Herald and news. [volume] (West Randolph, Vt.) 1878-1943, 1900-01-11
RATTLING THE BONES.
II Was One of the Accomplishments
of the Smart BOY Twenty
Years Ago.

/ some UNUSUAL uemdhu on the part
Of regular patron set the proprietor
of the little old variety store and news
stand TO rumaging among the accumu-
lations of the years since he 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 must have been
on my hands these 20 years." the deal
err continued. II haven't had a call for
anything of the sort in dozen years
that can remember. Yet ii used 10 be
that | had not only TO carry full line
of bones, but had to put them in the
showcase to attract custom. How long
is it since you heard boy going along
the street with a pair of bones in each
hand and making all the sorts of noise
that the weapons are capable Of?
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 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. l 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 IL they had the luck
TO get hold of the right kind Of hard
wood and had good knife, for IT was no
good TO make your bones out of an old
broomstiek; there was no ring to
them. That's how you learned to play
on the things. and you were no sort of
boy until you could play with both
hands at once. The crowd wouldn't
have anything 10 do with you until you
could, and even quite small girls had
no hesitation about asking you to keep
pin stores with them, and made you
feel like baby. You bet you lost no
time in learning TO rattle the bones
That's the phrase I've been trying to
think of and now it's just come to me;
playing the bones didn't seem right to
me; we ratified them.
There were two pair of bones, such
as that you have there, in a set, and the
more costly ones were always sold In
sets. A set like that must have sold for
as much as a dollar and half, for you
see it's fine rosewood with real piano
finish. Mahogany bones were little
bit cheaper, say about a dollar set.
From that down you could get them for
almost any price. know what killed
the trade in bones. 1t was ingenuity.
When everybody was rafting the bones
there were some people who never
could learn the way. Iguess their early
educations must have been neglected
So an inventive genius made a patent
bone that anybody could play II had
metal tongue and a bob that hit the
bone itself and made the noise that
way. That killed the bones Who was
going 10 work hard TO learn the Train
Coming Into the Station on the real
bone when any baby could do II just as
well on the patent bone On. Y. Sun.