Catoctin clarion. [volume] (Mechanicstown, Md.) 1871-1940, 1883-11-22
BRANDY WAS LOW DOWN."
A Dootblack's Eulogy on o Dead
GOOd-f0r. Nothing.
Detroit Free Press.l

Detroit Free Press.1
"Brandy is deadl'
So the men said, 80 the women said. and 40
tho children called to each other as piece of
news
A drunken, good for. nothing. A go called
man whose brain had become dissolved In
liquor whose mind was enfeebled, and who
had disappointed everybody by not dying in
the gutter, instead of having the roof OF
tenement house over his head.
Why should any one grieve when such
vagabond passes awayl The world may owe
him room for his bones to rest, but nothing
further. So in "Brandys" case men said
that he was well out Of the way, and women
clattered their dishes in the rooms below,
and cared not for the presence of the dead.
When the undertaken came to bear the
body away dozen people crowded into the
room, and among them was a bootblack.
Some said that Brandy" looked well in
coffin; others spoke lightly about his face
having at last lost it's ruby color, and the
dead pauper was no more than dog i'll their
minds, and why should he have beena Ono
can be man or he can he q vagabond. II
he becomes vagabond let him lose the re-
spect of men. All had heartless remark
except the bootblack. He stood at the head
OF the coffin and looked from face to face
and said:
"Brandy wns low down, and he died like a
beast, and you are all sneering at him. Did
any one among you ever give him chance!
Did he have home when he was boyl
Did men try to encourage him and guide him
arightl Is there man in this room who
ever took him by the hand and spoke one
ind ,1,,,t ,d, l,,,cn nd
treat him! Didn't everybody look upon him
a. dogP
There was no answer,
"Aye! Brandy was low down." whispered
the boy as he laid his hand on the coffin. HE
was ragged and hungry, and poor and home-
less, and without one single friend. What
man among you could have stood out against
it any better! Poor old man! They know
all about it in heaven! Let me help to carry
him down."
And when the dead had been driven away,
and the boy had disappeared, more than one
man said:
"After all, we might have made It easier
for the poor old man. l wonder that some
OF us never sought to make man OF him,
instead Of helping him down.
Where Water Is as Precious Us Cold.
[Cor. New York Tribune.l
Flagstaff year ago was an unredeeme1
Inferno: now it is for the most part quiet
and of good repute. 1t owes its permanency
to the timber business From northwestern
Arizona down to tho southeast into western
New Mexico stretches a vast belt of magnfi-
cent pine forest. Here the belt is cut by the
railroad just under the shadow of the San
Francisco mountains. The trces are of ex-
traordinary height, straight and huge in their
proportions. Between them there is no un-
dergrowth-all is clear and open. Here and
there the openings widen Cut into beautiful
natural parks, clothed with rich growth Of
grass No iiner cattle country could bo inn
aginei, save for the lack of water.
Water is almost literally as precious
as gold. Men go out prospecting for
springs just as the miner searches for crop
pings of ore He who secures a spring can
control thousands of acres of land. But the
springs are few, often small, and not always
Trustworthy. The Little Antelope sprrg,
which supplies the cluster of cabins hard by,
sometimes runs dry. Then water il hauled
in barrels for miles and sold like any other
commodity. The saw-mill, which runs out a
hundred thousand feet Of lumber day to sup
ply VI NS,oO',Voo tceb Aoi thc 4u0Al-
can Central railway, is run by steam power
Yet for this it is necessary to pump the water
in pipes from springs nine miles away. At
Winslow the railroad company sunk an arte-
sian we'll 200 feet and struck salt water. At
Ash Fork they sunk another well, which
proved failure.
From the line of New Mexico the railroad
runs for many miles through the barren
valley of the Rio Puerco The river-hsd is
broad but the stream itself Is only scanty
rivulet. Yet when there comes one of the
sudden, fierce thunder storms peculiar to this
region the plains are flooded, and in an hour
the river becomes raging torrent. I have
seen this happen again and again, for it is the
rainy season now; but in a few hours the
water disappears, the torrents plunge into
underground water-ceurses, and the sands
are parched as before 1t has been suggested
that huge stone tanks be constructed to hold
the water, inst""d of permitting it to flow off
at once The suggestion seems good one
Artesian wells have never obtained much
success in the western country, and the water
problem remains one of vital Importance