Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1876-02-18
GEORGE WASHINGTON.
THE INDICATOR BIRTHDAY STORY FOR
LITTLE BOYS.1

Dear Boys-next Tuesdays the birth
day of George Washington, It is very
serious thing to be born children, much
more serious then it is to die. I think it
must make the angels sorry when they see
bad boy born. They can see long way
ahead and they can see all the trouble he
is going to give his dear m eS and all
see all the trouble hd - give God.
And have no doubt when they bring a
little soul down upon their bright white
wings and put it into theworld, and know
what it has got to go throughthey just get
off in corner of the room and have a
hearty cry. 1t would make even good
person cry, and angels have much better
hearts than the best of persons. You don't
hear them or see them cry but the worst
crying in the world children, is that that
you don't hear or see. The hottest tears
that people ever shed are those that drop
into their hearts. And it is xserious mat
ter for more than the little boy, for often
when the angels bring him down, they
wait little bit and take his mother back
to Heaven with them. And children that
makes the saddest thing in the world a
motherless child.
A great many people are born that new
er wanted to be born, and when they grow
up they can't get any satisfaction out OF
anybody for it. But for all that, the peo-
pie in the world quarrel with 'em and are
rough with 'em just as if they had come
here on purpose. Sometimes little persons
get so disguised with the whole business
| that they go ackalmost directly, and then
grown people cry over ;em and are very
I, sorry but it's too late. The most time that
boy wishes he hadn't been born, is when
) his father tells him he'll come up and see
him after he is in bed. There amt any
thing in the world that goes so slow as a
| boy does, when he undresses with a prom
Use like that from his father. A snail goes
very fast compared with him. And when
! he gets into bed I think he could hear
| mouse on the steps, he is so anxious about
his dear fathers health. A girl wishes
| most that she had never Eeen born when
she is dressed up for a picnic and it CON-
| mences raining; or when her grandfather
dies just as they are going to have a party
at their house; or when they have school
commencement and the dress maker sends
home dress that don't fit. Do you know
| l have known even grown girl 30 wish
/ that, when her dress didn't fit.
The best thing that person can do at
ter he is born, and sees there is no help
for it, is to make the best of it, and say
nothing about it. Most of us, you will
find, have to do that, though all don't.
have known babies to make an awful row
about it, such row that other people be-
sides themselves wished they had never
been born, and their fathers and mothers
would be filled with the greatest remorse
that they ever let them come.
When George Washington was born the
first thing they knew about him was that
he had good deal of saleratus in him.
Nobody can tell you what that is children
but you will know it when you see it.
When your Pa says you shan't do thing
and your Ma says you shall, and says ''I'd'
like to know if am not to manage my
own child" and your Pa just puts on his
hat and gets out of the house easy you may
be certain that your Ma has got all the sal
eratus of the family. George commenced
life by fighting the Indians-all boys that
are going to turn out good for anything
commence by fighting Indians. and those
that turn out good for nothing commence
by fighting Tigers, though you can't un-
derstand this yet-he bothered 'em so
that though they shot at him ever so often
they couldn't hit him. So much you see
for having saleratus in you.
If there was one thing that George was
fonder of than another it was telling the
truth. I reckon you have heard that story,
but, perhaps, you have heard it the wrong
way, for a great many people write about
the truth now -a-days that don't tell it. So
1 will tell you the true story. George was
so fond of the truth, that even if he caught
his own father in story, it would fret
him. So one day after he grew up he was
out in the garden and saw where some one
had cut down tree. He asked his father.
| who came along, who did it. and the old
George got copy of the census table and
| looked at it, and found that no man named
| Smith had ever been born, much less cut
down tree, and he went back and larrup-
ped the old man on the spot. So you sea-
boy who loved the truth well enough to
| lick his own father for not telling it, was
bound to be great man. The story got
mixed up great deal by the neighbors,
who were looking over the fence and want
ed to make out like they knew all about it,
but this is the only true version, and any
body who says it amt won't be allowed to
read the VINDICAToR any more, which is
as good as killing them. There are so many
unreliable papers nowadays that it is
streak of luck to get one that tells what
you can rely on. II you expect to get
along, boys, tell the truth. I never knew
but one boy that got the worst of it. His
mother suspected him of something he
hadn't done and begged him to tell the
truth about 1T. He stuck to it that he
hadn't, and his mother thrashed him, but
when she found out that he hadn't done it.,
she was so sorry that there was no amount
of cakes and preserves that he couldn't
have had, if he would only have taken
them. But he was martyr, and martyrs
don't eat cakes and preserves, and he
wouldn't touch them. So he got so proud
and. stuck up at having been licked for
nothing, and carried his head so high, and
made the house so disagreeable that his
father had to thrash him to get the extra
saleratus out of him. The difference, boys,
between your Ma thrashing you and
your Pa doing it, is the same as be-
tween a breeze and a hurricane. What