News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1883-12-20

gone down among the boys who are
working the new carbonate mines at
) Gunnison, and have been appointed to
take his hand and heave it for all it's
: worth. To many of you present it won't
I be necessary to tell you that I'm kinder
new to this business, but don't believe
a there's a rooster in the camp mean
enough to take advantage of my ignOr-
ance and cold-deck me on the first deal.
l have been reading in this yere book
that yarn about the Prodigal Son and
will try to tell you the story. The book
don't give no dates, but 1 guess it hap
pened a considerable spell lack in his
tory. 1t seems the Prod's father was
pretty flush with the stamps, and a real
good sort into the bargain, as he always
shelled out freely when the kid struck
him for a stake, and never bucked at the
size of the pile neither, so long as the
boy heaved in hearty on the rancho and
generally behaved hisself handsum. But
by and by the kid began to git restless
and wanted to rustic out the travel; so
he got the ole man to ante up in ad-
vance of the death racket and let him 60.
He no sooner got his diyvy in his pocket
than he shook the rancho and spread
himself out to take in some of the far-of
camps. Wal, according to the book, he
had a way-up time at first and slung his
coin around as if he owned the best pay
ing lead within a thousand miles of
Denver. But, my friends, this game
didn't last forever. Hard luck struck
him at last, and the Prod is found in
one of his Sober intervals remarling in
confidential way to one of his chums
/ "I say old pard, Tn busted clean to
the bedrock, and them's the cold
blooded facts" The book don't say
what the Prod. went broke on, but
prob'bly he steered up against some
brace game. Be that as itmay, however,
he was so beautifully cleaned out that
he hadn't a two-bit piece left to go and
eat on. In this condition he struck
rancho belonging to an old granger,
who, taking pity on the poor, busted
Prod, gave him a job of herding hogs.
L
a general way, but he was inclined to be
kinder mean on the feed, and so it came
that often Prod got so frightfully sharp
set for a meal he had to go whacks in
the hog-trough. You bet the kid who
in his flush times had been booziDg
round among the best of everything like
a silver king or a big railway monopolist,
had now plenty of time on his hands for
| doing tall lot of thinking, and one day
he said to himself: "I'll just ding this
business. Why, even the meanest help
in any old governors hired service are
living on square grub, and plenty of it,
while I'm worrying along on a shook
lunch. 1 know what I'll dO-IA Just
| skip back homo to the old man and ask
him for a now deal" So away he went,
l,ut he had a hard time reaching the old
rancho and don't you forget it. When
,,,t. I,a~-o plenty r ~-+-., 80 F~i-r'1e-
everybody's pleasant, but when you're
on the borrow you don't find it SO good.
Finally he did strike the familiar trail
leading down to the old home and while
crossing some open lots the old man, as
the book puts in, saw him a-coming afar
off. Yes. that ole mans eyes were very
dim, but he did not fail to spot his boy
afar off.
And what dye suppose that Prod's
father did? Did he whistle the dogs to
chase him off the rancho? You bet he
didn't. Did he 60 and take down his
shotgun and wait till he got good drop
on him? You bet he didn't. No, but
I'll tell you what he did. He Just
waltzed right out Of the gate to meet
him, and frCze to that poor scarecrow
right on the spot, and fell to kissing of
him and weeping over him and calling
him his poor, long-lost boy until the
Prod got broke all up and like sluice
dam when the snow comGs down OIL
Pixies Peak under July sun. The old
man then took him right away to cloth
ing store and rugged linn out in the
noblest suit to be had for coin and put
an elegant ring on his finger, ordered
the fattest steer on the rancho to be
slaughtered, invited all the neighbors in,
and had the biggest blowout the camp
had ever seen.
Now it appears that the Prod's elder
brother was out ut work with the teams,
and when he came in he asked some Of
= the help what was the meaning of the
picnic they were having inside. and when
he was told the reason he Just got real
mad. The old man hearing of this
went out to him and said; "Come in,
lad; your brothers come back and we're
; having a regular old. fashioned jubilee;
now you come right along, like n good
fellow, and take share in the break
n down" But the brother wouldn't bulge,
and said: "Look here, dad, L have
, stuck to the rancho and have never trans
gressed your orders, but it never struck
you to have n picnic of this kind until
+ vo1 give it in honor of loafer who has
t disgraccd our name" But, my friends,
S YOU make your bets on it that old man
II had a level head and wasn't to be easily
o bluffed. He says: "My son, you say
d You have never transgrosscd my orders,
e but are you quite sure that's 50. l tell
h you that you have grievously trans
d gressed my commandments now by
d your unbrotherly and uncharitable be-
It hayior. Learn, then, that [ am not
IS pleased by service Of mere form, II
the heart is not in accord. You may
count that your service is according to
IL the letter of the law, but | tall you 1t
" don't fill the bushel worth a cent so far
o as the spirit is concerned. The spirit
. you are showing, my lad, is the one that
= leads to narrow-mindcdncss to higotry,
Le to intolerance and to f3OliGk round and
-, burning folks because they don't fix up
~ their formal observances just exactly as
= you have arranged and as you assert
:, ~ must be ricE:." AEl r.,g, friends, 1t
y is to the credit Of the b.o,her that he
!" took his old fathers square talk in good
" q part, and You bet that old man was
70 real thoroughbred-aud don't you for
III get it.
Mr-rEs. The Philadelphia Press says
of h. ttcory that the inter marriage o.
ds deaf rnutes will produce a race OF dea
H. mutes doesn't rest on a substantial
ON basis. They are mutes because they are
nj deaf. Tae organs &C -Tec.r and hear
,e- nc exist as in Other p.g-ou she mutt
F.,,, ,,u., ..tflgp. Tht