The Somerset press. [volume] (Somerset, Ohio) 1873-1977, 1874-10-16

" N~S ANHAAy - ~ viz ~NOAS
mind is whence the boys originally OBJ
tained their barbarous methods of
counting out" for catcher" "fox," or
any of those pleasant juvenile games re-
quiring feetness of foot and a secretive
For instance, lot of boys
Will get together to play at some of their
games, and one of them will start out to
see 'who's it." He Will go through
great rigmarole of words, applying one
word to each as he designates him by
tap on the breast, and the last one SO
honored, is ait" as they call the ''catch-
er," as thus:
tOnery. Oley, Ickory, Ann,
Fillisin, Follisun, Nicholas, John,
Evy, Quavy,
English Navy,
Stin kilum, Stankulum Buck"
Now, there are those who would like
to know what sense there is in all that,
and what the mystery connected with
these portentous words. There is also
another mode of counting out:
"Occa, boeca,
Bona, croka,
Occa, bocca tuce.'
The future bellies of our city, it must
be confessed, use the same savage meth
DDS in making their election of "Who's
it?" &c. The girls have also good ma
ny incomprehensible chants and songs
of their own. The starting point is, of
course, "ring round the rosy pot" for it
is an utter impossibilIty for girls-that
is, small and real girls-to play anything
very long that does not require clasp
ing of hands and their circling about
with some outlandish chant. Their fa-
vorite song is:
Green gravel,
Green gravel
How green the grass grows;
And all the creation
L. ashamed to be seen,
Dear Annie, dear Annie,
Your true love is dead;
He sent you a letter,
So turn back ytur head"
Whereupon the dear Annie in ques-
tion reverses her top-knot to the balance
Of the circle and continues to go round
in that position until the dreadful IL
dings of the decease of the true love of
"Dear Lizzie" Dear Louie" &C., is con-
veyed to them respectively; and they,
in turn, reverse themselves in honor OF
the departed. When the whole list oi
names in the circle isexhausted, and the
bereaved objects of so much pure afec-
ton are in mourning together, the game
is played over again.
If there chance to be any youthful
representatives of the male sex about
with whom the young ladies are on good
terms, the chant is sometimes varied
thus, the circling performance never
ceasing for an instant:
Little Minnie Tun,
A sitting in the sun,
A weeping and crying. for young man;
Rise, Minnie; rise, Minnie.
| Wipe away your tears:
Look to the east and look to the west,
And look to the one that you love best.
And Minnie Immediately casts a Ian
gushing look upon some young shave
among the boys, who, in response, a
quickly assumes a melancholy air
breathes hard a couple of times, and at
tempts simultaneous display of all hi
jewelry.
But this is getting off the main sub
ject-boys. The lives of most of tn
great heroes, philosophers and states
men that have figured in the worlds his
tory have been written, the self-mad
men of the country have been run thrc
Hoe press several thousand times, an
the future of promising youths through
out the land has been horoscoped some
what extensively. But who shall writ
up the youth of our distinguished sol
diers and statesmen and moneyed mer
There are many gentlemen of celebrit
whose juvenile experiences would pa
out handsomely, but we are afraid non
of them would be so frank and outspc
ken on the subject as Col. Richard Ho
land, now of Harrodsburg, KY.
He was fond of ginger cake, and 0
one occasion abstracted the grocery pai
book from beneath the paternal roof, an
obtained twelve sections of that substa1
tial and spicy creature comfort for tt
benefit of his "crowd," who ate it in
neighboring board yard, and gave thrC
times three for the author of the feas
An attempt to alter the figures in Il
book failed, however, and the youthfl
financier received large dose of stra
oil as a curative for his smartness. I'll
f Colonel was likewise fond of gun, al
I as his father had one, which the old ge
p tleman priced very highly, Richard al
p his brother took it out on the hill
n shoot "chippies" on an average thr
s times a week, Richard taking the wea
e on apart and ramming the stock up Il
G back of his coat, while his brother ca
y ried the barrel in one of his trousel
q legs, SO as to get it out of the house II
+ seen. They managed the ramrod by t
l. ing a string to it and making a whip
G it. until they,got out of sight. They HI
3 "lots of fun" with the gun until I
brother tried to shoot the ramrod out o
day, when it kicked him over and knoc
it ed both hammers to full cock. Ric
l. ard didn't see his brother for over Fl
o minutes, and then had to carry hi
l. home. There was no more shooting
r "chippies."
e The most important transaction
D, that period of the Colonel's existen
J. was the clandestine carrying away al
pawning of the old gentleman's watch