Lawrence democrat. (Lawrenceburg, Tenn.) 1884-1925, 1890-04-25
RUsklN's BoYHoop.


He Had to Seek His Own AmusemeDts,
and Hc Found Them.
AS one reads Prmterita IL seems as II
John Ruskin wrote his history not with
ink, but painted IL down with light and
color; he brings the very atmosphere OF
his life and its phases before us with
such an instantaneous mastery as few
besides have ever reached--the life
within and the sight without, the sweet
eternal horizons (even though they be
but Norwood hills and ridges), the ]iv-
ing and delightful figures in the fore.
ground
Its author has chosen to christen the
story Preterita, but was ever book
less belonging to the past and more en-
tirely present to our mood than this one?
Not Goethes own biography, not even
Carlyle's passionate "reminiscences, come
up to it in vividness. There are so few
words, such limpid images are brought
flashing before us that one al
most asks: SIS it book or is
1t something out of our own secret
consciousness that we remember as we
read?" Are we not actually living in its
pages, in the. dawning light of that
austere yet glorious childhoodP Half a
century rolls back, and we see the baby
up above at the drawing windows,
standing absorbed, watching the water
carts, and that wondrous turn-cock,
''who turns and turns till fountain
springs up in the middle of the street."
and as we still watch the child, gazing
out with his gray, deep-set eyes, the
brown brick walls somehow become
transparent, as they did for Ebenezer
Scrooge, and we are in the same mys-
ferrous fashion absorbed into the quiet
home and silent life. We get to know
the inmates with some immaterial
friendship and intimacy. The father,
shat entirely honest man" of rare
gifts and refinement going and coming
to his wine-merchant's Office in Bill.
Letter street; the mother, combining
the spirit of Martha and of Mary, I'M
flinching, orderly, living for her hus.
band and her son, not rejecting the bet
ter part, but forcing every member Of
her household to conform to her views
of both worlds, and binding down their
lives by some emphatic and restraining
power. But how soon the child born to
such liberty of thought, to such absolute
obedience of will, learns to escape
from his bonds, to create his own life
and world! His very playthings (all
others being denied to him) he makes
for himself out of the elements, the air
above, the waters beneath, the craters
of the coal-heavers as they empty the
sacks at the door. "My mothers gen
eral principles of the first treatment
; we're to guard me with steady watchful-
ness from all avoidable pain or danger
and for the rest to let me amuse myself
but the law was should find my own
amusement. No toys of any kind
T were at first allowed, and the
pity of my Croydon aunt for the monas
tic poverty in this respect was bound
, less. On one of my birthdays, thinking
. to overcome my mothers resolution b.
, splendor of temptation, she bought thu
most radiant Punch and Judy she coul(
, find in all the Soho Bazaar, as big as |
real Punch and Judy, all dressed IL
: scarlet and gold, and that would dance
, y My mother was obliged to accep
them, but afterward quietly told me i
, was not right should have them, and
l never saw them again"
This Croydon aunt must have been
. good and loving aunt to little John
whenever my father was ILL.," he say
-"and hard work and sorrow had al
ready set their mark on him-we al
@ went to Croydon to be petted by m
homely aunt, and walk on Duppas Hill
= and on the heather of Addington.
8 He dwells with affectionate re
membrance upon the house and 1t
, gables and early destinations for him
l "My chosen domain being the shop, tn
s back room, and the stones round tn
\ spring Of crystal water at the back doc
l (long since let down into the moder
v sewer), and my chief companion m
r aunt's dog Towser, whom she had take
!. pity on when he was snappish starve
8 vagrant, and made brave and affet
Z tiona.e dog of, which was the kind c
: thing She Cd Cd for every living crest0r
: that came in her way all her Int eng;
E Mrs Ruskin, with all her passionat
l devotion to her son, seems to have ha
no idea whatever of making little chill
happy. The baby's education was tel
t ribly consistent he was steadil
tsrhi MI hn IA ncA
r when he tumbled downstairs. 1--WE SCI
, dom had company even on week days
r and was never allowed to come dow
< to dessert until much later in life, whe
t l was able to crack other peoples nut
l for them, but never to have any myself
a nor any thing else of dainty kind One
4 at Hunter street l recollect my mothe
i giving me three raisins in the forenoo
Q out of the store cabinet" But not a.
Q the rules and rails and restrictions {
o Hunter street and Brunswick Squar
Q could prevent the child from finding OF
:. for himself that brick walls do not
Q prison make, nor iron bars cage. II
i stands in the light of the window, in HI
1t silent, thoughtful fashion, creating h
l. own existence for himself, and just q
@ the turn-cock turned and turned until
o fountain sprang from the pavement, 6
even in baby-life does Ruskin lay h
master-hand upon the stones. and Il
the stream of life begins to flow.
!; later days he smites the rock, and bic
: the children drink living waters frol
:, the spring of life eternal, sometime
. also to be mingled with those waters I
!, strife called "Meribah. Anne Thacl
:. cray Richie, in Harper's Magazine.
It Indiana's Great Hickories.
:, Not many Eastern people, unless the
l. are acquainted with the forests of tf
l. Mississinni valley. and more especial