Mexico weekly ledger., 1884-12-25
THE VILLAGE IDIOT.
Ben Wilde in Chicago Daily News.

HIRE t1LLAUG lU1V1s
Ben Wilde in Chicago Daily News.
Everybody in Tamarack knows
Crazy George. He is an institution
of the village. The boys poke fun at
him, the girls are afraid of him, the
men pay little attention to him. and
the old women sigh over his wretched
lot.
Crazy George is no older, as looks
go, than he was twenty years ago.
That is the way of the world. Let a
man 60 crazy and become useless to
himself and a burden to others, and
he will live till the cows come home.
But cure him and give him ambition
and start him in seemingly useful
career, and first you know he will fall
sick and die. This would be a good
place to say something mean about
nature and its ways, but 1 am not in
quarrelsome mood, and then nature
is pretty good friend to have after
all.
But to get back to George,
poor fellow! The boys delight to
chase HIM and see him flee in fright
and cry like child. Sometimes they
threaten to strike him just to hear his
plaintive appeal: ''Oh, don't hit 1T
tie Georgie!" for his delusion seems
to be that he is helpless little boy.
Another Of his expressions that evoke
laughter from the village boys is
"PIease tum an tiss little Georgie!'
That sounds funny, does it not,
looming from hale and hearty look
ing old 1nans Wait. 1t will seem
sad when you know what it means.
Some thirty odd years ago George
bankers came back from college a
refined, studious young man, with
a wider knowledge of men and books
and of the world than anybody else
in Tamarack could boat. With his
father and mother he spent season
of rest ON the old farm, that has
since become a part of Thomas Jud
kn's estate, over here about mile
George helped about the farm work
by day and studied by night until il
was determined that he should go te
the city and put his learning of tht
law to practice.
It was a hard drag at first, fo,
people preferred to trust their Law
cases to better known hands, ant
I George had often intimated to his in
dulgent father that if he had none.
d to spare, a little-a very ittle-woult
keep him alive, perhaps, until he go
another case. In these pinche
e George was sometimes almost per
q suaded to the dishonorab1e cours
pursued by some of his professions
, brethren of working up" lawsuit
out of cases that might be amicabl
settled and pocketing outrageou
fees for having coaxed his clients il
ia to needless trouble and expense
e But always before he got around t
n this sort of thing he relented, ant
e his manhood asserting itself over h
It avarice, he counselled peaceful an
!, inexpensive settlements. His mott
g and advice to those who consulte
. him was: forgiveness is the mo-
+ glorious revenge''-a beautiful mot,
sr that kept Gerge Danvers as poor I
sr bobtail COW in fly time.
=. One day George was called hom
. . His father was sick-very sick-aI
n George was needed about the plae
The fathers sickness did not la
long. In week after Georges a
rival at Tamarack the old bla'
:. hearse was brought out, and Il
r. elder Mr.. Danvers' grave was W
Mt with the tears of disconsolate wi
IS, ow and an affectionate son.
- - Young persons with no great l
mr. grets for their past behavior iowa
nd their parents are seldom long weig
ed down by the burden of grief Ia
upon them when their parents d
The young heart is yielding, b
We tough. 1t is flexible under pressr
sx- of grief, but it seldom breaks.
u, George wept his grief away, and Oh
an m the tear marks remained in his me
ory. But poor old Mrs. Danv
could not thus wash out of her m
blue eyes the image of that depart
rill sharer of sorrows and her joys,
i'd las the best thing to do, she sc
OF followed her husband, leav
.o s George alone, the owner OF the hi
rh. farm. Again the fountains Of
zee. heart broke forth and again hot te
scalded his sorrow until it shrivel
~ to q mere sad recollection. u
,re came Annie Beckett from the cit.
.g "a