The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1879-02-20
FOR THE YOUNG FOLKS.
TIL. origin Of the Jump,ns.Jach.

Something like twenty years ago, o
miserable brick house in back alley
was the home of Archibald Ramsey,
Scotch carpenter. He worked down.
town in a shop, making cornices, mold
ines. mantels. and variety of the more
elaborate parts employed in finishing
houses. Every evening he took homo
pocketfuls, and often handfuls also, OF
bits and ends from the shop.
These oddly shaped fragments of soft,
sweet-smelling pine furnished amuse-
ment for poor little Alec, Mr.. Ramsey's
hunchback boy and when they had
served this purpose, they were used as
kindlings in the kitchen stove.
There was houseful of little Ram
seys, of whom Alec was the oldest, and
when he was amused, 80 were the
others, thus giving the overworked
mother time for other duties.
Alec was sixteen years old, and not
taller than an average boy of ten. He
was very mrch deformed, and had he
lived in an age and country of kings
seeking dwarfs and human oddities ft
"court fools" or "iesters," he would
have been prize to some iron handed
tyrant. His shoulders we're almost as
high as his head, his arms hung out
loose and dangling, and the rest OF his
body was shrunken and slender to a
most pitiable degree. But whoever,
with tender heart, looked into his
great, questioning eyes and noted his
broad, fair forehead and his clean, deli
cate hands, would soon forget the sad
shape in the nobility of the face.
paoJ NOT 1;nOar tn cnaoH pf his
studies, which, all unaided, he pushed
along with success; nor OF his constancy
in the Sunday school, where he was
universal favorite. 1t is about his play
with the bits of pine from the shop l
wish to tell you.
Many droll pile he built on the
kitchen floor; many funny thing he
whitfield out to amuse the little ones ;
many comical toy he made and gave
away to neighboring children. Often
he said, and oftener thought, What
can whittle that will sell ?" For only
money seemed likely to bring him the
changed life for which he longed. Once,
when he sold for few pennies a queer
little pine trinket, his father stroked his
silken hair and said:
"Ah, me puir bairnie, dinna ken
but ye may max your fortoon wi your
knife"
How that little piece OF encourage.
ment rang in his ears and stimulated
him to think and whittle, whittle and
think |
One genial afternoon in May, Alec
crept out to enjoy the balmy air, and, by
the noise of O crowd of urchins on 9
vacant lot at little distance, was drawn
in that direction. Here he saw color.
ed boy, named Jack, attempting, for the
amusement of the party, all sorts OF
pranks in limitations of circus perform.
ers. Bareheaded and clothed in striped
red and yellow garments OF coarse quail.
ity, the negro lad almost seemed made
of India rubber.
Alec watched his capers in amaze
mint. Never before had he seen such
antics, or even thought them possible.
1t was no wonder that the frail, stiff.
jointed little hunchback dreamed it all
over again, as he did that night.
The next morning his whiting genius
took shape from this event, and before
noon he had produced a rude pine image
of the negro--head, arms and legs loose
ly hung with bits of broom. wire, anG
the whole curiously arranged, so that by
working string, it would jump, nod
turn somersaults, and go through quite
series of contortions. With coloret
pencils, of which he had some chear
specimens, he blackened it's head, neck
hands and feet, redeemed its lips, white
ened its eyes, and rudely striped in vel
low and red the body, all in imitation
of the little negro gymuast. Before il
it was completed, his younger brother
who had been with him the day before
named it jumping. jack" And in the
afternoon, when he went to the vacan
lot and exhibited it to the youngsters
there, it was not only universally bu
boisterously hailed by the same name
When he returned home, he brought
instead of the Jumping Jack, a silvel
half-dollar, for which he had sold tht
the toy to an eager, weil-dressed lad o.
his own age. And not only this, but ht
had orders from the boys for half {
dozen more (; to be made as soon as pos.
sible.
Oh, what proud, glad heart bea
within that deformed little body O
Alec's! How his temples throbbed
How elastic his step What flashing
eyes What skein OF wild and hopeful
talk he unwound to his mother! 81
much money for his whiting, aud {
chance for more aud more Castles
sky.high and tar-bright
But have not told you all.
That evening he whitfield, and the
next day he whitfield, and before nigh
had added to his capital three more shin
ing half-dollars. The next day h,
doubled his money. The demand fol
jumping Jacks increased. Boys cam,
to the door, silver in hand, to get wha
he had no time to make.
His grave Scotch parents began t.
hold serious counsel over the matter
If Alec could find such sale for thes
pine images in that neighborhood, why
the whole city would require thousands
and what would sell elsewhere also. 1
they could supply the market, fortun
might readily be made.
Scotch blood, once aroused and chal
lenged, is sanguine and venturesome.
But it would be uninteresting to re
peat all the details SO the rest OF my
story shall be brief.
Alec's Sunday school teacher, who wa
lawyer, procured for him q patent OF
jumping jacks of every description {
rich old uncle of Alec's mother bull
him factory and started him in busi
ness; and, within year from the after
noon when the poor lad wondered at thu
pranks of the colored boy, jumping jacks
from the Ramsey factory were selling il
great numbers all over America.
Truly Alec did "mak' fortoon wi
his knife"
To school he went |; into better house
oil THAR own the family mnvad ansie