Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1875-12-30
Children's Fancies.

| Care and duty hem US IN so clOSely
! during maturer years, that we should
become dry and desolate but for con.
stantly recurring to the one period Ol
life when the Limitations of space and
time do not oppress US, and the far of
is as the near. The baby who puts out
his little hand for the moon is compell.
ed to draw it bRck empty, yet he puts
it forth many times again. My yfriend's
little daughter, after having the stars
for the first time pointed out TO her, re-
quested next day to Lave 'two little
stars with sugar On them for breakfast" |"
And in their first dealings with human
beings children set aside the petty bar
riers of generations aud centuries in
the same fine way. "Mamuia," said
in my hearing the little daughter of a
certain pOetess, '.did / ever see Mr..
Shakespeare ?' 1t was at the dinner
table and between two bites of an ap-
pie. On another occasion the same
child said with equal confidence,
Mamma, did you ever know Cleo
patra" There was no affectation
about it; she was accustomed to seeing
literary people and other notabilities
at her mothers house; and Shakes
peare and. Cleopltra might have come
and gone, arm in arm, without exciting
her half so much as the arrival of new
paper doll. Thus child travelling with
me, and seeing me salute, at railway
station, certain Methodist minister of
great dimensions, inquired, with casual
Interest, whether that was the Pope
To oassign to the Pope his proper place
in space, and to Shakespeare or his her.
Dimes their rightful position in time,-
what have children to do with such
trifies? Matters more important claim
their attention are there not hoops
and skipping-ropes and luncheOn?-
Col. HigginsOn, in Scribner for JAM
uary.
An UnsOphisticated Granger.
A Des Moines Aper tells of an old
farmer who was going west on a train
that was nearing Colfax, and did not go
any farther than that unimpOrtant
town. A couple of playful fellows got
on at way station and turning over a
seatback sat down right in front of the
farmer. One of them throwing an
Overcoat across his knees began doing
some foolish tricks with three cards
foolish because they were so plain to
the old farmer, and the poor player
was fool enough to bet on them losing
his money to the other fellow. Pres
emily an innocent young man sat down
beside the farmer and while the play
er's face was accidentally turned,
marked the winning card a5 it lay on
his lap. That was sweet soft thing.
The result was that the old farmer
risked S400, all the money he had on
the certainty of being able to pick out
that card. He didn't do it, and the
foolish player put $500 in his pocket as
easy as finding it.
The old man got up, shook himself
and said he was dead broke, and could
60 no further west. The player slipped
a $40 bill into his hand very kindly to
keep him quiet for few minutes. The
three young men got off the train at
the next stopping place, and the farmer
remained in COlfax to tell his pitiful
story. He will have to go back home,
and take another start west a year or
two hence when his fortune is mended.
1t is somewhat astonishing that these
uHsophisticated old fellows don't see it
in every newspaper, and posted in
every depot. But they don't, and every
fresh one must be psychological won
der to the monte men themselves. 1t
seems that everything has been done
for the callOw countryman that can be
done, and the only thing left is to let
him spend his little pile in peace.