The Camden chronicle. (Camden, Tenn.) 1890-current, 1896-10-23
ARP'S LETTER.
TALKS PRoMscUoUsLY or POI
tTIcs AND GRANDCHILDREN
lie Also Morailzes Somewhat on tho
Financial Question.

bube vas right Cobe said Wo would
have rain about tho time the drought
broke up. Cobo d man of opinions.
! asked him one day how his nabor,
Mrs. jenkins, was, and ho said, "sho
ia powerful aiok-6ho Is, shore. II she
lives till morning / shall have some
hopes Of her, but II she don't believe
she will die" The long drought has
broken at last, and we are OH grateful,
even If we arc not happy. Hard times
are on as and hard winter Just ahead
Of ne, but old folks can look back and
say II is not as bad as war / thought
that this full moon ia conjunction with
the equinox would bring us rain, but
wasn't counting on quite so much con-
junction in family affairs. The autumn
al equinox brought telegram from
Florida announcing the birth Of an
other grandson, Ralph, Jr.. and before
/ could answer tho dispatch here came
the little girls over the hill-all out Of
breath and wild with excitement
Mamma has got another little boy,
whoopeel the sweetest little boy. oh,
my, amt You glad, grandma2"
Why Of course wo are glad.
When four girls come right
straight along in a row it's time for
a boy-a boy TO grow up and wait on
them and defend them aud protect
them. Two grandsons brought by the
same equinoctial gale. Just think Of
it and ponder And the old COW has
found heifer calf, besides-a little
fawn-eyed Jersey. What's ia the wind2
And so this little chap over the hill
answered the Florida telegram and
said: civilian Aubrey, Jr., sends
greetings to Ralph Smith, Jr., and
says hello how do you like il? Your
little cousin. And 30 it goes, multi
plying and replenishing according 10
scripture. Two more for parents 70
love and cherish and work for and
pray for and hope for. Two more to
fight the battle of life and have some
school boy fights, too, reckon. Two
more to have JOY and sorrow mixed,
and to bring grief or gladness to their
parents. Well, it's hard time to have
an increase in the family, for nowadays
even an infant is right smart expense,
but CODE says everything is adopted
and there never was 'possum
born into the world but what
there was q 'simmon tree close
| by" So let them come. Chang cut
your banners on the outer wall,
for the cry is still they come =" We
are getting old, my wife and /, but we
can welcome a few more grandchild.
rem. I would like to live on a few
years for their sake and chide them
when they do wrong and praise them
when they do right Sometimes my
Gliding hurts their mothers feelings
but / don't care. Mothers spoil the
boys and fathers the girls, and so il
takes hard old man like me to ex
press my sentiments regardless of feel
ing. Line upon line, precept upon pre-
cept, here little, there little. Som,
time ago threatened to spank a littl,
grRndchild to make her behave, anC
she looked astonished and indignan
as she replied, "Mamma say me to,
little to 'pank." And she was, but th
threat did her good. When sehoo
days come it takes a powerful watch
ing to keep the children straight
They not only leave their lessons
but soon catch on to all tn
slang and bad words and devilmen
that other children know. In fact
fond mother who has the worst boys il
town told me her greatest trial was tn
association that her children had wit
the bad children in the public school
Poor woman-mistaken mother. ]
would be dangerous to hint to her tha
7 her boys were the talk of the town.
| remember that about thirty years ag
/, an exacting, fractions teacher thumpe
one OF our boys on the head with
book and called him a numbskull.
: didn't hurt him much, but it hui
a his mother. and she hasn't got over
, yet. 1 don't know which made her I'll
Q maddest, the "numbskull' or the licl
That is one good thing about the pull
lie school system-the teacher is NJ
afraid of the parents, and it is one ba
Q thing, for if he is partial teacher or
n fractions man he ought to be afraid.
/. A few more weeks of politics al
\ then we will have peace, at least for
season. How many lies have be,
. told no man knoweth, but they are g
1t recorded aud st. Peter keeps the book
h I read The New York Journal 81
70 The Constitution every day, and VIII
:, I get through know that Bryan W
be elected. Then Iread-unwillipgly
; The World and my faith weakens a.
to my props are knocked from under u
n til the next day. And so it goes.
in elect Bryan and Sewall every morni
/. and unelect them before dinner, a
: it's hurting my digestion. But /
y mad with these gold debaters who Ike