The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1892-03-24
FROM CRADLE TO GRAVE,

Bit Jones-Hls End.
Mrs. Jones has a baby
1.-The deuce you say"
"Fact."
Girl or boy?"
boy"
Lets hunt up old Jonesey anu
make him set EN- up"
so is ushered into the world Baby
Jones' very red and hungry, aud very
much troubled with insomnia. The
former grows on him, and on wearing
Off the latter Papa Jones loses his
hair and several pounds of flesh, and
Mama Jones loses some of her good
looks.
Pay? said Papa Jones in astonish-
ment DO babies pay? Well, I
PAY" said Mamma Jones, "whv
the whole world could not buy him"
And so Baby Jones becomes Willie
Jones, and with his little primer and
immaculate tie marches proudly to
school, says the Minneapolis Journal.
~Thereupon the boys ''christen'' his
new shoes by splitting on them, and
they soil his white tie by rolling him
over in the sand. And Willie Jones
cries and the teacher comforts him by
letting him sit on the platform and by
calling his tormentors bad boys"
And they grin and ooh ashamed.
1But Father Time keeps his scythe
a-swing, and 10! Billy Jones is in the
high school. Billy the Kid he is
called now. and he nearly breaks his
mothers heart Il day because she
sees him smoking a cigarette and evil
IDENTIFY enjoying it. Billy Jones is, also
inclined to partahe of the fruit of his
nelghbors pear tree, said fruit beng
obtained after dark.
Will Jones is a different boy a few
years after his graduation from. the
nigh school. Life has become a oues-
ton OF neckties and fits on clothes.
lie ushers strangers into seats at the
Church of the Dan and Beersheba
Pilgrims. He leads the german, and
one day Deacon Potts is panied to see
him coming out of a bucket-shop,
where he has taken a flyer on wheat.
William Jones. aged 40. is the
cashier OF the leighton national bank.
MIR. Jones is known as one of our
best and brainiest business men. Mrs.
Jones speaks Of him as MI. Jones, or
William, and Deacon Potts takes his
advice on the investment of a few
hundred dollars he has laid by. They
talk of running him for the legisla-
ture, and the Evening Squarsh has
doomed him for mayor. The little
ones call him papa and run to meet
him at night when he comes home.
At 60.
You know old Bill Jones? He
was telling me the other day how he
used to play ball where the postoffce
now stands. He's a jolly old fellow, I
tell you. Told about helping to pitch
a teacher out of the window when he
was a boy about forty or fifty years
ago."
Bill is a jolly old boy. Kept the
company in a roar at his daughters
wedding with his stories. They say
Bill has laid by quite a little pile in
his day. Smooth old boy is Bill. He
has accumulated quite a stock of ex-.
perience, at any rate, and is always
ready with a word of counsel if you
ask his advice.
Seventy-fve years old to-day is old
Bill JONES' or old Billy Jones" as
his younger friends love to call him.
There is so term of reproach in fam
iliarity unless it is used by the
thoughtless or inconsiderate. His old
friends have dropped by the wayside,
one by one, and old Bill Jones is the
last leaf on the tree. 1t is we'll rip
ened by time and frost. and the first
breath of winter will detach him
gently, and he will fall to his parent
earth in sweet peace. ~.Old Bill
JONES'" He has done his work we'll
and he is ready to go. He wonders if
he will meet the old boys again and
talk over the old days. His mind is
much on his youth. He loves to re-
call the old associations. The old
voices are in his ears. He smiles as
he sees the children play.
Hello, Colonel, whose grave is
this you are illing"
William Jones, sir"
What? Old Billy Jones? Well,
we'll; so he has gone But he lived to
a good old age. Let's see, rs years
8 months the stone a don't it,"
That's doing pretty we'll in these
times. Jones was a good old fellow,
though. I remember hearing my
father tell how Jones let him have
So, 600 once to tide him over a crisis,
and he took a bit of security.
He and father were great friends once.
How long ago? Oh, that must have
been twenty or twenty five years back.
Fathers been dead eighteen years.
Well. good luck to him, wherever he
is. Good-day.