Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1886-12-01
20 E r r. Y
GOING THROUGH THE PAPER.


And 1 cannot do without it, because it's
printed at home.
know tits not large as some they print in
cities great.
The telegraph don't fash to it the news from
DER the State;
It give chrome premiums, it is never
sought nor sold.
Yet that there paper, Joshua, is worth its
weight in gold:
It never gets minutes rest cntil 1t has been
read,
1t tells us who is married, it tells us who is
dead,
And who has moved away of late, and who
has come to town,
It whistles when the markets up, and grum-
bles when it's down.
What's that about Job summerbell and
Hezekiah Spears?
A lawsuit? Why they've been at law for
nigh on forty years!
Their children grew up quarrelin'. which
made the lawyers smile,
For well they knew that in the end they'd get
the biggest pile.
"why. Aaron Potts is married :" What
Aaron, did you say?
1t must mean Henry or Thomas. for Aaron
went away,
The year we sold the heIfer-calf to jeremiah
Black,
And took the note he never paid. So Aaron
did come back!
Who did he find to have him? Read on and
let me know,
He was always rather shiftless, and, once or
twice. my beau;
What! does the paper really say he married
Hester Mast!
She waited thirty years and more. and took
to Potts at last!
Any more weddin's OF folks we know? Look
the list over clean.
Aaron and Hester nobody elsee What do the
people mean?
I'll bet the editor smiled when he called
Hester blushing bride;
Now look a little lower down and tell me who
have died.
"Dled: At his home last Saturday, the Rev.
erend Jason Blee,
Aged eighty-one-" There! Joshua, stop;
he married you and me;
A holy man and true he was, I drop for him a
tear;
II we had half his lovin' grace we'd read our
titles clear.
Who else is dead9 Job Harrison Some peo-
pie die too slow;
For all the good, he did. he might have left
earth long ago:
Tho rich he never gave a cent to needy
charity,
But hell try to enter Heaven meath the wing
OF Jason Blee.
was bridesmaid at his wedding, you recol-
lect the day;
The church was crowded, and the girls all
envied Alice Gray.
Ere long she slept broken heart beneath the
church-yard mold,
For the love he promised her he gave unto his
fathers gold.
What breach o. promise suit was that Ho
no! Alicia Brown,
With Henry May defendant! There is gossip
for the town!
1t is the fashion nowadays to go to law iol
love-
We didn't have to, Joshua. for our match was
made above
spellin' bee at Hatcher's Run All! thai
recalls old times,
When oft we wrestled with hard words pro.
nounced by Master Grimes;
What grand old spellin' bees we had 4! what
long rides thro' the snow
% To meet and fight over webster" that was
forty years ago.
Our foe was Clear Spring District and 1t was
giant, too;
1t used to be their boast that they could spell
the whole book thro';
How proud 1 was that Winter night when
you, in suit of brown,
Stood up before crowded house and spelled
the boosters down.
A big donation party. did you say. for Rever-
end George?
He came there since we lett, and is new man
at the forgs;
1 wonder ON which gospel rock his church o
Zion is built?
And does it say the sisters gave his wife 6
crazy quilt?
I suppose it serves it purpose. but It's WASH
our way;
The crazy quilts notion and an idea of to
day;
We had donation parties then. and, Joshua
you know
The crazy quilt had no part in them forty
years ago.
We'd meet along bout butcherin' time ant
talk the matter DER
Sometimes there be 81 dozen, sometimes bu
three or four;
But numbers made no difference, that meetin
was complete.
And the parson and his household always go1
their winter meat.
All, me! what changes time has mads Thai
paper marks them all
How many friends have passed away since
that remembered Fall
When you, clad in your home-spun suit, and
I, In rustic gown.
Looked lingerin' back from mountain top up.
on the olden town.
Wen never see the spot again; Thousand
miles must lie
Between 1t and our welded graves beneath the
Western sky;
And as cont ented we have lived, with neither
show nor fuss.
Perhaps the editor will speak kindly word
for us.
I've half mind to send our son back to the
dear old place
Perhaps they'd like to see in him his fathers
form and face;
He's manly, fair and honest, like his father
Joshua Blake,
And there are some l know who'd kiss the
boy for mothers sake
You may fold the paper. Joshua; II has told us
all the news;
W er6 10 choose from all 1r1eQQE, II Is Inc one
I'd choose;
1t seems to me that while 1t comes never will
grow old,
Andthat there paper. Joshua, is worth itf
weight in goldl
n. G Harbaugh in New York Clipper, Cass-
toton, o.
A QoEER MARRIAGE CEREMONY.-We
don't know where the fredericksburg Free
Lance got the following, but it is good
enough to be reproduced In the northwest
ern part of our county, there lives a we'll
known Irish magistrate. man of liberal
education and full quota of genuine Irish
wit A short time ago Jim aud Bet, a
colored pair, called upon the squire to be
united ''for better or for worse" The
ennirp having hnan rotifiad of thair coming