The Somerset herald. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 1870-1936, 1896-07-08
"REMINISCENCES.

A recent communication i'm a Somer-
set paper, from the pen of Mr.. "Chic-
cubabie, in 4 ne North of the county,"
has something to say about the pranks
of the boys of Petersburg, two score
and more years ago. Suppose one boy
did "Goatstodey;" did not he drive the
snipes into the bag, or try his best to
do so, while the other fellow held the
bag open? And if the Somerfield boy
did no. understand the minutie of the
seductive game of "Peewee," was it not
only reciprocal and neighborly feeling
that he should be taught to play the
game? AS for the "Lame Old Soldier"
Mr.. G. would not have a stranger with
in our midst" go away from town unin-
formed in regard to it, would he? Be
sides all this, every boy should be ini-
tiated into the mysteries of digging
Potatoes" and Mr.. c. certainly ought
not say word against the broad hospi-
tality that prompted said initiation,
ought he?
Suppose, for instance, that the kindly
disposed Petersburg boys occasionally
.'got it on the nose" or even "on the
neck" does Mr.. c. suppose that the
other fellow didn't get some of it too?
When the plans did ''gang aft aglee,"
did they not go the other way good
number of times? The Somerfield boys
were not half bad lot, for they were al
ways ready to accommodate the Pet
ersbCrg boys with fun, frolic or fight.
They met the Petersburg boys half
way VIXEN fight was on.
Just here il would not be out of place
to inquire of Mr.. &. if he ever heard of
circumstance connected with two
Petersburg boys, no names may he
mentioned, for it might not be pleasant
to think about. Let us say Jones and
Brown concluded it would be real nice
to whip the two Smith boys, and they
laid in wait for the Smiths. "Tell it
not in Gath,n foFrsad to say, Jones
and Brown were Sunday-school boys,
and the circumstance 10 be related oc-
Cured on Sunday. As the writer un-
derstood the matter, Jones and Brown
thought the Smith boys were dead
easy" in fact, in their minds, they
had the Smith boys badly "done up
long before they put in their appear
ance, for they lived in the country.
Jones and Brown had their coats of,
and waited rather impatiently for the
Smiths to come along, as they always
did on Sunday afternoons; Jones and
Brown even discussed the advisability
of going down the road to meet the
Smiths, so anxious were they to give
them coed whipping. Mr.. {. must
understand that no personal enmity
existed between Jones and Brown and
the Smiths; they only wanted to whip
| them for the fun of the thing. Fin
ally the Smiths came along, and Jones
and Brown engaged them in converse
ton, and, in less time than il takes to
relate the circumstance the fight was
on, Jones, according the previous ar
rangement, attacking the larger and
older Smith boy, and Brown the
younger. The fight waged ''fast and
furious for some time, but it was not
| long until Jones wondered "where he
was at" He had "bitten of consider
ably more than he could chew" still
he WAS determined to put up the best
fight lie could, and not to let Smith
know he was hardly in it. In the
meantime, there were, for wonder,
no spectators, only the four boys.
Brown was doing pretty well with the
younger Smith, in fact he was more
than holding his own. Jones after
ward remembered seeing a large hand
ful of yellow hair blowing along the
pavement, that Brown had pulled ont
of Smiths head. Boys and men wore
their hair long then. However, Jones
"had no time to chat" or look either,
as it kept him too busy trying to keep
the older SDiith boy from whipping
him. He was pretty nearly as badly
situated as "John Phoenix" was with
the man he was fighting with, whom
he was holding down with his nose
between the other fellows teeth. After
while Brown had his boy about
done up, and he cried enough. There
was not much fight left i'll Jones by
this time, and, when Smith conclud-
ed to quit because Brown had whipped
his brother, Jones was about the hap
piest boy in Petersburg. He couldn't
whip Smith, and he could hardly keep
Smith from whipping him, and he
hailed the cessation of hostilities with
great joy.
This learned Jones lesson he never
forgot, so the writer has heard, and
that was, something after the motto of
Davy Crockett, who said: "Be sure
you are right, then go ahead" and
Jones meyer tackled boy again, with
out sufficient provocation to have, al
least, show of justice ON his side.
Jones and Brown are grandfathers
now, and as Mr.. e.. says, any one look
ing on their rotund forms, and theil
whitening hair, and their deliberate 10
comotion, and their lack of former
agility, and their nose glasses, would
hardly suppose that they had evel
been anything but the best of Sunday
school scholars, and knew their cate
chism by heart.
If Mr. c. knew boy who dropped
piece of'soft shoemaker's wax on and
among the long hair of "A worshiper be
low, in the old Lutheran church, did
he not know another unsanctified boy
who threw a paper wad directly int
the eye of good old deacon? II on'
boy put a tack point up, in a pew il
the Lutheran church, did not another
deity insert bent pin in the chair o
4 ~ 10.