Idaho semi-weekly world. [volume] (Idaho City, Idaho Territory) 1875-1908, 1891-02-13
=. / Ir..cTuRe ON a spooN.


~ romprenend word OF IL.
n, romernber," said the reconteur Of
aarty ga dispensation Of what might
tno Tiled Spartan justice. 1t happened
!" o was boy and made lasting
w WI as incidents Of the kind do
n a youthful mind.
" nOnr folks at home had some old sill
80. snoons that had been in constant
se- ,ice for generations, and were small
so Thin. and carried in their shallow
s Az the marks Of every tooth in the
son;Iy Each spoon had o history and
On association, as spoons did have in
ahose DAYS and they We're looked after
~.;th the greatest care. My mother
,,,aced them under her pillow every
pp;gbt and the whole family would be
.a9,,larly awakened by midnight clat-
.or Of rafting spoons, rs they had a rest
ioso habit of falling out of bed, so their
ralue was enhanced by the many sleep
less NIGHTS they cost.
"Well. one of those precious spoons
was missing, and there was great to do
over it. The servants were all ques-
tioned but no one had seen the missing
snoon. That night a colored girl, who
bod been taken in some months before
NV nv mother, and who was bright and
ra+her precocious character, told of see
inc a new hired man on the premises
hiding something in his jacket She even
essayed to find the jacket, and, sure
enough, between tar lining and the out
side was found the lost spoon.
my mother was SO happy in recover
;na her property that she wanted the
man to 20 scot free. Not SO my father,
who was a solemn church goer. L will
give him lecture ON the sin of stealing,'
he said, and keep him, as he is useful
man am very sure he will never steal
from lis again.
81 accompanied my father to the
kitchen, where the man was ralling
ashes over the Goals of hot fire and pre-
naring to 90 to bed. He sat submissively
still as my father appeared, carrying a
large Bible, and he listened to the lect-
IRE that was delivered with an unmoyed
countenance. | slept and awakened sew
eral times before it was finished Ny
fathers solemn, mOnotonous voice az
fected Inc like Il soporific and | did not
try to fathom the language lie used.
THE culprit was German and |
have since learned that he did not under
stand one ;-o.l my father said to him.
nor even The nature of the accusation
against him. | thought then, as | lis
tened to my fathers bass tones in that
grim monologue, that the punishment
was adequate to the sin. | had been
rectured myself, and would have con
fessed to almost anything to have es-
capped the consequences.
"The lecture was supplemented by
prayer in which my fater i1nplored
divine forgiveness for the offender The
German took it all in good part and re-
NAMED in his situation, but was no
doubt carefully watched. Some years
after the colored girl acknowledged that
she had put the spoon in his jacket in
order to get rid of him and crafty her
love of mischief. AS he never alluded
to it in any way we could not tell what
he thought of the services ofthatn night. or
how much of the long moral lecture had
been conprehended. But ! am certain
he never understood the criminal nature
Ct the occasion. Detroit Free Press.
Longevity and Country Life.
How great the difference is between
an urban and q rural population in the
average age of all who die may be con
veniently illustrated from the registra-
ton reports of Massachusetts, which
have been published for forty-seven
years In the thirty years from 1850
to 1880 the average age of all the per
sons who died in Suffolk county, an
urban county on the seaboard, was
% - years; the average age of all per-
sons who died in Barnstable, a rural
county on the same seaboard, was 81;
in Franklin, an inland rural county,
80 -; while the average age of all the
persons who died in the island county
Of Nantucket during the thirty years
was very nearly double the average
age at death in SufTolk-namely, 46.15
The same reports show that the an
nual death rate is uniformly higher in
the denSeiy populated counties than III
the sparsely populated ones. Other
causes besides density of population
contribute to produce these striking re-
suits; but the main fact remains that a
family which lives in the country has a
better chance of continuance than one
that lives in the city. Moreover, if the
family history of the actual leaders, for
the time being, in business and the
professions in any American city, be
studied, it will usually be found that a
very large proportion of them were
country bred The country breeding
gives a vigor and an endurance which
in the long run outweigh all city ad-
vantages, and enable the we'll endowed
country boys to outstrip all their com
petitors. President G. w. Eliot in
Forum.
Unselfsh.