Mexico weekly ledger., 1882-05-04
A FAMILY PHOTOGRAPH ALBUM.
BY ROBERT j. BURDETTE.

''This," the young lady said, sis
the photograph of young gentleman
who used to pay attention to Aunt
Martha. He is very nice young
man. He was attending Letherhed
College when this picture was taken."
And he was nice young man.
His collar wanders out over his shoul-
ders, and his necktie looks like roll
of carpet with the ends fringed. His
vest is flowered pattern of velvet
cut low in the neck. His coat is a
Prince Albert, and his legs hang down
from the vast embrace of its encirc-
ling tails like double-tongued bell.
His trousers are broad and he leans
on large book in painful attitude.
His hair is combed low On his fore
head, and high at the temples, thus
displaying the broad sweep and COM
prehensive scope of two ears that flare
with the unfolding spread of intellect
ual development. His brow is con-
tracted with thought and the intense
effort to look fixedly at the impossible
point indicated by the artist. The
freckles on his nose did not show.
They were kindly and carefully oblit-
Grated by the photographer, whose
motto is: "Art, for arts sake" and
who saw they were the only real and
natural thing in the negative. o.
"And this" said the young lady,
''is photograph of Mrs. Thistlepod,
an old friend of our family. 1 think
have heard it said that pa liked her,
indeed, before he met ma. 1t is not
very good photograph
The young lady is correct. The
execution is not brilliant success.
The bonnet, which is massive and of
a multifora style of decoration is well
outlined. and the massive bow of
four-inch ribbon which it is tied under
the chin is brought out in startling
relief against the blank, over-shaped
space between it and the brow of the
''bunnit," which is supposed to rep
resent the placid and classic fea-
lures Of "pa's'' early flame. Crossed
on her lap, in close focus, Mrs. This
tlepod's hands are magnified into the
dimensions of small hams with fingers.
This colossal effect is also rather en-
phasized by the two long fingers of
the gloves. Mrs. Thistlepod is sit
ting so rigidly erect that you fear she
has swallowed the head-rest by mis-
take, instead of leaning against it, as
she was told. The deadly weapon
lying in her lap is sometimes mistaken
for policeman's billy. 1t is Mrs.
Thistlepod's fan.
"And here" the young lady went
on, s'is Mr.. Thistlepod. He is a
very kind-hearted man."
was glad she told me so. Mrs.
Thistlepod had made her husbands
shirts under the impression that he
was rapidly-growing boy instead of
a man of AZ years, weighing already
172 pounds. The shirt boils and
bubbles and wrinkles up out of his
shirt front. His collar stands up like
the ear of terrier on one side, but
droops away in languid angularity on
the other. His black necktie, after
passing five times around his neck, is
tied in a knot, the secret hitch of
which is only acquired by long years
of practice in tying old-fashioned
ham-strings. The coat he wears is
the awful coat of the Sabbath-day
and Fourth of July, and the set of
the fearful and wonderful pantaloons,
all taut on the lamboart tack, betrays
the solitary suspender in all its lone
illness. One knotted knee is crossed
above the other, and the suspended
foot hangs out in the air like the
coffin of Mahomet. His trousers
crawl up the rigid legs of his boots.
In one hand, with the arm still
fixed in the frozen agony of the acute
angle at which the ''artist'' set it, he
holds stovepipe hat with level brim,
with the intensity of despairing man
who will only lose his vise-like grip
upon that hat with death. The other
arm has been lashed across his body
and the extended fingers driven be-
tween his ves6 and coat with a sledge.
hammer. You cannot see the ten.
penny nails which pin this arm to its
place, but you know they are there
{ Mr.. Thistlepod's hair is combed
straight out from his head in botl
; directions from any point of view
His lips are set and his eyes glare
with the panied expression of mar
who has just been given the pleasant
f alternative of having his tooth pulled
{ or the boil on the back of his necl
lanced as the only cure for the felol
, on his thumb. In all the agony O
his face you can read murder in hi
heart, and the beholder is glad tt
|, have the pretty young lady's wort
for it that Mr.. Thistlepod is kind
hearted man.
, "And this the young lady said
pitching her voice in lower key
. while faint color mantled her cheeks
. "this is George Stevenson"
L knew by her voice and manne
that George Stevenson was the mos
important man in that album, but he
: father came in just then to take m
e to the train, and / had only a brie