The Clarksburg telegram. [volume] (Clarksburg, W. Va.) 1874-1926, 1893-07-21
SHE SAT- DOWN.


"and converse"
She sat down, but still remained taller
than Twas. Inever saw q longer wasted
person or one who was so uniformly Of
one size all the way down, as my friend
Comstock says-not Anthony, but an
other man altogether. She had chest
like q grasshopper, and as she sat there
with her long, sad face, reminding me
OF q horse with q sunbonnet on, / said to
myself: Shall buy these berries and
let her go home or wait till my wife
comes and discovers us conversing and
then remains forever unhappy? Shall /
break up our happy home or noty
She looked hungry too. She was. l
would say that, regarding her from a
'Scriptural standpoint. she was without
form and void.
The red bugs seemed to annoy her a
good deal on the ankles. That Is how l
came to learn that her calves were on
the front side. She reminded me Of q
Staten island ferry lyon couldn't
always tell whether 1t was going over to
Staten Island or returning.
She was merry little mountain maid.
Think they call her about here Splayfoot
Sal, but 1t may be another girl who
gathers berries and has that name. lam
not sure. She is the Tarheel Sequoia Of
Ticktown. Itwould do you good to see
her guileless ways. Some day she will
marry a low set man with II dogs, and
they viii live on wild cucumbers and
blackberries and rear their young, and
they will never laugh, and he will never
get asphyxiated unless some neighbor in
the feud business asphyxiates him with
q double barrel shotgun, and their lives
will be as even and as devoid Of incident
as they would be in the penitentiary.
Yet they will be content. Never hav-
ing seen Tiffany's store, they will not
yearn for any Of his goods. Never hav-
ing boarded at Delmonico's, they will
actually prefer bacon and corn bread or
hominy. Two friends Of splayfoot Sal
went into Asheville to work at Oakland
heights. They did well for a month.
Then they came to Miss Vaughan and
said they guessed they d have to quit.
What's the matter7' asked Miss v.
well, we can't live on this here truck
you give US to eat.
"Why, don't you get the same that we
all do2 What do you have to eats"
why. we get beefsteak and white
-four bread and veal and lamb meat and
knicklnacks. Them don't sustain folks.
They just tantalize EN-
what do you wantsr
why, bacon and corn bread. There's
somethin to hit, but we can't work here
week after week on goodies. We want
scmethin that won't vanish itself away
in q hour or two"
One old lady took bite at the same
place one day, being a sort Of pensioner
on the bounty Of the proprietress. Miss
v. gave her some vanilla ice cream. The
old lady kept talking and running on
about times and how hard they seemed.
Then after swinging her knife aimlessly
around and standing it up on the table
awhile she swooped down on the vanilla
ice cream and spread some Of it on her
bread, talked some more. ate some more
and then burst out with:
Gosh, Emile, how cold yer butter
islr
And yet these plain people are as con-
tented as Thurber Of Washington who
Is private secretary for President Cleve-
land. Thurber does not greet the glad
morn more blithely than do these simple
children q the wales Of Pisgah and the
Convey clearings and settlements Of Roam
mountain. OF course l do not knowMr.
Thurber, but Mr.. Cleveland has promised
me q letter to him, and ] shall hope to
call his attention to the pure joy that
comes not Of unlimited powers alone.
To him it Is pleasant, Of course, to mold
an administration or make up an timer
airy for the president. But let us pause,
Thurber, pause to consider that, stirred
up and vexed and worried over holding
up one side Of the great national fabric
as you are, especially when the president
Is out Of town, we are 9s, SOC, 900 miles
from the sun, and we only get one two
billionth Of his solar heat. Other worlds
get the balance.
Think Of that, Thurber, when you put
on your black cambria sleeves and reign.
Icould imagine Robert Browning call
ing for you II he were mere and waiting
out in the front entry quite q long time
while you puarreled with the cabinet or