Springfield globe-republic. (Springfield, Ohio) 1884-1887, 1885-12-11
THE BUSY LITTLE BOYS.


n fFeuy WIN
Attached.
The bows had lots of fun at my house.
Halloween. You see the iron gate
through which William H. Vanderbilt
and Canon Farrar and Bill Nye and
Joseph Cook and Eugene Field and DR..
Newman and others of my friends
drive when they come TO see me has
been shut for some three months, SO
that the boys had to leave their ear
riages outside and climb over. The
gate had sagged somehow and got
jammed and rusted fast one way and
another until We couldn't get il open AT
all | sent for my neighhor, the black
smith. and he sent a man over, and the
man worked and filed. hammered and
twisted for an hour and couldn,t t move
it. He gave it up and went away. and
the master-smith, a man who can shoe
an earthquake. came over and he
couldn't shake it. Then | tried a dyna-
mite cartridge. paid for eight dollars
worth of glass in the ncighborhood,
and set the gate tighter than ever. ;"
| just put placard, Paint on the
gate and when Russell Sage aud Dick
Munkittrick and George W. Curtis and
the rest of the boys came around they
had to come in through the wood-Shcd
Well. last Halloween the village boys
were out in force. They were having
good times all around the neighbor
hood. but didn't dream Of their dis
turbing me. But about eleven p. m.
heard them at the gate. They went at
it first in an oil hand boyish lift-her-
right-off-t hinges sort OF way Then
two or three more of them took hold;
then they grunted and lifted.
Then the whole crowd gathered
hold of her. l never saw SO many
boys work so hard in my life. Some
of them cried, so unusual WAS the eNcr-
ton. They painted and tugged and
strained and shouted in hushed whiS-
pers, and fused with the catch, and
pulled at the hinges, and twisted and
grunted and paused for breath and con-
sultation. Once or twice they displayed
signs of WEAKNESS, but by showing a
light at window | lent the Zest of Il
little danger To the affair, aud A. soon
as the light disappeared they went at ii
again. About three o'clock in the
morning, however, they lifted her.
Sure as fate they got the old gate clear
off its hinges. They were too tired 10
carry it away, so they laid it down in
the street. and laughed and rejoiced in
boyi>h style with what little breath they
had left They were too utterly worn
out to have any more fun that night, so
they went wearilv and triumphantlv
home. saying they'd like to See any
man in America fix gate So a,t they
couldn't lift il of. Next day told my
astonished neighbOr. the master of the
forge. to straightcn up thr gatc and
hang it again. Then | told my land
lord that il took fourteen bows four
hours To get tina, miserable gate of; fiji
ty-siX hours Al fifteen cents an hour
eight dollars and forty cents. which |
had allowed on my rent; this paid me
for the glass | broke with the dynamite
and left me forty cents TO blow in. |
was going To give il To the boys. but |
reflected that they had all the fun they
wanted getting the gate OF 80 spent
the forty cents for myself. Moral: Ii
You have a piece of work you cant get
done just give party of boys IN idea
that you don want them to do it
Burdettc. en- Brooklyn Eaylt.