The Labor enquirer., 1883-04-07
That Bad Boy.


eye-Winkers singed off and powder marks
on his face, and began to play on the
barmonica, as he sat down on the end
of a stick of stove-wood and balanced
himself
90. I guess not. He has hedged. He
got in with deacon of another church,
and pa says if I will keep my condemn
mouth shut he will unload the whole Of
it if the churches hold out. He goes to
a new church every night there is prayer
meeting or anything, and makes ma 60
with him to give him tone, and after
meeting she talks with the sister about
how to piece silk bed quilt, while pa
gets in his work selling, silver stock. l
don't know but he will order some more
stock from the factory, if he sells all he
has got," and the boy went on playing,
There's a land that istairer than day.
But what was he skipping up street
= for the other night with his hat off, grab
bing at his coat-taiIs as though they were
on fire? I thought I never saw a pussy
man run any faster. And what was the
celebration down on your street about
that time? I thought the world was
coming to an end, and the grocery man
kept away from the boy, for fear he
would explode.
"Oh, that was only a Fenian scare;
nothing serious. You see, pa is a sort Of
half Engli8hman, He claims to be an
American citizen when he wants office,
but when they talk about draft he
claims to be a subject of Great Britain,
and he says they can't touch him. Pa is
a darn smart man, and don't you forget
it. They don't any of them get ahead of
pa much, Well, pa has said good deal
about the wicked Fenians, and that they
ought to be pulled and all that, and
when | read the story in the papers
about the explosion in the British par
lament pa was hot. He said the dam
irish was running the whole world. He
didn't dare say it at the table, or our
hired girl would have knocked him silly
with a spoonful of mashed potatoes
cause she is a nirish girl, and she can
lick any EngIiShman in this town. Pa
said there ought to have been somebody
there to have taken that bomb up and
throwed it in the sewer before it ex-
ploded. He said if he ever should see a
bomb, he would grab it right up and
throw it away where it wouldn't hurt
anybody Pa has me read the papers to
him nights cause his eyes have got
spIinters in EN-, and after | had read all I.
there was in the paper | made up lot .
more and pretended to read it, about .
how it was rumOred that the FenianS
here in Milwaukee were going to place
dynamite bombs at every house where
an Englishman lived, and at a given sig
nal blow them all up. Pa looked pale
around the gills, but he said he wasn't
scared. Pa and ma were going to call
on a she deacon that night that has lots
of mOneyin the bank, to see if she didn't
want to invest in a dead sure paying sill
yer mine, and me and my chum con-
cluded to give them a send-of. We got
my big black iniy-rubber foot ball and
painted 'dinymight in big white letters
on it, and tied a piece Of tarred rope to
it for fuse, and got a big fire cracker,
one of these old Fourth Of July horse
scarers, and a basket full of broken glass
We put the foot ball in front of the step
with the fire crackers and basket where
they 90 down into the basement Pa
and mia came out the front door and
down the steps, and pa saw the foot ball
and the burning fuse, and he said Great
God, Hammer, We are blowed up, and he
started to run, and ma she stopped to
look at it, Just as pa started to run
touched off the fire cracker, and my rhum
arranged It to pour out the broken glass
on the brick pavement just as the fire
cracker went Off Well, everything !,
Just as We expected, except ma, she had
examined the foot ball and concluded it !
was not dangerous, and was Just giving
it kick as the fire cracker. went off and .
the glass fell, and the fire cracker was so .
near her that it scared her, and when pa
looked around, ma was flying across the .
sidewalk, and pa heard the noise and
he thought the house Was blown to
atoms, 0, you'd a died to see him 90
around the corner. You could play GRO .