West Virginia argus. [volume] (Kingwood, W. Va.) 1877-1946, 1884-08-15
LIBERTY AND L,

| -
LIBERTY ANDU,
IL seems TO me that thai
Is quieter festival than it
IL may be that we sprea
greater part of the year mo-
be that l am growing old
iogSish, but any how | dor
boys mix their colors quite
when they go out TO put tn
on the town rs they usec
they seem TO enjoy il. |
TO tell how many firecrack,
pedoes and Roman cand
| wheels bought for the Pri
they were all used up. Nv
Tess that while touching of
works that / bought lust 1,
boy, felt very like a man
years who takes baby of
| old TO the circus 'to see th
4 confess TO n depravcd g,
the small but earnest free
this point om firm fr
Chinaman, and as | am
Tor President l don't care
knows it,
tell you, bird of the
sweeping wing, the last Fot
before the war was one thab
upon my heart with pen
on my back with skate
was screamer-the Fourth of JulyN
not the skate strap. We got ready ~
that Fourth
John found piece of inch gas pipe
about foot and a half long and We
made cannon of it, but secretly, for
fear of the Sanhedrin. We strapped il
on TO big block. We loaded it. /
chucked in the powder. Put in
plenty said John, and / poured in
some more Then 1 rammed down a
wad of dry paper. Then John rammcd
down n wad of wet paper. "That'u
make her crack" he said Then
pounded in stone marble. "That'll
make her ring" | said. Then John
rammed down another wad of wet pa
per.
''That'll make her boom" said that
enthusiastic artillerist, "now lets put
her away TO dry, and when she goes off
tomorrow morning, the cellar walls will
fall in"
That was July third eleven am. We
set her away 10 dry The rest of the
powder, a pound and half or so, we
wrapped in brown paper and carried up
stairs and put il away in Johns trunk
where it would be safe in case the wood
shed caught fire.
Then we made flag That is, we
! cut out the stars and one of our sisters
made the flag. This we did openly AS
within the law. The flag of the free
hearts hope and home was not com
| pleted until late at night, and then
there was a motto to be painted on the
| milky baldric of the skies. with streak e.
ings of lampblack and turpentine. We
| spread the symbol of our chosen land
| down on the sitting room floor, and by
the dim religious light of a iitful kero-
sene lamp j painted in bold capitals
Liberty and Union This work was
done with muilled oars, because the
Sanhedrin had gone TO bed and was
| known TO be averse TO this kind of mid
! night revelry. When the motto was
| completed John kicked over the lamp,
| smashing the chimney, narrowly escap-
| ing an explosion and filling the camp
| with CONSERVATION, in the midst of
| which we stcrnly ordered our sister to
| her room, because the more intensely
| sibillant became our whispers, and the
| more We tried TO make her hush and
| the more we blistered our startled fin
| gers on stray pieces of red hot lamp
chimney, ambushed in the dark, and
the more ominOus grew the listening
| silence from the apartment where th6
Sanhedrin slept, the more she gigglcd
Anything" " said John, "but giggline
| girlP''
was going TO add something fan
| more sarcastic and bitter. but Just the
my cropping fingers closed on n spheri
| cal fragment of the chimney that hac
| been nearest the wick, and this trihinl
incident turned the drift Of my
thought and materially altered th'
nature of my subsequent remarks
| ] thought Mollie would perish from
excessive mirth And just then
when voice from the Sanhedriu
demanded a report from the Executive
| Committee, we boys were compelled by
force Of circumstances, 10 lay violcn
hands upon our sister and stine he
with jacket and a table cover, and the
deep silence that came into that darl
room on its tip-toes and walked arounS
in list slippers, was only broken by AZ
occasional smothered giggle thm os
capped from our vigilant clutches.
| When all was well and one Of the boy
had made an evasive report and sske,
for more time, ] CROPPED my way 4
the pantry for another chimney, an,
stepped into a steel rat trap whicl
caught me around the heel with th
savage grip Of new boot. and thcre
was a moment Of suppressed emotion
that could not be described by guide
book.
The lamp was lighted. A momcn
our eyes turned 20 whore the sky-bori
glorics of our flag burned, and the
proudly, ioyously wc lifted 10 from th
floor Alas. It's earth-born glorics ha,
burned through There, before on
gaze. raQgcdlv. yet distinctly lmncd o
the light ground Of the carpet, like th
wild wrcaths from cannon mouihiug
loud, Liberty and Union looked u
a. us. We felt that while the sentimen
was patriotic and proper, yet it vas on