The Tiffin tribune. (Tiffin, Ohio) 1868-1887, 1874-05-28
Daddy Dinkle's Wards.
QUIET SrORY.

Daddy Dinkle'S Wards.
A QUIET STORY.
This notice appeared in the May.
vile hader one day, ever SO many
years ago.: s
"The Rev. Gustavus Dinklebaeh
proposes TO open in Mayville, Janua.
ry /, private school for boys. Par
ticular attention given TO classics and
mathematics. Boys and young men
will receive a careful and thorough
training preparatory to entering col
lege. The Rev. Dinklebach respect
fully solicits the patronage of the citi-
zens of Mayville and vicinity.n
In other words, it was an oId-fash-
ioned boys academy which the Rev.
Gustayus Dinklebach "opened." An
old, old-fashloned boys academy, now
all out of date, and laughed to scOrn
by your new-fangled fellows, who
turn up their noses at PlatO's dia-
logues in the original, and claim that
the only present and future hope for
the world is that it shall be "evolved"
out Of the crook Of Herbert Spencer's
| ALJtO A1RGIs
The Rev. Gustavus Dinklebach
wasn't that sort, bless his sweet, SIM
pie old heart! He read his Bible and
the Greek tragedies, and believed the
salvation Of the world depended on
the golden rule and hic, hBc, hoe.
His religion and his learning were so
mixed up that he could hardly tell
which was which at last, and he
somehow got it into his queer old
brain that one who was familiar with
Greek and Hebrew and Latin lore, by
that simple fact perforce was made a
gentleman, and that it was hence
forth incumbent on him to walk
through the world as an example to
modern degeneracy, loving his neigh
Dor as himself, being honest, gentle
hammered, kindly and dignified.
The Rev. Dinklebach was all that
himself, and he knew no more of the
ways of the wicked world than if he
had been q spotted kitten chasing q
spool of thread. He could read the
Clouds of Aristophanes in Greek like
novel, but he couldn't drive a nail
to save his life. He came to May
vile a very learned, highly-recom-
mended man, with a tender heart,
big bald head, the soul of little
child, and but two pairs of stockings
to his name.
Mayville took him under its wing.
He "opened" his boys academy and
presided over it for twenty-five years.
1t grew and flourished apace, and no.
body in Mayville cheated the Rev.
Dinklebach out of all the money he
got. 1t just happened so, as exactly
the opposite had happened to him
every place he had been before. To
this day many and many a broad
shouldered, bearded man, with his
own locks e'en beginning to frost a
little, pauses minute from the clash
ing din of the wide world, while he
calls to mind the green days at May
vile, and remembers Daddy Dinkle
and dn1O, oDlGs, dnIdt, with q smile,
a tear and blessing.
Good friends, one and all, here's to
the memory of the days of our youth,
which come but once. Young friends,
make the most of your youth, for it
is glorious, ahd it comes but once
The Rev. GUstavus Dinklebach was
an old bachelor, who loved little chill
dren. He called himself dreary old
bachelor. and part of his valedicto-
ry to his biggest boys was always
this:
"My dear young friends, don't you
be old bachelors"
1 don't know how it was, but be-
fore the Rev. Gustavus Dinklebach
had been in Msyville a year, every
body fell into the habit of calling him
Daddy Dinkle, although he was an
old bachelor. They called him that
to his face, after 3 while, ,land Pm sure
they meant no disrespect, for every
body had a sort of reverence for him,
so good and so dignified he was, and
so learned withal. They may have
called him Daddy Dinkle on account
of his voice, / don't know. He al
ways spoke in kind of soft, droning
monotone, which wasn't q bit tire
some to listen to, assure you upon
my honor, but was very soothing
and comforting, and I've noticed in
this world that men who speak in
that soft humdrum way are always
nick-named Daddy this or that. But
1 say don't know why it is.
When he first went to Mayville,
Daddy Dinkle took up his lodging
with comely young English wO-
man, who had q big, stupid husband
and frisky, little American-born ba-
by-girl three months old, not yet
named On account of a difference of
opinion between its father and moth
er. The mother wanted to name her
daughter Frances Mary; the father,
on the other hand, insisted that the
child should be called Hannah. Both
agreed to leave the question to Daddy
Dinkle for arbitration, and Daddy
Dinkle named the bright little thing
Theodora-gift of God.
During the year the comely young
English woman's husband died.
Daddy Dinkle still lived in the house
OF the widow. A few months after
the widow herself died, and left Dad
dy Dinkle alone in the house with q
little baby. With her dying breath
the widow had committed the child
to his care, and he had promised that
never while he lived should the baby
girl be homeless or friendIess. He
promised all this, at the same time
that he had no more idea what he
should do with the child than if she
had been an elephant. But he prom
ised out of the goodness OF his heart.
After the funeral he paid an elderly
spinster q stipulated sum for taking
care of the child, visited it twice
week, and always carried it a doll
baby and package Of candy. This
was his idea of infantile femininity.
Mlsfortunes never come singly.
Neither do blessings. Nearly at the
same time another piece of drift came
floating across the wide sea of hu-
manity into the open arms of Daddy
Dinkle. The piece of drift was a boy.
II was the orphan child of an old
classmate of Gustavus Dinklebach,
also preacher, who had died of con-
sumption, and the poor father went
across the river of death with his eyes
looking backward upon the world, on
account of the little boy he was leav-
ing. There wasn't a soul on earth to
stand between the boy and the orphan
asylum, but Daddy Dinkle. Daddy
Dinkle accepted fate and the two
young ones. He took the children,
set up housekeeping, with the elderly
spinster for his household goddess,
her mother going along to save pro-
priety.
These two children were Daddy
Dinkle's wards.
That's the bones ofmy story. Now
it's ready to be commenced. Let us
string the bones together. .
A little girl sat on q green brook
bank, idly splashing with her bare
feet in the crystal water. A boy stood
beside her, engaged in the manly
amusement of throwing stones across
the brook at a dogwood sapling,
some ways of BE was trying to
stone the bark OF the dogwood. The
girl had flashing, bright gray ewes. a