Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1885-04-09
The DAYS GONE BY.

lnE DAto 0ON6 Ole
"Reminiscences OF Youth Revived BY the
Annie which Robert Purchased From h
main Boy.
Bzrdsre ia Brekta Esgk.
thought the apple Of the train boy. Not
because ] wanted il; oh, mol / did 1t to
save human hfe-my owr human hfe. l
did il TO sppease the train boy, who had
turned himself loose on me at Council
Bluffs, and was going to make me buy some
thing before We got TO St JosePn-pro-
nounced Sipjo; accent heavy on the Jo-or
hex me. BE wanted me to buy all Of Pro
lessor Matthews books except the Gospel,
and nine of Z. P. Roe's novels, and Tsylors
"World on Wheels" and Between the
Gates" and seven or eight OF Pinker-
utn'sfearful and wonderful detective stories,
and q whole library of French novels with
very Aashy titles and disappointingiY tame
reading, and some California pears and 81
berian oranges and some Alaska hgs aud
Senspambisn grapes and some candy pack
ages and q beautiful prize and a $40 bill In
every package except the a which ne sold
me, and some ivory ornaments made OF
iyory that grows on trees, and some fresh
roasted peanuts which he assured me were
George Washiugton's iayorite fruit, that
would purify the blood, make the hair curl,
ubi,en the teeth, make the complexion
clear and promote longevity, and some Eng
lish walnut meats, vintage OF 1883, q rail-
read guide Of last July and some apples
reflected. | did not think | ought to
buy all these things, because / have a lam
ily TO support, and an not so wealthy as
am said to be By the soliciting committees
of pCverty stricken churches and tottering
colleges. But 1 felt, as perhaps you have
felt a thousand times, dear nearer, that
had 10 buy Sc something Of that boy, or lie
down on the floor Of the car aud die.
So bought APPLES. / selected apples De
cause they are palats5le, nutritious aud
cheap. / asked HIM how be sold his apples.
With exceeding scorn he said: "FSotor-
rasent" (which by Interpretation IS, Two
for a cent?. / think he said two for a cent.
| knew | had Just missed a lecture engage
ment by railrOsding into q snow DRIFT the
night before, and consequently had Just
enough money left to buy one, IN q JOB
lot. ,r,
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 il; be might want to kill the dog with
j, some day. The boy, with the native In
dependence of his class, said | didn't know
a good apple when | got one. He opined;
indeed, and very opinely, too, IN a loud
tone Of expression, for the benefit OF the
whole car. that when | had any orchard
fruit at home l RECALLED myself
like a prince on dried apples.
l did not smite the boy nor upbraid him
with hard and singing words. More, In
deed, in sorrow than in anger old him l
did know what q good apple was, and |
knew where they used to grow, and, more
over, il he would bring me one now, my en-
tire bank account, with all the heredita-
ments, protests and oyerdrafts the thereunto
sppertaining, 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., OF an
old farm three or four miles out OF Peoria,
Ill, on the Mount Holly road. l told the
bow they we're not always a fair apple 10
look upon in their early youth, when l loved
them best. They were hard on one side
and green on the other. They were gusriy
all the way round and sour all the way
through. There was more heartsehe and
deep-sested, gnswing remorse and heart
felt sorrow and honest penitence IN one OF
those apples, after you had eaten a peck Of
them in the same afternoon, than there IS
now in a whole green watermelon.
Nevertheless, | used to 60 into that or.
chsra at 8 8. m, eat apples TIL ll:3O, and
then feel hungry for a big dinner.
And | told the boy if he would bring me
one ofthose apples now, with the same old
taste and favor that it had a quarter Of a
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, de-
lightful, truant summer afternoons; with
She whistle Of bob white over in the stub
bic field beyond the COW pasture; with the
murmur 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,
aforementioned and peculiarly pungent
flavor Of the buggy whip which frequently
seasoned those apples-hecsuse no boy could
always get over the fence in time-I told
him / would gladly, gladly, gladly him $50
for Just one apple.
But the boy looked at me with a nameless
fear, and backed down the aisle Of the car,
and touched the conductor on the elbow and
said:
BILL Say, Bill! Who has charge ofthe
lunstiown the wood box?'
All, dearly beloved, there is no lunacy
about it. We know now, and some day the
boy will know, that apples are not so good
today as they were twenty Ave years ago.
Nothing is so good to US, in fact. The sp.
pies are tough and havorless; the grass is
wiry and thin where it used to be living
velvet under our feet; the days are not long;
! the nights have grown colder; the stars
shine less brightly, and there are not so
many OF them; | counted them the other
night. and there are half a dozen missing;
the cows don't come home so early; the dogs
are crosser; Christmas doesn't come so
close apart as ii used to. Everything
changes except the circus. So runs the
world away. But it doesn't run away with
| q coachman thank the GODS. Which ouly