The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1888-04-14
: THE VILLAGE SOLOMON.
a Ate-Like Picture of Highly Useful
Individual,

obA oOttu.
re Is generally man who has just
apput enough to live on without work
ing, so that his leisure may be spent in
gatherlng all sorts of odds and ends of
iillormation, and, in short, imbuing
himself with the town. Not imbuing
himself with the spirit of the town, but
lmouing himself with the town itself
tne trees, the sidewalks, the pump and
the malaria.
he Is looked upon as the guardian
spirit OF the place. and ''sad historian
OF The pensive plain" He is buster
dong nothing than is plumber work
ing by the day. He is a cyclopadia of
nothing. His nothingness makes him
the most prominently nothingy man
IN The place. His knowledge extends
only to the limits of the town. Six
feet over the township line, he would
fancy himself lost in wilderness. He
has not been out of the town for thirty
years.
tie thinks that Barnum's Museum is
silica the corner of Ann street and
RdaEstdSay; and that the brown-stone
Stable of A. Hamilton still stands in the
City1all Park, as a rebuke to people
who eme from Brooklyn by some other
ferry than the Hamilton. He still
thlnkshe same park is surrounded by
an lronfence, decorated with a long
line OF hnny songs, and canary birds
in smallTooden cages. and that the
ancient felntain is still there, full of
the old TIM languid lilies that always
looked as hough suffering from tor
pidity OF theliver. He also thinks that
the post-offi,e is down on Nassau
street, full of pie-stands, and that No.
444 Broadwayis still a popular place
of amusement.
Yet, the nothing man is usually re-
garded as a very important parsonage.
He decides questions, and settles
wagers on village topics, and no one
thinks of appealing to a higher author
ity; because there is no higher author
ity. When he renders decision, the
man in whose favor it is given Stocked
upon as a pretty leYel-headed person,
for knowing a thing just as the rural
Solomon knows it. And the man
against whom the decision is given
tells the buckwheat Solomon how he
came to think as he did, that his rea-
sons may be considered sufficiently
sound to save him from the modification
ofteing chatfed and laughed at by the
Others.
He is generally at the post-office an
hou' before the letters are distributed.
He hats with the various people who
conTegate there, and gets the latest
newsthat's of no importance to any
one hut himself s.,
Ih,n he drifts into the barber-shop,
az learns all the news of the week
! if9ee days before the barber gives it to
the editor of the local paper for pub
lication. After leaving the barber's he
drops into the real estate Office and
finds out all about the taxes and tluc-
tuations in land. Then he calls on the
grocer and druggist, and chats with
them on this and that and the other
thing
Putting together the various scraps
he has gathered, he knows all the peo-
pie who don't pay their bills; he knows
man is going away for a change OF
air before the man has quite made up
his mind to do so; he can tell you how
many bricks there are in the school
house, and the aggregation of the dog
taxes for 1873, or any other year, for
that matter.
He can remember perfectly well
when there used to be big sunfish
pond where the Dutch church stands
and tells with great gusto, of the time
when he used to dive off rock located
where the pulpit is built.
OF course he remembers when the
railroad did not run through the place,
as well as he remembers the period
when there was but one store, that sold
every thing from unbleached muslin to
basaltic Goldfish.
The mail at that time, used to BIZ
brought OYER from the nearest railway
station ten miles off. He remembers
the chlorof the calico bag in which the
letters we're brought, and the fact thai
the horse that the messenger rode haC
blazel face and was spawned in botf
hind pgs.
Heknows the salaries of the clergy.
men and whether they get them or not
Heis a chairman at each and every
'sAeh of political or town meeting, ant
onthe subject of local nomination,
theopening of new road, or the drain
ing of a stagnant pond, his advice ant
counsel are ever sought His indorse-
ment of n scheme is q signal to g
ahead. But when he shakes his heac
inSphynx-lke silence as to the ultimate
success of scheme, no matter whether
itbe an electric-light plant, or a sys
TEN of drainage, the taxpayers los
faith in It's feasibility, and refuse tc
countenance it with their gold.
The Village Solomon is, in short, tho
life of the town when he is well enough
to be about; but when he is prostratet
by sickness the town is simply dead-s'
dead that when he is out again he ha
nothing new to learn; because the tow