Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1880-02-05

"WHEN Cleopatra talked abou,
Caesar to Mark Antony, shs passed
no doubt, ner fingers through her
lovers hair, aud wondered how she
could ever have dotted on such bald.
pated fellow as the Dictator. Had
she succeeded in charming Octavius,
she would have wondered equally OF
her infatuation for such a ne'er-do-
well as Antony. And 80 it is be
wondered that a women's first love
even if she realizes il at all, goes
down in this general wreck of the
past. But in mans life it is @ revo-
luton. Ii is q fact. the one thing
that makes him man. The world
of boyhood is strickly q world OF
boys. Sisters, cousins, aunts, moth
ers, are mixed up in the general
crowd of barbarians that stand
without the playground. There are
few warmer or more poetic affections
than the chivaIrous friendship OF
school boys; there is no truer or
more genuine worship than a boys
worship of the hero of the scrim
mage or the cricket field.
1t is fine world in itself, but it
is wonderfully narrow and res.
tricted world. Not girl may peep
over the palings. Girls can't jump
or flag out, or swarm up tree; they
have nothing to talk about as boys
talk; they never heard of the glor-
ious swipe of old Browns; they are
awful milksops; they cry and "teIl
namma;" the are afraid OF governess
aud of COW. 1t is impossible 20
conceive creature more utterly
contemplate in a boys eyes than q
girl of his own age usually is. Then
in some fatal moment comes
the revolution The barrier of
contempt goes down with q
crash. The boy-world disappears.
Brown, that god of the playground.
is cast to the owls and to the bats.
There is sudden GOODNESS in the
friendship that was to last from
school to the grave. Paper chases
and the annual match with the todd.
fellows" ceases to be the highest
object of human interest There is
less excitement than there was last
year when q great cheer welcomes
the news that Mugby had got the
Ireland. The boys life has become
muddled and confused. The old
existence is steering of. and the new
comes shyly, fitfully. 1t is only by
q sort of compulsion that he will
own that he is making all this fuss"
about girl. For the moment he
rebels against the spell of tina. one
little face, the witchery of that one
little hand. He fingers on the Dor.
der of this new country from whence
there is no return to the old playing
fields. He is shy, strange to this
world of women and womens talk
and women's ways. The surest,
stesdiest foot on the cricket ground
tumbles over foet.stools and tspgles
itself in colored woods. The steadiest
arm that ever welded q bat trem
bles at the touch of a tiny finger.
The voice that rang out trumpet
among the tumult of football bushes
and tren5les and fAlters in saying
half a dozen commonplace words.
The old sense Of mastery is gone.
He knows that every chit in the
nursery has found out his secret and
is laughing over it. He bushes aud
q boys hlush is hot, painful thing
when the sisterly heads bend to-
gether and be hears them whisper
ing what fool he is. Yes be is a
foal-that is one thing which he
feels quite certain about. There Is
only one other thing be feels even
more certain about-tbat he is in
love, aud that love has made him
man.