Hopkinsville Kentuckian. [volume] (Hopkinsville, Ky.) 1889-1918, 1896-07-28
Fl foods
Sars aparilla
D.,, cure all Liver Ills and
E1O0Q'S Pills Sick Headache. Is cents
EpARRoW AND RHINoCERos.
How the Big Beast Disconnected One
OF the Little Birds.

row. You can scare them-"often
scared as oft return, a pert, vo-
racious kind'-and make them fly
away; but that is only because the
sparrow has the bump of self-preser-
walton very prominently developed,
and takes q hint as to personal dan
ger with extraordinary promptitude.
But though it may remove its small
body out Of harms way for the time
being, it is not disconnected. You
can see that by the way in which it
Immediately goes on with its toilet.
Its nerves have not been shaken
that is evident from its obvious self.
possession, and the way it scratches
its head and makes a note of the fly
which went by. 1t would not COM
mence at once frivolous alterca-
ton with another of its kind if it had
been disconnected.
And really, it is not to be won
dered at that the sparrow should be
beyond the reach of establishment.
Think of what it sees, and sees quite
unconcernedly, in the streets of Lon
don. Put tiger into Fleet street,
or bear at the bank, and the poor
beasts would go crazy with terror.
A single omnibus would stampede a
troop of lions. Yet a sparrow sur
veys the approaching fire engine un-
dismayed, and it sits with its back
to the street when a runaway
van comes laundering death down
Ludgate hill. The small birds life
is, in fact, so made up Of surprises
that it regards the astounding as
commonplace. So a fly, sitting
down in @ train, thinks nothing of
finding itself in the next county
when it gets up. Its whole exis-
tence is volcanic and seismic. 1t
cannot settle on hand without the
hand moving. What would dog
think if, on going into ten-acre
field, the field suddenly turned over2
But the fly is not put out of coun-
tenance by such phenomena. It
comes back to the hand again. 1t
is the same with the sparrow. It
thinks no more of another wonder
than the Seven Champions did of an
extra dragon in the days work.
All the same, 1 have seen spar
row totally COMPOUNDED and all to
pieces. 1t was, l confess, only a
young one, with just the promise Of
tail, nothing more; and some odds
and ends of fluff still clinging be-
tween the red feathers. l was look
ing at the rhinoceros, which was
lying down close to the ratings, and
very sleepy rhinoceros it was. Ex-
cept for slight twitches of the tail
and an occasional fdget Of the ears,
it was quite motionless. And the
young sparrow hopping about in the
inclosure, coming to the beast,
hoped on to it, looking in the chinks
of its skin for chance grains or in
sects, And it hoped all along it's
back on to it's head (the rhinoceros
winked), and along its head on to
the little horn, and from the little
horn on to the big one land it
blinked), and then off the horn on to
its nose. And then the rhinoceros
snorted. The sparrow was a sight
to see. Exploded is no word for it.
And it sat all in heap on the cor
ner of the house, and chirped the
mournfulest chirps. II hadn't the
smallest notion the thing was alive, +"
it said. "Oh, dearl oh, dearr' and
it wouldn't be pacified for a long
time. It's establishment had been
severe and had got into the sys-
tenn" remembered the story of
the boy who sat on the whales blow
hole. Behemoth had got stranded
on the Shetland coast. While the
population were admiring it, an
urchin climbed on to the head of the
distressful monster, and exultantly
seated his graceless person ON its
forehead. He had but short time
to enjoy his triumph, and the next
instant the whale, filing itself with
air, blew such a blast through its
blow-hole that the boy was blown
up into the air and out to sea. So
said the veracious chronicler of the
day---and / hope it was true, for lit
tie boys should not, under any cir
cumstances, sit on the blow-hole OF
whales. Nor young sparrows on the
nostrils of a rhinoceros. :. c~SSgss