The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1885-06-27
TIM Stills.

-
gerous Way.
His real, full name was Timothy
Dwight Thompson. but we called him
Tim for short and Stills for high. Tim
was not the smartest boy in the school,
nor was he the best-looking. But he
was constitutionally ''stuck-up." He
wanted to be above the rest of us in
some way. and as he could not get to
the head of his classes because he was
lazy, or become popular among the
girls, because he was awkward and con-
ceited, he determined to try stilts He
began with pair that lifted him only a
few inches from the ground, and he
soon learned to run and Jump on them,
smaller children. 1t is surprising what
a boy can do with pair of stills, If he
gives all his time and all the brains he
has to them. The question, however,
for the boy is not: How much can do
with stills? but how much of my life
and my intellect will il pay me to invest
in stiltingp That is question, by the
way, that it would be well for some
Young men to ask in regard to base
ball, bicycles and sundry other things
which are popular without being either
useful or ornamental.
Tim, as have said, was ambitious.
He was determined to get up in the
world. Proud of his success with his
first pair of stills, he soon made high
er pair and then another higher STILL
A q k<, thof hn
appear next day on a fourth edition
that would lift his two feet three feet
from the ground. We were all early at
the schoolhouse to see Tim and his new
stills. Presently he came in sight, his
carroty hair waving like banner while
he ran with his extra wooden legs-a
small boy over seven feet high! He APP
preached the bank on which the school
house stood in gallant style. But in
trying to run up the bank one of his
stills struck stone and he fell. He vas
going so fast that he fell very hard He
lay stunned and helpless among the
stones We lifted him up and carried
him home. The doctor was sent for
and found broken bone. Tim was
laid up for months and came out at last
a cripple. He was never able to mount
his stills again, but had to go on
crutches the rest of his life.
have not seen Tom Stills for more
than forty years, but l am often remind
ed of him when l see men and women
or boys and girls who are impatient to
get up in the world, but don't care how
they acquire reputation or money. l
think of the stills and the fall and the
crutches, and wish that could give them
word of warning.
You all read in the newspapers last
year about Fred Ward, in New York.
He was like my old schoolmate Tim
He was not smarter than many other
young men, nor more ambitious. But
he was more INSCRIPTIONS. He got
two sons of great General, one under
each arm, and with this pair of stills he
we went into Wall street and strutted
about as if he was head and shoulders
above all the old financiers. He bor-
rowed money here and there in the
name of Ward, Grant & Co. But he
soon found that pride goeth before
destruction, and naughty spirit before
fall" His stills struck stone and he
fell f8
The scholar who gets keys and copies
out from them the working of his sums
in arithmetic, who uses translations
1--WE used to call them "ponies in
stead of grammar and dictionary in
preparing his Latin lessons, or who
copies composions out of some old
book that he thinks the teacher is not
familiar with, may pass examinations,
and get credit marks, and even gradu-
ate with honor. But he starts out on
stills, and the road we all have to tread
through life is up hill and full of
stones. Soon the stiltified scholar will
get a sad fall, and nobody will p ty him.
Belle Bronson was 1.-THE belle" of my
native town. She was called the most
beautiful aud talented girl in all that
region. She always had crowd of ad-
mirers around her. i lived next
door, and being much younger and in
innate with Bellies little brothers,
found out just how she did it She was
naturally sallow, angular girl. But
| she was an artist. She could fix her.
self up, as the boys expressed it, ''to
fits" She used paints, cosmetics and
cotton extravagantly, but she knew just
how to use them. And then, having a
good memory, she would learn by heart
choice bits of poetry and witty repartees.
And so she went into society prepared
to shine. And she did; but it was all
borrowed light. She had no beauty and
she had no wit, but she acquired mar
| velous reputation for both. Pool
Belle, if she had been satisfied when
John Jones, M. c., asked her to marry
him she might have done we'll But she
was determined to do better. She
went to Washington, saying that she
was going to fascinate Martin Var
Buren,, then President and widower
Nothing less than beng mistress
of the White House would sat
isfy her ambition. Her paint and
her poetry failed to catch the sage
of Undertook. She came home disap.
pointed. Her former admirers gradu-
ally deserted her, and when / saw hel
last she was living in little mountain
/ will -, 4