Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1879-01-02
APPLES.
Their Astonishing D%egeneraOy Since the
Days When We we're Boys,

Mr.. Burdette, the Hawkeye man
thus writes to his paper:
have bought two apples from the
train boy. Not because l wanted the
apples very badly, but because | want.
ed to do something to appease the
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
Taylor's World on Wheels" and
" Between the Gates" and Rev. L. p
Roe's novel (under twelve or thirteen
titles) and some fresh California figs.
and Abyssinian grapes, Senegambian
pears, and new Siberian oranges and
some candy packages, with a beautiful
and valuable prize in every package,
and some beautiful ivory ornaments
made ofivOry that grows on trees, and
some peanuts and English walnut
meats and pecans and fresh roasted
chestnuts and apples. =
| reflected. / did not thing that /
ought to buy all these things, because
have a family to support, and | am
not as wealthy as Mr.. Stewards bones.
AT tho same time | knew that boy was
going to sell me something if he had
to lick me" to make me buy. | had
already bought a newspaper of him.
but a paper doesn't count. Everybody
buys a newspaper of every train bow.
So | compromised at last on apples. |
bought two apples ; price five ceRts.
Apples are wholesome, nutritious
and palatable. They promote the
growth of the hair, induce morality.
assist digestion. And
They are cheap.
So | sat on the pleasant Wagner car
and munched those apples. They were
good apples, as apples go now. There
was a worm in one of them, and |
don't know what there was in the
other. 1t was alive and orawled, but
1t was not a worm, and | don't know
what its name was. But these things
are not at all uncommon to apples Of
all denominations. These apples ate
Sunday morning we're, as l have said.
good apples, as apples go now.
Because, apples are not what they
were twenty-five years ago. | ate
these two apples this bright Sabbath
morning and they filed me up to the
chin. They were rather mealy. They
didn't possess the delicious iuiciness
nor the exquisite fruity flavor the ap-
plies of the olden time had. Why. in
those elder days, when | wasn't hall
as big as | am now, | used to 20 out
into an old orchard, about three or
four miles out of Peoria, and eat ap-
pies from eight o'clock am. until high
noon, and then have hold room for a
big dinner. l used to get apples then
that had the odor of apple blossoms.
Somehow or other all the apples / Get
now smell of the cellar and most Of
them taste a little like potatoes. The
smell of the clover has gone away
from them, too. There is not the
remotest possible suggestion of the
sparkle Of dew on the orchard 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 oawing of a
crow, there are none of these thing,
about the apples L get now.
l don't think, either, there is quite
so much cholera morbus about as
there used to be.
But | believe L would take the
chances on the c. m. if some mar
would find me an apple like the one
that used to grow on the tree down BY
the milk house. | think that tree
must be dead, or at least the apples
are no longer on the market. | would
feel assured the tree was dead. and
that it was the last of its race, if did
not know that my boy, in nine or ten
years from now, would find just such a
tree, with exactly the same kind Of
apples; the same notes in the sun
shine, the same humble bees" in the
air, the same bob-white answering his
whistle. | wonder if brown cheeks
and tangled hair, and bare feet. and
hands scratched with blackberry
thorns would make apples taste any
better to a fellow now?
/ don't believe they would. | have
seen tangled hair in hash, but it never
seemed to improve it very much.
Times amt what they used to be
any how" the passenger from Ken
lucky remarked, in answer to the
waiting of the old passenger who was
mourning over tho degeneration of
people and things. "You are right
times amt what they used to be. The
women amt SO pretty as they used 10
was, and the boys are faster; the men
don't work so hard, and they amt as
honest; the cattle don't come up Sd
early, and they don't low like they
used to- they baWl the sun doesn't
shine as bright, and tho birds don't
sing as sweetly; it doesn' t rain so often
and the water isn't so soft as il used
to be; the dogs amt so smart as they
was the sun rises later and sets
earlier than il used to; the days amt
50 long, and there amt so many of
them"
And somehow or other the old pas
senger seemed to have a new light on
the subject And as | watched a more
contented look steal over his face 7
thought to myself that maybe after all
the apples didn't change so much as
the boy,
But | will swear that | have eaten
lots better apples than any train boy
ever sold me.
The Cincinnati Gazette says that a
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