The Tiffin tribune. (Tiffin, Ohio) 1868-1887, 1876-11-02
BONA FIDE CIRCULATION, = 24C

: Miss DickinSOn's "CrOWI
i Of ThOrnS.''
n We plain people who have no repu
tatiOn 10 lose as dramatic critics cal
: afford TO say exactly what we thinf
of Miss dickinson without regard &
consequences. This is an immensl
comfort to begin On. Because it mus
be horrible for one to be a dramatic
critic and feel that on him dsvOlVes
the awful responsibility of forming
the worlds opinions for Ito sit
like Old Probabilities in his tower
and fOreteII the weather, as it were
and worse than all, once in a while ia
have it not come out the way Old
PrObs. predicted, and thus he denied
the r-1peakable satisfaction Of ex.
claiming: Told you SO
The present daring stage venture Oi
Miss Dickinson brings to mind many
half-fOrgOtten old story Of youthful
exploits of hers fully as daring, il not
so fully criticised by newspapers. As
"A child, even. she was not like any
other girl that ever was born. TWen-
ty years or more ago a quiet Quaker
widow dWelt in Philadelphia with her
young family. Two of her boys went
TO select school, like the good Quaker
lads they were. The two good Quaker
lads wore square-topped, broad
bFimmed hats. All the other boys
wore caps. Caps were the fashion for
boys then, and hat for q boy was as
ridiculous as spectacles on a baby.
The two meek lads hated their square,
topped hats like death, but they had
to wear them because they were
Quakers. The other bOys with their
caps ridiculed the Quaker lads as only
boys can. The close of school every
day was the regular signsl for 9 boy
mob and a running fight. The other
boys gathered in q sort of army and
chased the Quaker boys home. Ev-
cry afternoon they were pelted,
Knocked, yawped at, aud pursued into
their very doors. They submitted to
this hot persecution because they
could not help themselves, and en-
dured dstorments.
But the Quaker lads had a younger
sister at home-yOunger than both.
She made up her mind at length that
she wasn't going to stand this SOFT of
thing. a bright ideS seized her.
There Wasn'L any nonsense about her
way OF stopping the attacks on her
big brothers either. Every day near
school close, the little girl thrust long
iron poker into the fire, heated it red
hot, took the upper end of it in 3 cloth
holder, and, armed with this weapon,
sailed forth against the boys who
mobbed her big brothers. She routed
the enemy root aud branch, as you
may well suppose, and bore her broth
ers home in triumph. Every day the
battle was repeated with the same re-
suit, until the little red-hot poker girl
became a familiar object on the street
and the terror of all the boys in the
neighborhOod. There was mo fool
ingH about her, you see.
! Two or three years went on, until
one morning the club OF Progressive
Friends" advertised to discuss the
rights and wrongs of woman, on a
| Sunday afternoon. The Society OF
Progressive Friends" was one of
those queer beer-gardens which spring |
up and die out from time to time In
every city-R place where "shOrt- |
haired women and lOng-haired men,"
odd-dressed and with dirty finger
nails, people little cracked and not a |
little conceited, meet and dispose of |
the universe once q week or so.
In the discussion of that afternoon |
a queer party, one OF those donkeys |
who measure the human race by the |
little tape-line which cOmpasses their
own skulls, was particularly officious.
This queer party assured the world |
that woman was noe the equal of man |
in intellect. And, as il to add insult /
to injury, he was particularly ugly |
and tantsliZing in his way OF saying |
it. He had barely finished his mean |
and unjust speech, when suddenly a
little schoolgirl sprang at him like q /
small fury. She wore a little hood, |
and a modest child's dress, buttoned |
up behind, without ruffie or OrnR-
ment. She burst upon the mean man |
like bolt of lightning from thun-
der-cloud, and poured into his ears a |
torrent Of red.hot invectiye which
made him tingle all over, and electri- /
fed all that beAr-garden. She did not
stop for breath till she had spoken ali
the angry thought that was in her,
then suddenly, for the first time real
izIng what she had done, the child
shot ont thedoOr like Whirlwind and
away home.
The discussion was advertised to
continue next Sunday, and thither
the little schoolgirl was somehow
drawn again. The mean man was
there again with his mean little
speech, and this time he walked down
the aisle and fixed his eye on the
child in the hood, and shook his
finger in her face. He had daughters,
said the mean man. His daughters
had not intellect enough to be preach
ers and lawyers, he knew d; therefore,
no other mans daughters bad. On
the instant, like q fury again, the
child in the hood was upon him,
every drop of blood I'm her body
tbrobbing with noble wrath. Sue
never thought of addressing the chair
man-never thought of anybody ex-
cept the mean man who had angered
her so. And this first recorded speech
of that little girl was something in
this order
'rYou say, sir, that gour daughters
have not intsllect to be preachers or
lawyers. Sir, your daughters are
fools! In the name OF Heaven, what
else could be expected of the dAugh-
ters of such father %
And again she flew out the door
like 3 whirlwind. The bear-garden
thundered and rOared, and thnndered
and rOared again.
"WhO is that little wildcat 2'
growied the bears.
No one knew. Acting from an un-
cOntrOilable impulse, two of the bears
arose and followed her nome, She
saw that she was followed, and
doubled and turned up this square
and down that, to avoid her pursuers,
but in vain. Very quiet and scared
she entered her home and crept up
stairs. The gentlemen followed on up
to the door. One of them recognized
the name on the plate, and started
back, as if the breath had been knock
ed out OF him.
"GoOd gracious !" said he, "it's lit
tie Lizzie Dickinson ri
The fiery speaker who had set all
the besr-garden dancing, was the lit
tie red-hot poker girl who had been
the terror OF the school boy.
True to her worst forebOdings, the
culprit up stairs heard loud ring at
the bell, and presently an uncommon
hubbub in the hall. She peeped
trembIingly over the railing, and saw
two gentlemen talking earnestly to
her mother, while the good Quaker
mother, with tears rolling down her
cheeks, stood Wringing her hands and
lamenting in tones of unattersble
grief:
"Oh, that child that child 1 al
WAYS knew that ungovernADle, furious
nature would bring her to some bad
end, and now it's come, it's come at
last 7"
The gentlemen stared in amaze