Ashtabula telegraph. (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1874-1880, 1875-05-28
From the Detroit Free Press.
THAT EMERSON BOY.
,.a1nearn,,nn or nIischIef.

That Emerson boy is dead, and
there isn't anyone around that house
TO make fun. He was cheerful,
lively boy, and did his best to make
the household put on the mantle OF
ioyfulness. Emerson often remark K
ed that Bob didn't seem ever to sit
down and think of the grave and
death; and he probably never did.
No. Bob wasen't of that make. He
wanted to have fun. Both his ears
were nearly worn up by being cuffed
so much and it took whole row OF
currant bushes to furnish whips to
dust his Jacket for the summer.
Emerson didn't know what fun
was until Bob was eight years old.
Then the boy began to launch out.
He would bore gimblet holes in the
bottom of the water pail, put car
tridges in the coal stove, unscrew
| the door knobs, fill the kerosene
lamps with water, and a good thrash
ing didn't burden his mind oyer i've
minutes. Sometimes his father
would take him by the halr ana
vank him up to the sofa and SIT
down and ask:
s.Robert Parathon Emerson, what
in blazes ails your" >,
'sIt's the yallar jaunders, L guess
Bob would meekly reply.
''Robert don't you want to be an
angel?'' the old man would contln-
aAnd have wings?"
eyes my son."
''And fly higher'n kite?"
eyes"
"And fight hawks?''
eyes, I guess So"
ssRet your beef 1 would-whoop'
, Bully for the angels!''
"fhat sacrilege, that is!' the OLD
man would remark, and he would
Jerk Bob's hair some more and de
: clare that the young man was bouno
for the gallows. Afterlying unde
the pear tree for six minutes Bot
would recover from his sadness ant
90 over to the barn and run th'
pitchfork through the straw cutter
harness up the COW and stick PIN
into the family horse.
One night he brought home
J, wolf trap and set it in the middl
> of the woodshed floor to catch a raj
He chuckeled good deal that eve
ming at the thought of what woul'
happen to the rats, and he fell aslee
and dreaming he was hand organ
and that some one stole the crank
him, so that he couldn't be playe
on. Just before going to bed ol
S, | Emerson went out after scuttle
coal, and he stepped his bootles
foot into that trap. He made
mighty spring and uttered might
yell, and it took two men ten mil
utes to spring the trap off his leg.
otis that boys work." he groal
ed. as he nursed his foot, and toe
r up the bootiack, limped into the be
room, and gave Bob an awful ct
lust as the child was dreaming
playing baseball with mermaid.
q 0PIl pound ye to death, ifye dor
- stop this fooling!" cried the ol
man, but he hadn't been out OF tt
bedroom ten minutes before Be
was planning to stop up the chin
ney next day and smoke everybot
out of the house. 1t wasen't maj
:est days before he fixed darning ne
die into the cushion of his father
armchair and bounded the o
Id man three feet high, and his lickil
'ace ACE hadn't got over smarting before
a. exploded fire-cracker in his mot
er's snuff-box. That night the 9
" man said to him as he took him
the ear:
"Robert Parathon Emerson, y
ever think of where you will 60 te
eyes Sir" he answered, "Il
x, to bed purity soon."
Then he got another mauling, a
went to bed to dream that he wa'
three-tined pitch-fork, and tha
- man was using HIM to load b
y with.
Poor boy! Even three days
fore he died, and while on his dyi
bed, he managed to slip an els
ounce tack up his fathers left b'
and oct up another circus.