Savannah courier. (Savannah, Tenn.) 1885-1979, 1898-12-02
Van Buren,. Pa.

we were taking aOOut CoFn
bread, turnip salad and ash hop
pers when you shut me off last
week, but there are some other
things that l associated with in
my boyhood, that | never see any
more except in my dreams.
One of these is the frow.
mean the one you pronounce to
rhyme with "Joe, 90 Slow" and
not the one you rhyme with, show
can a COW p!ow.' Almost every
fellow I meet has frow OF this
last kind, or is looking for one.
But, oh! the intricaces of the
American language. Past finding
outl The German, talking Of his
wife or sweetheart, would simply
say "frau" or "frauine," and you
would know that he did not mean
a thing to rive boards with, though
| am not quite sure that "frau"
may not properly become q board
splitter sometimes-espe cially il
she is hooked up with a drunkard
who needs a two.inch, quartered
oak board split over his pate
every time he goes home intoxi.
Gated.
In trying.to give you the proper
sound of this word, frow, | came
very near using the word SOW, but
then you void not know whether
| meant to SOW wheat, or SOW
and pigs.
A teacher wrote on the black
board the word "stingy" and said:
"Thomas Didymus Christopher
Holmes, will you or Peter Sowiry
Henry Jones please tell the school
what this word meansW aud Didy-
mus rose up and innocently in
quired, "Watcher talkin' bout
If bee it means stingy, but if Il
man then it means stilgy," and it
dawned on the teacher that there
was a difference, and meditating
she whispered softly, "'d rather
be stung by a stingy bee than to
be starved by a stingy man." and
that night she wrote postal ask.
ing the price of a complete, up-to'
date, revised, unabridged, self
pronouncing dictionary and went
to her couch and dreamed that
Size had sent these same two boys
to meet the meat man and ask him
to mete out to them such portions
of meat as seemed to mete to him.
But, besides this old, board
irving frow that was talking
about, there is the Old reel-the
kind our mother reelcd "cuts" of
thread on until they amounted to
a hank. Not the cole Virginny
Reel,n nor the modern those reel,'
nor yet the "reep the fellow takes
along when he goes OIL jag
but The old, six-armed reel that
popped when you turned it around
100 times. 1t was "agin' the law
you know, to turn this machine
except when you were ruling
thread, but no doubt 90 out o.
every 100 boys whose mothers
owned one of the reels took the
chances and made it pop when hi
mother stepped out for a minute
The average boy has as much
curiosity as a popping Tom at {
Godiva show anyway, but after al
| guess there freely" was moi
! much sin in turning the reel-i
You did not turn il on Sunday
but it was one means Of beginning
the development of human nat
ure in the heart of many "a shock
headed country boy.
This reel was in its humble wa.
> a valuable member OF society II
its day, Just as the hose reel il
today, but the "Oie Virgtnn,
, Reeln is of q somewhat mor'
doubtful character, and the wits
key reel is absolutely wicked il
its day and generation.
Though | knew the old, crack
ing reel from my infancy, | neve
had the slightest idea why 10
threads made "a cut" nor VIII
four, or six, or eight cuts made
hank, but this does not matter
: No one knows any better reaSo
why two and two make four tina
!, simply "jst cause it does"
J. When man cuts oats or whea
! or when he cuts piece Of meat o
j u watermelon or when he cuts hi
= finger, or something that way,
2 think / know what it means; whe
=, a reeler says she has reeled
;. cut of thread the c0mpllcatio
I becomes too intricate and | Civ
it up.
How funny when one turns tn
mind loose and allows it to chas
the visions of the past at random
y but all of us do that OCCASIONAL.
and oh, the many silly things tina