San Marcos free press. [volume] (San Marcos, Tex.) 1877-1892, 1882-01-26
Same Old Thing.

An old granger strolled into A,,,.,
Warren's bookstore, Sixth and Cent?,
Avenue the other day, and stopped :.
a table where a lot of cheap nova,'
were displayed. He picked one Of thss
up and began to turn its leaves viii
a curious and amused expression .,
countenance. A clerk passing by inc.
then the granger said: '
They keep on writin' these yalle,
kivered novels yet, see.'
Clerk said they did.
Used to read every blessed one tb.,
cum out when I was boy. Reckon
I've gone through more'n fourteen
bushel on 'em in my day, though +
haip't tackled one in about fourteen
years now. Don't s'pose they'd read a.
they did then. Gittin' married and
raisin' a large family sort o'knocks tbs
romantic and picturisk out of man
as it were
Clerk thought it might have ten.
dency that way.
you can jes' bet your boots said the
granger. whats hull passed. of Red
Avengers of the Spanish Main when
man has to scratch gravel to keen a
mortgage from eatin' him up, body and
britches. And with wife and child.
rem lookin' to ye for bread, what do
you care for 'Ogareta, the Forest
Queen; or, the Trajerdy of the False
Eyebrow, hey? I used to set up all
night, readin' the Mysteries OF the
Castle of San Juan del Boot jack or
somethin' like that, with my teeth chat.
term till I shook the whole house
Couldn't do it now. But I say, do the
novels run as they used tor
Pretty much the same way, replied
the obliging clerk.
you don't say? Does the boss he.
rowine exclaim, Finland me, villain, or
by me fathers great horn spoons, I'll
throw meself from yonder cliff and
seek peaceful grave beneath the
waves that rattle for position at its
footP ...',
.. 'That's about the run of it,
We'll, declare! And when the vii
Ian swears she must be his'n though
the heavens fall and hell yawns at bis
feet, she shrieks the name of Gonraldo
and takes the fatal plunge into the
seething waters of the dark abyss. The
pillows close over her bee au-tious
form, when 10, Gonraldo-what does
Gonraldo now a-days, say?'
'Gonraldo plunges in
'Exactly?' interrupted the granger
excitedly. 'Gonraldo, who has been
watchin' things from another cliff,
plunges in and rescues her from the
clutch of the demon waves, crying
'Ha! ha foiled foiled! Oh, it's just
the way the old thing run when I was
a boy. Hain't changed it bit. And
the pirate stories. Do they still skim
the bright sea foam in rakish lookin'
skinner. Give cents a skuner) hull paint.
ed jet black, with a narrer streak Of
red runnin' along the sides?'
ooh, yes
you don't tell me! And is the pi-
rates bride as good lookin' as she
used to be? 1 can see her now, sfandin'
at the door of the powder magazine
with coal oil lamp in her hand, as she
exclaims to her husband, who is about
to throw the handsome captive over
board, Gomez de la Rutabaga, hold
thy hand! Toutch but hair of that
fair youths head, and I will blow thee
and thy murderous crew to the weeping
stars, and scatter thy proud bark among
the coral reefs of the down sweeping
sea-
what a memory you have got.
ooh, Pm hustler. Hain't read a
pirate story since 1 was boy, but l
remember just how they used to go.
And the pirates cave, too
Pirates cave ss soon as anybody
when the right party gets after them'
said the clerk.
Right you are. Same old cave,
s'pose?'
Pretty much the same cave. They
light them with electricity now, though
We'll, 1 s'pose SO. Pirates tumble to
these new wrinkles as quick as anybody.
Cook by steam, too, probably. Street
cars ruunin' from the cave to the
dock?'
Yes, and a telephone connecting II
with signal station
WELL said the granger, we must ezI
pect some changes in forty years !
see that the novel joys along IN aDout
the same old beaten track, though. But
an old man like me hain't any use Tor
'em any more. Good day.
And with lingering thong saddend
look at the yellow covers that had called
up feeting visions of a past intellectua
life, the old granger left the store
Cincinnati Saturday Night