The Fremont weekly journal. [volume] (Fremont, Sandusky County, Ohio) 1867-1877, 1870-05-20
THE JOURNAL.


lconel..dsd from ths frst page.l
lows, but he caught cold and lay
sick abed nine weeks. But the
most unaccountable thing about It
was that the boys in the boat had a
good time all day, and then reacheo |
home alive and well in the most
surprising manner. Jacob BilVens
said there was nothing IKE these
things in the books He was per
fectlv dumfounded.
When he got well he was a little
discouraged, but he resolved to keep
on irving anyhow. He knew that
SO far his experiences wouldn't do
to 90 in a book, but he hadn't vet
reached the allotted term Of life for
aood little boys, and he hoped to be
able to make record yet, if he
could hold on till his time was fully
up. If everything else failed, he
had his dying speech to fall back
on.
He examined his authorities. and
found that it was now time for him
to 90 to sea as a cabin boy. He
called on a ship captain and made
his application, and when the cap
tain asked for his recommendations
he proudly drew out a tract and
pointed to the words: TO Jacob
Blivens from his affectiOnateteacher."
But the captain was coarse, vulgar
man. and he said, "Oh, that be
blowed that wasn't any proof that
he knew how to wash dishes or han
die a slush bucket, and he guessed
he didn't want him. This was al
together the most extraordinary
thing that ever had happened to 'Ia-
cob in all his life. A compliment
from a teacher, on a tract, had nev-
er failed to move the tenderest emo
tions OF ship captains and open the
wav to all offices ofhOnor and profit
in their gift-it never had in any
boob that ever he had read. He
could hardly helieve his senses.
This boy always had hard time
of it. Nothing ever came out ac-
cording to the authorities with him.
At last, one day, when he was around
hunting up bad little boys to admon-
ish. he found a lot of them in the
old iron foundry fixing up a little
Joke on fourteen or fifteen dogs,
which they had tied together in a
long procession and were going TO
ornament with empty nitro-glycerine
cans made fast to their tails. ia
cob's heart was touched. He sat
down on one of those cans-for he
never minded grease when duty was
before him-and he took ho.d Ofthe
foremost dog BY the collar and
turned his reproving eye upon wick
ed Tom Jones. But jLs5 at that
moment Alderman McWe.ter, full Of
wrath, stepped in. Al the bad boys
ran away, but Jacob Bhv9ns rose in
conscious innocence and began one
of those stately little Sunday school
book speeches which always COM
mence with "Oh, Sir!' in dead oppO
sition to the fact that no boy, good
or bad. ever starts q remark with
sOh. Sir!" But the Alderman never
waited to hear the rest. He took
Jacob Blivens by the ear and turned
him around, and hit him a whack in
the rear with the fiat of his hand
and. in an instant that good little
bov shot out through the roof and
SCARED away toward the sun, with
the fragments of those fifteen dogs
stringing after him like the tail Of
kite. And there wasn't q sign Of
that Alderman or that old iron foun
drv left on the face of the earth; and
as for young Jacob Bliyens, he new
er got a chance to make his last dy-
ing speech, after all his trouble fix
ing it up, unless he made it to the
birds: because, although the bulk
of him came down all right in a tree
top in an adjoining county, the rest
of him was apportioned around
among four townships, and so they
had to hold five inquests on him TO
find out whether he was dead or not,
and how it occurred. You never
saw a body scsttered sos
Thus perished the good little boy
who did the best he could, but didn't
come out according to the books.
Every boy who ever did as he did
prospered, except him, His case is
truly remarkable. 1t viii probably
never be accounted for.
This catastrophe is borrowed without the
unknown but most ingenious owners permis-
sion) from a stray newspaper item, and trm-
med up and altered to fit Jacob Blivens, who