Springfield globe-republic. (Springfield, Ohio) 1884-1887, 1885-02-23
GRANDFATHER'S WALKING
STICK.

make into pipe-stems and fishing poles,
and never for the purpose OF assisting
| DECENTRALIZATION. Those dainty little
| rods that are made for dudes TO suck
and flourish in the air and twist around
their weak bodies, we're not discovered
then, nor was the dude, either,-but
this is not applicable to the subject.
My grandfather cut this stick in the
wildwoods of great state OF the
| American nation, fifty years ago. |
| remember him as an old man with a
stubble gray beard covering his face,
| who used TO come and visit my father
| and mother and sit by the fire with his
| hat on. This hat was stiff of texture
! and broad of rim, and he also possess
| ed the peculiarly of wearing it while
| eating. His eyes We're weak, he said,
and it kept the light from them. He
never wore SpectacleS. When he took
| his stick from its native soil and with
| his knife shaped it SO handsomely as You
| see-gently tapering from its head to
its foot he was rs young as l row am,
and | am ashamed to say much bet
| ter man.
He could not only with certainty
Kill deer every time he drew a bead
on one with his flint-and-steel rifle and
| pulled the trigger, but he could put the
dead game on his shoulder and carry it
home with as much ease as YOU can
| swing a baseball bat over yours and
swagger off to the old fair grounds.
Baseball, that modern means of put
ting muscle on the respectable portion
of the rising generation, was then hap
PLY pastime unborn.
He would no more have thought of
arraying his person in blue cap,
white undershirt. and red knee breeches
and exhibiting himself to the people of
the neighborhood than he would of 60
ing to church with nothing covering
him but a wool hat and cotton pair
of drawers. When his bone and sinew
needed extra toning up he would take
his Ak and maui and wedge and 90 to
the forest and split a few hundred rails
Besides this exercise, which never fail
ed of its object. he thereby would have
plenty of handy material in the event
of his fences need ng replenishing.
Or, he would rive boards with froe
a slow process, but capable of bring
ing forth energy as well as boards
and spend what he called lazy day in
repairing the roofs of his stable and
corn-crib. These were, however,
amusements of small consequence
When he felt that some serious indis-
position threatened him, his unfailing
resort was to more heroic treatment
one thai brought forth the combined
yipor of both mind and matter. In
such condition he would repair to the
pasture and break couple of calves to
the woke. This was the acme of vio-
lent exercise and he never failed to
come out of it completely cured. The
calves, too, were sure to be completely
cured. They may have kicked him in
the stomach once or twice; run over
his face and left the mark OF hoof on
his forehead, and when his legs be-
came entangled with the rope, dragged
him in seeming triumph across the
field; but all the shouts he made were
shouts of laughter and not of eNecra-
ton, for he knew that he would be vie
tor in the end; and when he would
lead them back as docile as sheep he
ALWAYS said he never had so much fun
in his life.
This stick was cut for purpose. He
did not get it to crack mems heads
with. still if it could speak ] expect it
would relate some tough experiences.
When he left one great state for tract
of land he had purchased in the wilder
ness of an adjoining one, he put his
wife, daughters, and few personal ef-
fects in a wagon. his sons straddled the
horses, and he started out afoot. This
stick is the only horse he rode. The
distance was two hundred mileS-it is
much less now, because railroad has
shortened it. He was in his prime
then; his face shone with health and a
steady resolve to win the battle of life.
The new home at first looked uninvit-
ing enough, and his family wore long
visages when first domiciled there; but
he was always fresh and smiling as a
May morning, when their depressed
spirits soon gave way to contentment
and their new home became a home in
fact-one of lively industry and that
comfort which such labor always
brings.
1t was here l first knew him. He
was fast growing old then, and this
stick was his companion wherever he
went. His surviving children had
grown up and gone their ways into the
world. Those who had given up life
at its threshold were buried in corner
of the garden. Their graves were his
daily care. He kept them clear of
weeds, while grandmother hand
| planted flowers there. In the proper
seasons these brought forth their bios
SONS, and in the winter-time shed
their leaves and petals upon the per-
ennial moss beneath. The house was
| made of logs, and stood on plane
near creek that flowed through a
| gulch one hundred feet below. Two
muNJerry trees stood by the gate, and
when their fruit was ripe, troops of
gray squirrels would enliven the
branches with their chattering as they
| reveled unrestrained in the luxury of
stolen sweets. Althea bushes grew in
the front yard near the door, and when
autumn came with its haze and dreamy
sunshine, and winds that whispered of
| winter behind them, l often sat on the
| gallery and watched the leaves as the
unseen hand of the breeze detached
| them from their stems and dropped
them to the ground.
On the west side of the building a
weeping willow bowed its head in
mourning. and beyond it, near the en-
| trance TO the garden, a vine of tame
| honeysuckle had taken possession of a
| peach tree, and wrapped it from trunk
| to topmost leaf in sweet, amorous folds.
Here my grandfather lived. and tended
his garden, while his hired hel p cult
waited his fields that spread out all
around. Here | frequently came with
my mother from the sitting existence
of town to the breathing life of the
country to find the most wholesome
food, the most bracing air. and earth
| room enough to give me a new route
through farms and dense woods every
morning of the year.
And here l also found good grand