The Louisiana cotton-boll. [volume] (Vermilionville [i.e. Lafayette], Attakapas, La.) 1872-1883, 1873-09-10
TAYL0R'S BOY.
Down the WeII.

,. TAYLoRs BOY.
Down the Wsn.
Taylor's boy is G white boy. He is
rather large for his age, which numbers
the best part of ten summers and nine
winters, for he stands on his two naked
| feet amid the briars and rocks of Penn,
| sylvania nigh unto five feet high. And
rather old for his age is Taylor's boy,
for he knows how to unhang gates, fas.
ten tin kettles to dogs tails and suck
eggs better, more securely and more ex,
peditiously than any boy in this-the
| stump-speakers'-broad land. Taylor's
boys figure is like unto long stick split
at one end and thrust into short pair OF
trousers. Taylor's boys father says the
| cotton factories running on short time
can't make cloth fast enough to keep his
| boy in trousers. The truth of which as
sertion is plainly apparent to any one
from even a cursOry inspection of Tay-
lor's boys trousers, which, on week days,
reach just below hisknees andif hehath
Sunday trousers of a longer pattern,
Taylor's boy never wears them. Tay-
lOr's boys entire wardrobe seems to CON
sist of one pair of trousers, one pair of
leather suspenders and one straw hat
Taylor's boy wears the crown of his straw
hat on the back of his head; the front
part of the brim, whichis detached from
the rest of his hat, usually rests on Tay-
lor's boys nose, Taylor's boy takes his
observations through the opening be-
tween the crown and the brim. Tay-
lor's boys head is shaped like the heads
of the Aztec children, who used to ex-
hibit in the side shows of the moral cir
Gus, it runs rather conspicuously in the
rear. Pete Johnsing, as his mother calls
him, is oolored boy. Pete is rather
small for his age, which is all the way
from one year to five, Just as Mrs. John
sing happens to recollect it. Pete is just
about the size of hand-organ monkey.
Pete is rather young for his years, I'M
sophisticated, and innocent like. Pete
spends most of his time catching at the
hind part Of wagons, playing in sand
puddles in the road, and in climbing
spouts. The agility with which Pete
will mount the smoothest spout makes
me think Of Darwin. Like Taylor's boy,
Pete runs great deal to trousers; but
Pete's trousers are as much too large as
Taylors boys trousers are too small.
The average of trousers between them is
all right, but the individual fit is awful.
Pete's trousers reach up to his neck, and
trail ten or twelve inches in the rear.
Pete's mother is economical in hat;
Pete has no hat excepting his hair A
few days since, while was drowning
out dyspepsia with the sweat of my brow
in my fathers garden, Taylor's boy loped
over the wall like young giraffe, and
wished to know if / would allow him to
pick some of the raspberries. As Tay-
lor's boy looked as if raspberries would
help him some, consented. Soon af-
ter, Pete Johnsing came over and made
the same request and, as l am not the
man to make any invidious distinctions
on account of color as to another mans
raspberries, I consented to Pete's pick
ing. In my fathers garden there is o
large oistern, used to catch rain-water
for carriage washing and vegetable in
vigoration. Near the opening in the top
of the eistern, said aperture being about
four feet square, box is usually kept,
ostensibly to cover the opening, butreal-
" to enable any night trespasser to trip
over the same, with lively chance Of
pitching into the cistern and there have
been for two years past lying near the
cistern the relics of a pump, one Of those
patent pumps which won't pump ant.
never would, such as lunatics in
vent and disingenuous pump-peddlers
beguile honest folk with. When they
had eaten their fill of raspberries, Tay-
lor's boy suggested that they haye cir
Gus. And, without consulting me, Tay-
lor's boy selected the top of the cistern,
near the box and patentpuinp, as q suit
able place for his gymnastic perfor-
mances. 1t is proper for me to state in
this connection that, knowing something
of Taylor's boys idiosyncrasy for get
ting kittens and colored boys into trou-
BILE, ! should have selected some other
place had I been consulted. But as 1
have remarked, was not consulted. Nor
had I any idea there was circus exhib-
iting in the neighborhood until I was
startled by theloud shouting of Taylor's
boy, "Nigger in the well /; nigger in the
well. Taylor's boys presence Of mind
did not desert him. Feeling that fell
low.creature's life was in danger, first,
Taylor's boy threw into the oistern a
piece Of plank, and then a pickaxe, and
he was tugging away at the patent pump