Weekly graphic. [volume] (Kirksville, Adair Co., Missouri) 1880-1949, 1896-12-04
Flight of the Summer Dollar.

ward in dark squadrons on the
aerial seas, and the wild goose
navigates the same blue solitudes;
when the leaves disappear from
the trees and straw hats from the
streets; when the moon shines on
meadows white with frost, and on
pedestrians paler yet for lack OF
supper and an overcoat; when
the heating stove Is got out, and
the clerk at the coal Office smiles
all over his FACET is then and
just then, and more then, than at
any other time that the flight OF
the summer dollar is bitter
memory. Once they iingled in
the pocket and shone in the hand.
They Were good for sore eyes and
a hundred cents. They made the
landlord smile and the merchant
rejoice. There was a silver ripple
from May to October, and the
course of the current was a stripe
of verdure and a ribbon of clover.
1t was then that the man in con-
stant work and with fat wages
ljingled his dollars aud smiled at
his pay roll. They were never
too many, but they came so regu-
lar that il seemed to be mean and
stingy to keep one longer than six
days. So it slipped through the
fingers as an eel does through the
hands. Times were good. Pocket
were not wanted. Extravaganza
wus not to be found in the diction-
ary. Dollars melted like wax and
ran like Gil, and thoughts of pre-
pairing for a rainy day were as
scarce as humming birds on an
iceberg. When the little ant was
climbing trees and excavating tun-
nels in the sand and clay, and
getting ready for winter; when the
busy bee was working twelve
hours day in clover blossoms
and gardens to lay in his groceries
for Christmas, and the little dor
mouse and the nimble squirrel
were packing nuts to crack when
days are cold, the man who under
valued his summer dollar was less
wise than they. The keg would
never run dry and the irost would
never pinch the water melon. The
crock would keep fall OF butter,
the coal hod full of coal The land
lord would have bad memory,
the shoemaker would light his
pipe with his bills, and there
would be no need of blanket or
overcoat when the hydrant needed
straw to keep ii from freezing,
and the pump choked with ice.
And yet the blicflayer knew as
well as he knew anything, that for
some ~ onths his trowel would
have nothing to do; the stone ma
son was as sure of the same, as
he was that it was harder to chip
limestone than soap; the paper
hanger and the painter knew that
paste would freeze and paint con
geal, and in many other trades and
lines of industry it was known
the mill would cease to grind grist
and the business COW to give milk
Somehow nor other, neither ex-
perience or knowledge had any
restraining effect.
Year after year the same man
has has had to get his coal on
credit, to buy his bacon and coffee
on time, to hug stove to keep it
warm and to squeeze the teapot
for what there was not in it. He
has seen little feet needing socks,
the roses fade from the faces of
his children, and the thin gown of
his vile hang on a framework of
bones, and all this in violent con-
trast to what might have been had
the workman taken care of his
summer dollar. There would have
been no need of eating potatoes
with their skins on, or making
two meals of red herring. Econo
my need not have shut its eyes to
ice cream, or tabOood picnic,
the same neck tie might not have
been II mosaic OF patches. OF
reasonable enjoyment and luxury
the little tin cup might have been
full to the brim, aud yet enough
Of the summer dollar have been
left to keep everybody in the
house fat and warm. The reveI Sc,
however. is ,he case, and the nan
with nothing to do and little to