The daily chieftain. [volume] (Vinita, Ind. Ter. [Okla.]) 1898-1902, 1899-11-16
RAFTING THE N
1t Was One of the Accomplishment
of the smart BOY Twenty
Years Ago.

Years Ago.
Some unusual demand on the part
of a regular patron set the proprietor
of the little old variety store and news
stand to rumaging among the accumu
lations OF the years since lie had first
started his humble business. 1t brought
to light various kinds of odds and ends,
but not the article sought.
THAT'S dead stock for fair" he said,
without any thought of a pun as he
threw a small parcel on the counter,
for it was a pair of bones" These
bones were of rosewood, neatly finished,
and each wrapped carefully in soft pa
per. They were just as good as any
that ever ornamented the northeast end
Of the semicircle of the San Francisco
Ministries in the days when negro min
strels had not dreamed OF putting on
frills and becoming dark-face comedi-
ans.
THAT pair Of bones mus. have been
on my HANDS these 20 years." the deal
er continued. 81 haven't had a call for
anything of the sort in a dozen years
That | can remember. Yet il used to be
that | had not only to carry a full line
OF bones, but | had to put them in the
showcase to attract custom. How long
is it since you heard a boy going along
The street with a pair Of bones IN each
hand and making ali the sorts of noise
that the weapons are capable of? I
don't know a boy now that would know
how to hold the things in his fingers,
much less play them.
Just as soon as a boy got through
with baby games he had to have the
bones and to keep at them until he
could play them. remember the first
ones had were real bone, the kind that
come in rib roasts of beef. / must have
traded off something for them with the
butcher boy. or course, / could have
had the bones out Of our Sunday din
ner, but cooked bones were no good;
they had to be dried in the sun TO make
them right. Some boys could white
out wooden bones II they had the luck
get hold Of the right kind of hard
and had a good knife, for it was no
good to make your bones out of an old
broomstick; there was no ring TO
them. That's how you learned to play
on the things, and you were no sort Of 7
boy until you could play with both
hands at once. The crowd wouldn't
ave anything to do with you until YOU
could, and even quite small girls had
40 hesitation about asking you to keep
pin stores with them, and made Won
feel like a baby. Yon bet o lost no
time in learning to rattle the bones,
That's the phrase I've been trying to
-hink of and now it's just come TO me-:
the bones didn't seem ricb+ to
ne; we ratified them.
There were two pair of bones. such
IS that you have there, in a set. and the
Rpre costly ones were always sold in
cts. A set like that must.have sold for
is much as a dollar and a half, for Won
it's fine rosewood with a real niano
inish. Mahogany bones were a little
ut cheaper, say about a dollar a set.
from that down you could get them for
lmost any price. l know what Killed
trade in bones. 1t wal ingenuity.
When everybody was rattling the bones
here were some people who never
ould learn the way. Iguess their early
ducations must have been neglected.
o an inventive genius made a patent
one that anybody could play. Ithada
1etal tongue and a bob that hit the
one itself and made the noise that
ray. That killed the bones. Who was
DING TO work hard to learn the Train
oming IDto the Station on the real :
one when any baby could Go It Just as
ell on the patent bone?'-N. y. Sun.