South-eastern Independent. (McConnelsville, Ohio) 1871-1871, 1871-07-28

uC WAouC0 ~ was bAC ACAb hO1A1nks Inv
most of this month he spent in flattening
his nose against the show windows OF toy
shops where there were fireworks. He
shyly cultivated the acquaintance of a
young man in one of them, and with him
held frequent and earnest interviews in re-
gard to the merits of torpedoes, crackers,
~sky-rockets, and small cannon.
Often during this month, as he passed
along the street. he would straighten
out his forefiDger like a gun barrel, elevate
his thumb as though it were a hammer,
and then take long and deadly aim at some
cat as she picked her way up an alley,
frightening her at last into a tail swollen
scamper with avicious and explosive dick
BANGf"
How slowly the hours dragged away
The Boy didn't care to play short stop in
the Sucking Mines any longer. He had
rather go over and talk with the shopboy
about fireworks, and to gaze into muzzles
of infant cannon that were arranged in
battery in the toy shop window.
And by degrees there came Il his mind
the tremendous conception that maybe his
pa would buy him a cannon for the Fourth
The enormous weight of the idea stag
gered him. That very night, with all the
sagacity of a veteran, he began to open
parallels against the p%aternal citadel No
direct assault for him. He felt that the
undertaking was a desperate one, and that
it must be achieved only by an eXpendi-
ture of enormous strategy, great patience,
and no end of genius.
And so that very night he commenced
operations by talking long and earnestly
to the maternal relative about such beauti-
cl $1,000, = 4ha-a u-oc ~ NJ pnnha ms
window.
And the ground was broken for the first
parallel.
The work went on. The next day, and
the next, the same relative was treated to
much interesting information about ord
nance. This year, cannon was so much
cheaper than ever they was before And
then she never would believe how safe
they was. They were just as strong, and
she couldn't bust inc of them no more
than she could the-the-the-and here
the boy, being at a loss for some article of
tremendous cohesive qualities, finished by
sayiDg-the-anything. Such cannon
Oh, my, and she never saw anything like
il in all her lie!
And thus the parallels went on
The approaches grew nearer. One day,
the maternal relative was treated to the
startling information that Jimmy Ducks
who amt only two years oldern MI was
agoing to nave a cannon for the Fourth
and a hull pound of powderi So many
of the boys wa agoing TO have cannon
and all the powder they was a mind to.
And now it was time to erect a battery.
One day there came a shot hurtling over
into the camp of the besieged, greatly to
their unbounded establishment. The art
full besieger had gotten his first gun into
position, and had opened after this wise
One afternoon, the Boy astonished every
body by being good for thirty-seven con-
~secutive minutes, and then, with fiuttering
heart, ~propounded as to whether Ma
thought in case he was real good all the
time for a year, Pa wouldn't buy him a
little cannon for the Fourth? All most
momentous of queries, and what worlds
of interest hung upon its decision
OF course the maternal relative said no,
with instant determination that no such
awful thing could be possible under any
circumstances. Narrowing recitals were
given of little boys whose eyes had all
been blown out of their heads; and of
other little boys who had had their inno-
cent legs shot off; and how bad their mas
l6lt, anu CIltU ONCI l1Cll, dHQ oil llldb-
No garrison surrenders at the first sum-
mons. The siege went on, and in time the
maternal out-works ~capitulated, and the
Boy occupied them with drums beating
and flags flying gloriously in the air Of
breezy triumph. In all such sieges, when
the feminine advance is routed, it is a
question of but short time when the
masculine citadel shall surrender. And
fhr,c - -ae h-f ID bro -L1-
the Boys flag hung from the loftIest turTet
of the keep, indicating that he held pos
session of all the works.
What an exhilaration poured along the
throbbing pulses of the Boy, as he con-
templated this glorious. this unpre-
-cedented, this overwhelming victoTyl In
an hour, tidings of the great event were
borne by the herald-Boy everywhere. jim
my Ducks knew it. The grocery boy was
told of it, and that he received the stun
ming information with a sublime indiffer-
ence, and ended the interview by throw
ing the Boys hat into one lot, and the
Boy himself into the next one, is one of
those phenomena which nobody can ever
understand.
And there came a day that brought the
cannon. Oh, %jubilationI AS long as a
child's little finger, as large about as a
pencil. Yet it seemed a very columbiad
to the Boy as he gazed into its painted
mouth.
Oh, most long night that precedes the
wonderful Fourth That night was come
at last, and tomorrow was the glorious
day of daysi A Boy rolls and mutters in
his bed, and long before the gas is turned
off for the night, often wakes up with a
start, with the fearful conviction that he
has oversight himself, and that day has
long since dawned. And upon a table
close by there frowns that cannon and
beside it a wealth of black and shining
grains to which the alchemy of q Bows
hopes and fond imaginings have given a
far above what they would have
they particles of yellow dug from
the placers of California.
What an interminable night How the
darkness clings to earthI How often is
the serene repose of the moonlight mis-
taken for the flash of auroral eyesl Night
Of wakings; night of dreamings that are
in viyidness, and in which the
Boy, time and time again, thought he had
slept till noon, and that the Fourth was
half gone without his participation; night
that is shod with lead, and that moves as
hours that separates a lover from his
mistress; night that is feverish, that is
because it divides from the Day,
and yet loved because it is so near the su-
Dreme EVENT.
But now, after everlasting wakings, and
.fter sleepings that seem for hours and
Ire only for minutes, there ome aleaden
low upon the horizon across the lake.
And into this sickly tint there creep
bushes of tawny red, which, anon, deepen
nto a vivid crimson. The leaden hue
up the sky, pursued by the tawny
and from out the crimson that is en-
oosomed across the sluggish water there
comes a crescent, white hot with the fer
of q promised day.
And just as the crescent grows into
and is born a vast and glowing
orb, trembling fingers are ramming home
grains of black, a nervous, boyish hand
the lighted punk to the tiny vent,
here is a blast, a smart report, the red
nouthed cannon filings itself back with
he vigor of its opening note, and then
he Fourth has come.-POliutO, in Chicago