.
We are tired out with all this about
the nightingale; for PHYS sake,
catch for us thresher, and
let US hear hen cluck. Instead of
riding Bucephalus to death, halter
that sorrel colt. Talk not so much
to us about frankincense, to the
neglect of pennyroyal and brook
mint. Get oat with your common
place remark about SOLITARY horse
man coming over the hill" Instead
Of talking so much about the "Bulls
of Bashan," drive up Brindle and
Durham.
This is a grand old world if you
would only let US see it as it is.
The book-warm who sits down to
write, having learned only of trees,
and mountains, and waters, from
his library, knows nothing about
them You have to put on your
high top boots, and wade right out
up to your waist to pluck a water
lily, if you would see it to the best
advantage. I had been with many
a picnic party to see "Buttermilk
Eallsn but not until the other day