The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1892-04-14

oono nSn are very much to be
pitied," said the genial old GENTLE
man, with sympathy shining in his
Kindly eyes. "But, dear me! Among
all OF them don't know any man
who needs quite SO much pity as the
man who never was kid. One can
get over most of the evils that come
In life, or outgrow them, but no one
ever can get over not having had a
Jolly, registering, happy time oft dur
ing the nrst few years of his life. It
Always seemed to me that the world
owed everybody that much, and that
everybody who had missed it. in any
unfortunate way, was clearly. defraud-
ed. But so many miss it, you see;
ana nothing in all the after wears
makes up to them for what they have
lost.n
#.*
The old gentleman passed on, but
the remarks set me thinking over the
many men and women knew who
evidently never were "kids.n They
are OF various ages and of widely diff
ferent circumstances, but they have all
missed something out of life which was
their legal heritage, and there are Gu
rious, pathetic lines about their faces
which tell the story. Thoselines were
started there when they were little,
OLD, premature men and women.
spending LIES playtime in work for
daily bread, or too harshly disciplined
to know that there was such a thing
as good, wholesome fun in the world.
Nv
LII is wonderful thing that man
VINO has come up from such barren,
unattractive childhood should ever
forget it's horrors sufficiently to make
him visit them on other children; but
for your regular child-driver, who is
absolutely devoid of mercy or consid-
GRAFTON, commend me to the man who
was driven himself when he was q
child. Woe to the unlucky youngster
whom an untoward fate has given
over to his control. He will have no
lofty swings under his trees, and no
crowd of barefoot, tow-headed bows
around 1T, "Waitin' fur the cat to die.n
He will have no time fooled away with
nshlng tackle or shotgun; no tramp
ing about over the hills or through
the silent woods, because there
Is always work to do. He is
utterly without sympathy with
chiidhood's thoughts and fancies; with
its little unreal love dreams, with its
11uttering hopes or vague ambitions.
He has never been child himself,
you see, and he must needs grind the
childhood out of somebody else; and
that one will doubtless grow up and
transmit the blessing to some one else
in turn; so the man who 'snever was q
k1d' is in no danger of becoming obso-
lete.
*x*
This is only one of the types, how
ever. Thank Heaven, there is anoth-
er. "My own childhood was pretty
prim affair."" 1 heard gentleman say
a few days ago, "but my own boys
and girls shall have good time, if 1
live l believe that people who smoth-
or all the childhood out of child are
just as guilty as. though they had
committed murder. There's no kind
OF Innocent fun don't want my little
chaps to have. Wife reproves me,
sometimes, for buying new game
and toy that comes along, but / tell
her that if she could just have known
what | was going through at their
age she wouldn't SAY word. III de-
clare, when l get to thinking over the
poor little chap was, get perfectly
heartsore about myself, and would
give my right arm, nearly, to go back
and live it over and have a good time.
But never mind! The boys and girls
around me shall have something to
look back to that will do them good
all their lives.u
***
Thank heaven for the people whom
not even distorted childhood can
sour; who can still turn about, after
having lost the best part of life them
selves, and give tender care and low
ing thought to sending other lives out
on fairer and more prosperous voy
age. Their kindly eyes follow the
games; the listen to the ringing
laughter and follow the flying foot
steps, and their thoughts go back
with pathetic longing to the long
gone days when they were set about
doing the worlds work instead of
helping on with it's merry play time.
wv
Among my many acquaintance,
there is none for whom l have kind
lier fellow-feeling than for Tim Link
inwater. He can tell so pleasantly
about "the mignonette box in the
middle of the window and the 'four
flower pots, two on each side."
"There's not such a spring in Eng
land as the pump under the arch
way" declares Tim. "There's not
such view in England as the view
out of my Window" the view on
which he had looked with fresh de-
light every morning for four and forty
years. Taken altogether, Tins is not
such narrow view. Many traveller
comes home from Switzerland, having
seen less than Tim saw every day in
Ii.