The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1870-09-29

Struggling procession OF 6yIIaoleS That
might be fifteen minutes passing a given
point, and once more confronted him
he so calm and sweet, / so hot and fren-
zled. He was standing in the contempIa>
tive attitude of the Colossus of Rhodes,
with one foot on my infant fuberosc and
the other among my pansies, his hand on
his hips, his hat brim tilted forward, one
eye shut and the other gazing critically
and admiringly in the direction of my
principal chimney. He said now there
was state of things to make a man glad
to be alive; and added, 81 leave it to
y0u if you ever saw anything more deli
ciousiy picturesque than eight lightning
rods on one chimney p / said had no
present recollection of anything that trans
cended it. He said that in his opinion
nothing on this earth but Niagara Falls
was superior TO it in the way of natural
| scenery. All that was needed now, he
firmly believed, to make my house a per-
feet balm to the eye, was to kind of touch
up the other chimneys little and thus
''add to the generous coup d vait a sooth-
ing uniformity of achievement which
would allay the excitement naturally con-
sequent upon the first coup d. etat"
| asked him if he learned to talk out of
book, and if could borrow it anywhere
He smiled pleasantly and said that his
manner of speaking was not taught in
books, and that nothing but familiarity
with lightning could enable a man to
handle his conversational style with i'm
punity. He then figured up an estimate,
and said that about eight more rods scat
tered about my roof would about fix me
right, and he guessed five hundred feet of
stuff would do If and added that the first
eight had got little the start of him, SO
to speak, and used up mere trife of
material more than he had calculated on
"a hundred feet or along there. / said
l was in dreadful hurry, and l wished
we could get this permanently mapped
out SO that could go on with my work
He said: II could have put up those
eight rods, and marched off about my
business-some men lcOuld have done it,
But no, said to myself, this man is
stranger TO me, and l will die before l II
wrong him there amt lightning>rods
enough on that house. and for one In
never stir out of my tracks till I've done
as ] would be done by, and told him co.
Stranger, my duty is accomplished if
the recalcitrant and dephlogistic messen>
ger of heaven strikes you ''There,
now, there,' l said, ''put on the other
eight-add five hundred feet of spiral
twist-do anything and everything you
want to do; but calm your sutierings and
try to keep your feelings where you can
reach them with the dictionary. Mean
while, if we understand each other now,
/ will 60 to work again" think / have
been sitting here full hour, this time,
trying to get back to where was when
my train of thought WAS broken up by
the last interruption, but believe have
accomplished it at last and venture to
proceed again.
wrestled with this great subject, and the
greatest among them have found it wor-
thy adversary and one that always comes
up fresh and smiling after every throw.
The great Confucius said that he would
than chief of police; Cicero frequently
said that political economy was the grand
est consummation that the human mind
was capable of consuming and even our
own Greeley has said vaguely but forcibly
that
Here the lightning,rod man sent up
another call for me. l went down in
state of mind bordering on impatience.
He said he would rather have died than |
interrupt me, but when he was employed |
to do job, and that job was expected to |
be done in a clean, workmanlike manner, |
and when it was finished and fatigue |
urged him to seek the rest and recreation |
he stood so much in need of, and he was |
about to do it, but looked up and saw at
a glance that all the calculations had been |
little out, and if a thunder storm were |
to come up and that house which he felt |
a personal interest in stood there with |
nothing on earth to protect it but sixteen
lightning rods 'sLet US have peace !"
1 shrieked. "Put up hundred and
fifty Put some on the kitchen Put
a dozen on the barn Put couple on
the cow put one on the cook !-scatter
them all over the prosecuted place till it
looks like zinc plated, sDiral-twisted,
cane-brakei Novel Use
up all the material you can get your
hands on, and when you run out of light
ming g-rods put up ram-rods, cam-rods,
stair-rods, piston-rods-anything that will
pander TO your dismal appetite for artifi,
cial scenery and bring respite to my ra-
ging brain and healing to my lacerated
soul !" Wholly unmoved-further than
to smile sweetly-this iron being simply
turned back his wristbands daintily and
said he would now proceed to hump
himself. Well, all that was nearly three
hours ago. 1t is questionable whether |
am calm enough yet to write on the noble
theme of political economy, but | cannot
resist the desire to try, for it is the one
subject that is nearest to my heart and
dearest TO my brain of all this worlds
philosophy.