Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1883-08-24
CRYING.
A Lecture by John Spicer.

A Lecture by John spicer.
know what crying means, but it is
SO funny to talk about that l do not
know how to tell what it is. very well.
but will tell rs well rs can. When
water comes into your ewes, and your
face Fuckers itself up, and you make
noises with your mouth and nose.
all that is crying. Sometimes YOU
make a bowling kind of noise. and
sometimes you make squealing kind.
and sometimes YOU only smile with
your nose. L know good many rea-
sons why people cry / do not mean
grown-up people, l mean bows and
girls. You cry when you get hurt, and
when you have to do things YOU do not
want to, and when YOU can not do what
you want to, and when you can not have
plaques you. l do not know what
makes the water come into your eyes
when you get hurt, or when you have
to do what you do not want to, or can
not do what you want to, or can not
have what you want, or anybody
plaques you, and my father does not
know; but it comes there, and comes
without your trying to make it come,
and my father thinks this is quite
curious; and no matter how far off the
hurt is from your eyes, if it is on the
end of your little finger, or of your little
toe, the cry-water does not come there,
it comes to your eyes. Cry-water is
called tears. When more cry-water
comes into your eyes than they can
hold, then it runs over, and runs down
your face in little round drops, and
these are tear-drops. Sometimes they
run down SO fast you have to take your
handkerchief, if you have one in your
pocket; but if tbs lost, your fist will do.
When Twas little fellow l cried good
deal and my father used to say: Get a
bottle, quick! A bottle to catch the
tears! Johnny's tears are running
away! They'll get lost! Get a bottle!H
If tears get into your mouth they taste
salt. Once when it was my bedtime
and l cried to stay up longer, my
brother told me there was too much
| salt in my tears, and said if l would CRY
some fresh water tears he would ask
my mother to let me stay up till. her
bedtime, and took piece of tear on
the tip end of my finger, and touched it
to my tongue, and it was salt, every
time tried
Boys and girls cry more than grown
up people, and small boys and girls cry
more than large ones, and babies cry
more than anybody. The ones who are
crying do not know how funny their
faces look and what bad noises come
out of their mouths. If they knew,
maybe they would stop. The best way
TO stop is to shut your teeth tight to-
gether and your lips tight together. If
that does not stop it, then take hold of
your nose, hard, with your pocket
handkerchief; but if that is lost then
take hold with your thumb and finger,
but keep your lips and teeth shut, too.
The best time to stop it is Just before it
comes; just when it is beginning. A
fellow told me he had tried it. and
stopped it every time by doing all these
things.
My brother made this verse when !
was little fellow:
whats IL to cry?
lis to have a wet eye,
And to sob and to sigh.
With your face all awry
And to lift your voice high,
so that no one who hears you will want TO
come nigh.
Some cry with ,DOu! iDoui tcoul
And some with ct! Ti! tci!
And nd some with squealy. wealy. wealy,
LINZ piggy WHEY WHY'S III II Stye-l. Il!
When was little fellow they used
to call me Fretter-and-Growler, because
l cried so much, and my grandma used
to tell me stories to try to cure me of
crying. will tell you two of them:
When grandma was child there was
another child lived in the next house.
He was boy and his name was Jerry.
He cried so much that when the people
about there heard any strange noise
they would say: whats that noise?
Jerry crying?" No matter if it was a
cow mooing, or cat squalling,
or a dog bowling, they would
say: What's that noise? Jerry
crying?" He cried when he was being
dressed, and when he had his face and
hands washed; cried for things to eat
that he muslin have, and cried to 90 TO
places. and for what he wanted, if he
couldn't have it; cried if he fell down;
cried If the boys laughed at him, and if
they just touched him without hurting
him hardly any, he would cry about it.
And if the boys called him "cry-baby,''
he would cry because they called him
cry-baby. His real name was Jeremiah.
and when the boys found that out they
used to say:
yeremi knows how to cry;
Jeremiah's very good cry-er."
One time knd lady stayed at his
house, and she said she could make a
better rhyme than that, and it was:
Jerry. Jerry. knows how to be merryr
and asked him if he had not been
~ Jeremiah, very good cry-er"
long enough and he said he had, and
when he began to cry she would say:
Jerry. Jerry, knows how to be merry!
and that made him laugh, and pretty
soon he thought of it himself, and he
grew to be quite merry Jerry.
Now viii tell you the other story:
Once when grandma was a child she
knew two children, boy and a girl.
They did not live in the house with each
other. The girl was named Ruth |
Holmes, and the boy was named James |
Adams, and Ruth Holmes learned how |
not to cry. Somebody told her how |
Once great ugly boy pounded her and |
she did not cry then, for she was very |
brave about crying. She was a hop |
skip and-jump little girl, .-randma said,
and liked to play out doors. One time |
she fell off fence and broke her arm.
and while the doctor was taking hold of |
it, and it was aching a good deal, she |
cried only two tears, and they came of |
themselves, just at the end when the |
pain was very bad. Somebody asked |
her how she kept herself from crying.
and she said she kept thinking to herself, |
fast as she could: Il can bear it; I can |
bear it." This was the way the one told |
her that showed her how to keep from |
crying. Grandma said the boy, James |
Adams, was kind Of cry-baby. He |
heard how it was that Ruth Holmes |
kept herself from crying when she had |
her broken arm, and he thought he |
would try the same way and stop him.
self from being such 3 cry-baby. So |
every time he got hurt or the boys |