The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1892-12-25

boards az a waste of time without COM
mensurate pleasure.
=! would far rather 60 to the theater."
said he.
Yes" said she. with q toss of the head,
but the most of the boys In my set seem TO
think it is a sin to go TO the theater. Tn ey
never say anything about it"
Il
A Knot of people were telling stories
about Christmas presents q few days ago.
There were those who could remember
when there were few presents, and others
who told Of the growth of the custom to
its present proportions. which means tenn
porary bankruptcy for many the first
month of the year. Finally, one elderly
person, who had a reputation for that sort
of economics known as skinfiint. told of
the first Christmas present he made his
wife, long since dead. fortunate soul. "My
wife" said he. wanted me to get somo-
thin Tor her to be hung on the Christmas
tree at the church. l told her it was non-
sense, but she spoke of it several times, and
| decided to get somethin'. Then We wore
lonR-legged boots that came of DIRE adful
hard. 1t was often a tug TO get one of.
l went to town, and | declare / saw q
patent bOotjack, costing q quarter. {. i final-
ly got one for 20 cents and i had il hung on
the Christmas tree as q present for my
wife," But she had no use fog it," said q
listener. Noe but / had; and then it was
painted red and looked real nice hangin'
on the wall. But the church was full of
iRs s0pls w %snsirel were re sSGlsi and Of they they
sacred place they were ill.," Il
would have broke your head with It.n said
an emphatic miss. IF had been your wife,"
mo you wouldn't" said another. This is
one of the heads that nothing in this worlc
can break, except a stone-crusher." You
may laugh all you warter. but | have that
boot-iack now. and / never use it but what
l think of my departed Amanda. / wear
long-legged boots now"
There is an old story of o man who rosa
up in an assemblage Of his fellow-citizens
and with a missile in his raised hand re-
marked. threateningly. II am going to hit
the fellow who told that whopping lie to-
day." And thereat every man present
ducked his head. This story is suggested
by the consequences following the publica-
ton in the Journal of two weeks ago of a
little incident which had occurred the
previous Sunday In one of the city churches.
1t was, In brief, an account of the
rude treatment received by two
strangers from a pew-holder into
whose seat they had been shown by the
usher. The church where the affair hap
pened was not mentioned, but, as since an.
pears, readers OF the paper promptly
located II. One good brother. In a church
not far from UaiversIty SQUARE. was so sure
that he knew where the blame lay that he
called his pastors attention to the
story. and that gentleman, on last
sunday morning; prefaeed his SER
@ 0asion "f for its u nsInfs 10 co n,s s0p sSs.
turn ed Its innocent ears red. In each of
three other churches in sight of University
square. members have discussed this mat.
ter and have fixed the blame upon q GER
tain an~a -
to hear from In relating the incident the
Journal aimed at but one offender. but its
success In bowling down half o dozen at
once not only proves anew its keenness
less admirable in regard to the manners of
the sanctuary. The Journal will eOntinue
TO keep Its eye on the churches.
+
A gentleman of this city who recently
went on a hunting excursion to Brown
county was astonished at the primitive
character of the country and people. He
saw numbers of men dressed In an outland.
ish garment made of striped bed-ticking.
the garment being q sort of overall, shirt
and panraloons- all Of one piece. Most of
the men he met were bsrefooted. although
the weather was quite cold. Ok teams are
common and "Woa. haw, Buck" and
Gee. Brindle." in the drawing tone of the
native ~bull-puncher. greeted the ear con-
stantly. One day the hunter came across a
school-nouse. aud entering it, found the
school IN charge of q youth about nineteen
years old. while among the pupils was a
man OF forty-hve sitting. baTefooted. with
a slate before him.. trying to learn to W rite.
The people seemed to know next TO nothing
OF the outside world, and looked on an In.
~dianapolis man with wonder and awe. Yet
he found them honest. good-hearted and
hospitable. The party shis gentleman was
with bagged plenty of birds and killed
something less than q cart-load of rabbits
The natives said there were four or five
deer IN the county. and wild turkeys iu
the southern part. The great obstacle tt
hunting Is the density of the forests and
underground.