The new dominion. [volume] (Morgantown, W. Va.) 1876-1904, 1885-05-02
OLD DAYS.
Reflections Suggested by an Apple Bought
of TrAin-Boy.


life l did it to appease the train-boy,
who had turned himself loose on me ut
Council Bluffs, and was going to make
me buy something before we got to st.
Joseph pronounced Sinjo. accent
heavy on the Jo). or lick me. He
wanted me to buy all of Prof Mat
thews' books except the gospel, aud
nine of +. p. Roe's novels, and Tay-
lor's .sWorld on Wheels" and "Be-
tween the Gates" and seven or eight
of Pinkerton's fearful and wonderful
detective stories, and whole library of
French novels with very flashing titles
and disappointingly tame reading, and
some California pears and Siberian
oranges. and some Alaska figs and
Senegambian grapes, some candy pack
ages with beautiful prize and ten
dollar bill in every package except the
one he sold me, and some ivory orna-
ments made of ivory that grows on
trees, and some fresh roasted peanuts
which he assured me were George
Washington's favorite fruit, that would
purify the blood, make the hair curl,
whiten the teeth, make the complexion
clear and promote longevity, and some
a railway guide of last July, and some
apples.
reflected. did not think ] ought
to buy all these things, because l have
a family to support, and / am not so
wealthy as l am said to be by the
sole ting committees of poverty
stricken churches and lettering col
leges. But felt, as perhaps you have
felt thousand times, dear hearer, that
had to buy something of that boy, or
lie down on the floor of the car and
die.
So bought apples. 1 selected ap-
pies because they are palatable, nutri-
tious and Cheap. asked him how he
sold his apples. With exceeding scorn
he said: "Twoforrasent" (Which by in
depreciation is, two for cent?. think
he said two for cent. knew had
just missed lecture engagement by
railroading into snow drift the night
before, and consequently had just
enough money left to buy one, in job
lot.
/ bit it with great difficulty and little
joy. sing hey, the leathery fungus that
it was. handed it back to the boy
and told him to keep it; he might want
to kill a dog with it some day. The
boy, with the native independence of
his class, said that didn't know good
apple when / got one. He opined. in
deed, and very opinely, too, in loud
tone of expression, for the benefit of the
whole car, that when had any orchard
fruit at home | RECALLED myself, like a
prince, on dried apples.
did not smite the boy nor upbraid
him with hard and singing words.
More, indeed, in sorrow than in anger
told him did know what good apple
was, and / knew where they used to
grow, and, moreover, if he would bring
me one now, my entire bank account,
with all the Entertainments, protests and
overdrafts thereunto appertaining,
should be his. The only good apples
in the world, lineal descendants Of the
golden stock of Hesperides, used to
grow, twenty-five or thirty years ago,
on an old farm, three or four miles oat
of Peoria, ILL.,, on the Mount Holly
Road. told the boy they were not al
ways a fair apple to look upon in their
early youth, when l loved them best.
They were hard on one side and green
on the''other. They were gnarly all the
way round and sour all the way through.
There was more heartache and sorrow
and deep-seated, gnawing remorse and
heartfelt sorrow and honest penitence
in one of those apples, after you had
eaten peck of them in the same after
noon, than there is now in a whole
green watermelon.
Nevertheless, used to go into that
orchard at eight a. M, eat apples till
1880 and then feel hungry for big
dinner.
And told the boy if he would bring
me one of those apples now, with the
same old taste and flavor that it had
quarter of century gone by, with the
same old smell of the clover and apple
blossom lingering about it; the same
old idle breezes that kissed my boyish
cheeks in the long, delightful, truant
summer afternoons; with the whistle of
bob-white over in the stubble field be-
You'd the COW pasture; with the MUIR
muir of the brook that went singing
over the white pebbles at the foot of the
orchard hill; with the music of the bees
humming and buzzing about in the
sweet red clover tops; bring them to
me even with the old well-remembered
and peculiarly pungent flavor Of the
buggy whip which frequently seasoned
those apples-because no boy could al
ways get over the fence in time-I told
him l would gladly, gladly, gladly give
him fifty dollars for just one apple.
n.,kf he 10 xs<l~
nameless fear, and backed off down the
aisle of the car, and touched the con-
ductor on the elbow and said:
"Bill! Say, Bill! Who has charge
of the lunatic on the wood-boxp'
''Ah, dearly beloved, there is no
lunacy about it. We know now, and
some day the boy will know, that APP
pies are not SO good to-day as they were
twenty-five years ago. Nothing is SO
good to us, in fact. The apples are
tough and flavorless; the grass is wiry
and thin where it used to be living vel
vet under our feet; the days are not SO
long; the nights have grown colder;
the stars shine less brightly and there
are not so many of them, l counted
them the other night and there are half
dozen missing; the COWS don't come
home so early; the dogs are crosser;
Christmas doesn't come so close apart
as it used to- Everything changes ex-
cept the circus. So runs the world
away. But it doesn't run away with
coachD.an, thank the gods. Which
only goes to prove that the world is
ouch prouder and better than the pco-
pie who live in it. Robert J. Burdette,
in Brooklyn Eagle.
Well Posted.
Mrs. Slimdiet-ssYo seem to know