The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1884-08-21
A CHAPTER IN MECHANICS.
The Presidents Son. Called
"Precious Thing"
A Humorist Who Struggles With tn
Appellation Of Birdie"

o.sSP Wv sAAo Ao"oo o"ihS w hi'"e ~ "'A
comfortable for one of their NUMBER.
A son Of President Arthur, who is at
Princeton college, has his life made a
burden to him by being called by the
nickname of precious Thing" He is
never called by any name except Pre-
cious Thing. and it gals him. The way
he got the name was peculiar. The
President took heyoung man to Prince
ton, when he entered that college, and
the boys gave the great man and his
son a serenade. The President ac-
knowledged the compliment. and made
a little speech, in which he said: "You
can see how much think of Princeton,
by my leaving my son, the most precious
thing have in life, here with YOU"
The young galoots and educational
hoodlums gave three cheers for the
President, and then some one proposed
three cheers more for "his precious
thing" and that settled it, Young
Arthur, alluded to by his father as the
most precious thing in life, becomes a
precious thing in ridicule. If a boy
could be called precious thing by
girls. with all the name implies. it
would not be bad, but to have six
hundred boys constantly calling him a
Precious Thing" is too much, and the
young man is broke up. 1t is Here,
you Precious Thing, lend me your jack
knife" or precious Thing, pull down
your vest," until he wishes he were
dead. His father meant the expression
as one of endearment, showing the love
he bore his son, and he supposed he
was addressing lot of human beings
with hearts concealed about their per-
sons, bAt they were only college hazers,
with no respect for the decencies of
life. and they would make fun of any
thing. The president can't take his
son away from there and send him to
another college, as the name would
follow him, so he has to bear it as best
he can. But he would give goo |
deal to have his name chang d.
1t beats all how nickname once
given to a boy will follow him through
life. We once knew a freckled, red
headed boy who was homely enough to
stop clock. His mother did not be-
lieve that he was homely, because he
was her pet, and it was her habit to
call him "Birdie." At home he did
not mind it so much, but as he grew
older he was afraid the good mother
would some day call him Birdie" in
the presence of the other boys, and he
knew what effect it would have. One
day dozen boys were playing in the
mud, and the mother of the freckled
boy needed him in her business. SO she
went out with her apron over her head,
in yelling distance of the boys, and
sang out, "Birdie, come here right
away" AS Birdie dropped the mud
pie he was building and started home
across lots he heard the boys snicker,
and one of them said, 20, come Birdie
come, and live with me-" The freckled
boy knew that from that moment he
would never hear the last IF "Birdie, y
and he was right. The next time he
showed up among the boys one of them
said, 90. here comes Birdie Look al
him. He must be red headed wood
p cker." That settled it. lie was
called nothing but Birdie" from thai
out. He tried whipping the boys fol
calling him the pet name, but got
whipped oftener than he whipped his
antagonist, and for fifteen years, OF
until he had arrived at mans estate, hi
was familiarly called Birdie" He go
accustomed to it after few years, 81
that he could live through it, but i
was a long struggle, and hard one
Finally he went away from the place
out into the world. and for thirty year
struggled along, until finally he hat
accumulated some money and hat
built up good business. Last year HI
went back to the old home for few
days. He was gray, and corpulent, an,
fat, and jolly. He wanted to fint
some Of the old boys, and inquired TO
them. All were gone, scattered to tn
four winds, by death, going west, etc
all except one, who was on farm
A gray haired man was out in a field
on top Of wagon load of fertilizer
pitching it off with a pitch-fork. Tn
visitor went up to the wagon. spoke t.
the farmer, who stopped pitching tn
unsavory mas, long enough to spit OF
his hands and look at the visitor. IL
looked moment at the map on tn
ground, smile broke over his face
and he shouted: 81 swow to gosh If
sin't Birdie" and he got down off tn
oad and hugged us until we couldn'
hardly breathe, and made us go in tn
house and stay to dinner. Thoug
thirty years had passed, and each ha
almost forgotten the other, in a me
ment the old school days came up. an
it was "Biriie" again. But it was nc
bad to take. The precious Thing a
Princeton may be annoyed, but som
day. thirty years from now, he will !
glad to have one of the boys call hill
by the nickname.-Peck'sS Sun.
A Black Snake Kills Cow.
Near Carson. New, COW was n
ti,.ed CHARGING furiously at "A thicke