Springfield globe-republic. (Springfield, Ohio) 1884-1887, 1885-04-19

OF retailing old Captain Johnny's jokes.
One, remember, quite illustrative of bis SOL
emn style, for tie old fellow never laughed.
He was quite struck with the intelligence e1-
hibited by bob-tsiled pointer dog, owned
by an officer. And the old Captain turn
| ing 1t over in his aboriginal mind, came to
the conclusion that the dogs sagacity, so su-
perior to the "Cspten's' own hounds, came
| Of the fact that his tail had been amputated.
Tails, he thought, weakened the intellect.
"Man got no tail-man see good-see afore,
see hind, all good, when no drunk"
| Having arrived at this sage conclusion,
the next step was to try his theory on
one of his own hounds. By shortening
the tail, he thought to strengthen the
canine intellect. To this end he re-
quested a woodman engaged in hewing
piece Of timber, to hold across the log the
tail of his hound while he cut of the append
age with broad-ax. As the heavy Ak came
over with sweep, the woodman, either
ALARMED or pretending to be, gave the poor
dog jerk, and Captain Johnny cut the poor
animal in two Dropping the az, he ex-
claimed solemnly:
"Hip-by dam-too short a mostl" and
went in pursuit of another.
To return from the dead and almost forgot
ten Indians TO the buried whites, st. Eliza
beth, of the Mac-o-chee, is q rude Catholic
burying ground. holding the remains Of,
mostly, poor folk-so poor that, were they
not Catholics, there would be few reminders
in the way of monuments, to keep the dead
in memory. Two or three more pretentious
structures tell of wealth or well-to-do tami-
lies, but the majority are of those IN the
humblest walks of life.
The place is exceedingly beautiful in its
. surroundings. Situated on one of the low,
softly rounded and richly wooded hills that
frame in the Mad River Valley, far of to the
west and south the eye takes in the wide
stretch Of fertile plains, with streams willow
fringed, and farm houses hall hid in orchards,
until, on the dim horizon, earth seems to
melt into heaven. "a blue country" as Rus
kin calls such, and as beautiful specimen as
e l ever had the happiness to look upon. OF
, to the right one catches the CLEAN Of the vii
lsge spires that rise above the beautiful maple
shaded place, and find myself weaving the
}. sounds in to the music of words:
And now. as in that far-off time,
The village sounds are dear:
The cry of children and the chime
Of tells break on the ear.
IL Ny playmstes, then, are bearded men,
The men tread old, and SLOW,
- Or sleep within Gods silent glen
Where broods the long ago.
These, with the clip, clip of the workmen
building in the warm spring sunlight q house
for me and mine when we shall have passed
: away and left nothing but this vault and
: monument to hold our name in memory,
:. make the voices of solitude.
How we cling to this hope of q memory l
wander, book in hand, among these graves,
and note the humble records in humble lines
/, BIrn 50 and so-died 50 and so, and then
o sentence from the Bible. That is ALL Brief
, story of q busy liie-a life full of hope and
+ fears, triumphs and disappointments. What
comedies, what tragedies, with the whole
Il world for a stage, have been enacted, for when
+ a man is born the world begins, and when the
= man die the world ends; and how important
1. it all is--for each, in his own esti-
, nation, is center, a hub as it
were. He cannot realize that when,
Is upon some very unpleasant proposition, as
y sisted by a doctor, and wept over by three or
ID four, he drops out of this life. bis exit will
~ scarcely be noticed, and all his affairs, to
!. which he was 30 necessary, will 20 on as if
~ he had never existed.
The last grand struggle for a memo.y is
l. made in the cemetery. He, though dead, as
% serts himself above hi, grave. Here are the
immortal stones. with names cut deep into
them. Some are leaning over, moss covered
and gray, as il in extreme old age-and 9TH
~ ers are down, as if fairly exhausted with
1. holding up the legend OF q name-and al
=, scarcely legible. SACRED to the memory Of
" -poor man, in all this wide world there ID
% not one Who remembers, or dimly remem-
bering, cares for the departed, whose very
bones are dust.
Gray tells OF the mute, inglorious Millions
lost in bis country church-yard. 10 the Mil
10 ton who was not mute, or Shakespeare, OF
y Cesar, Or any of the worlds great, any more
fortunate in that respect than these humble
I'd toilers? think not Let rs see
I'd In counting the past We fix in our minds q
A. period at which to begin-we st IT at the
creation. Looking forward, we help our
selves to another date known as the day ol
judgment, when the world shall end. We
te ignore the awful truth, that before our date
to OF beginning, back through the countless
D. millions of ages, lies eternity, and before Us
a, through the same countless ages, going on, and
on, and on forever, is the future. Here We are
then, unseen NOTES in the now, taking to
OF ourselves an Immortality Cf fame. Already,
liz the blind Homer is fading in the dim dis.
re- tarce, and the blind Milton diminishes with
~, passing years. Shakespeare will follow all
glttering insects that fash for an instant in
'n the sunlight, and then disappear forever.
ry What are crumbling monuments in the
a light of eternity? They seem solid and slow
II, OF decay to us, precisely as this atom Of ,
~ world in the boundles space that stretches on
and on without limit, with its countless
o' worlds seem to us a huge affair. 1t is NOT
ee even as q grain of sand upon the shore.
he 1t is well for us that we are not all BIB
Ingersolls and know too much, or rather
:. think We know it ALL We ate Of the tree oi
knowledge, but neglected to steal from the
% tree Of life. We lack the strength, then, u
IS, entertain our information. When . mar
er crawls up beyond traditionary teachings to
nc the edge of the world, and stares out upon
blank, cold, unending space he is stricken
" with blindness or insanity. Que cannot
r. think truly of God and retain his reason, q
of be cannot see God and live, as the Bible tells
- US. Therefore is it that We take refuge in
: Christ; the sweet, loving, humble savior, and
through his mercy enjoy our homes and &C.
cept our graves.
r. Sitting among these poor graves, with q
" cross over each, erected by loving hands;
in and covered by grass and ground ivy,
wat.red by tears from broken hearti