The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1878-12-26
How Apples Have Degenerated Since
the Days When We We're Boys.

HAVE bought two apples from tn,
train-boy. Not because I wanted tn,
apples very badly, but because want
ed to do something to appease thu
train-boy. Ever since we left Cleve
land he has been turned loose on the
defenseless passengers. He wanted me
to buy all of Matthews books and Tay'
lor's "WOrld on Wheels" and "Be
tween the Gates" and Rev. E. p. Roe.
novel (under twelve or thirteen titles
and some fresh California figs, and
Abyssinian grapes. and Senegambiar
pears, and new Siberian oranges, and
some candy packages, with a beautiful
and valuable prize in every package
and some beautiful ivory ornaments
made of ivory that grows on trees, and
some peanuts, and English walnut
meats, and pecans, and fresh roasted
chestnuts, and apples.
reflected. I did not think that
ought to buy all these things, because
have a family to support, and am not
as wealthy as MIR. Stewards bones. Al
the same time knew that boy was 90.
ing to sell me something if he had tc
"1ick me'' to make me buy. had al.
ready bought newspaper of him, but
paper doesn't count. Everybody buys
newspaper of every train-boy. So
compromised at last on apples. thought
two apples; price five cents.
Apples are wholesome, nutritious
and palatable. They promote the growth
of the hair, induce morality, assist di.
gestion. And
They are cheap.
So l sat on the pleasant Wagner Cal
and munched those apples. They were
good apples, as apples go now. There
was a worm in one of them, and l don't
know what there was in the other. II
was alive and crawled, but it was not q
worm, and l don't know what its name
was. But these things are not at all
uncommon to apples of all denomina.
tons. These apples ate Sunday morn.
ing were, as have said, good apples,
as apples 60 now.
Because, apples are not what they
were twenty-five years ago. 1 ate these
two apples this bright Sabbath morn.
ing, and they filled me up to the chin.
They were rather mealy. They didn't
possess the delicious juiciness nor the
exquisite fruity flavor the apples of the
olden time had. Why, in those elder
days, when I wasn't half as big as am
now, 1 used to 60 out into an old or.
chard, about three or four miles out OF
Peoria, and eat apples from eight
o'clock a. M, until high noon, and
then have hold room for big dinner.
l used to get apples, then, that had the
odor of apple blossoms. Somehow or
other all the apples l get now smell Of
the cellar, and most of them taste a lit
tie like potatoes. The smell of the
clover has gone away from them, too.
There is not the remotest possible sug-
gestion of the sparkle of dew on the or
chard grass; no lazy, contented hum OF
humble bees in the air; no bright
notes dancing up and down in the
warm summer sunshine; no song of the
meadow lark; no far-away call of the
bob white, the distant cawing of a crow
there are none of these things about
the apples get now.
don't think, either, there is quite
SO much cholera morbus about as there
used to be.
But I believe / would take the
chances on the c. m. if some man
would find me an apple like the one
that used to grow on the tree down by
the milk-house. l think that tree must
be dead, or, at least the apples are no
longer on the market. l would feel
assured the tree was dead, and that it
was the last of it's race, if / did not
know that my boy, in nine or ten years
from now, would find just such tree,
with exactly the same kind of apples;
the same notes in the sunshine; the
same bumble-bees' in the air; the
same bob white answering his whistle.
l wonder if brown cheeks and tangled
hair and bare feet and hands scratched
with blackberry thorns would make APP
Piles taste any better to a fellow now?
I don't believe they would. 1 have
seen tangled hair in hash, but it never
seemed to improve it very much.
''Times amt what they used to be
anyhow" the passenger from Ken
lucky remarked, in answer to the wall
ing of the old passenger who was
mourning over the degeneration of
people and things. "You are right,
ClmeS anu WnaC Lney uSeO 10 DC. Inc
women amt SO pretty as they used to
was, and the boys are faster; the men
don't work so hard, and they amt as
honest; the cattle don't come up so
early and they don't low like they used
to; they bawl; the sun doesn't shine as
bright and the birds don't sing as
sweetly, it doesn't rain so often and
the water isn't as soft as it used to be;
the dogs amt as smart as they was,
tho sum rises later and sets earlier than
it used to, the days amt so long and
there amt so many of them"
And somehow or other the old passen-
ger seemed to have a new light on the
subject. And as I watched a more
contented look steal over his face,
thought myself that maybe, after all,
the apples didn't change SO much as
the boy.
But l will swear that l have eaten
lots better apples than any train-boy
ever sold me.-Burtlette, in Darlington
HaUk-Eyc.