The Birmingham age-herald., 1902-08-03

tho, the countyll stand good for my ex- penses. Eff hit caint, kin!" And, with the heartiest sort of a laugh, the old man jogs along, leaving you to smile till bedtime over the happiness he has un- consciously contributed.
 Another instance of the old mans hu- nor under trying circumstances was de- veloped but a few days since. Tbis old man was a German citizen of an inun- dated town in the Ohio valley. There was much of the pathetic in his experi ence but the bravery with which he bore his misfortunes was admirable. A year ago his little home was first in- vaded by the flood, and himself and wife, and his sons family, were driven from 1t to the hills for sefety-but the old mans telling of the story cannot be im- proved upon. It ran like this: Last year, yer I svwin out fon dot leedle home off mine, init mine wife, unt my son, his wife unt leedl girls, I dink dots der last time goodbye to dose probertyi But alder der water 1t gone down, unt dry cop unt everything, dere vas der house dere. Int my friends dey salt, Dots all you got yet-Vell, fix cop der house-dots somedingl feex cop der house, unt you wood still hatt yet a homer' We'll, all summer I go to work, unt spent me eberding unt fix der prob erty. Den I got yet mortgage on der house! Dees time here der water come again--till I wish 1t vas last year voncel Int now all I safe Is my wife. unt my son his wife, unt my leedle grandchilderns! Else everding Is gone! All-everdingl- Der house gone-unt-unt-der mortgage gone toov' And then the old Teutonic face melted all over in sunshiny smiles" and, turning, he bent and lift ed sleepy little girl from a pile of dirty bundles in the depot waiting-room and went pacing up and down the muddy floor, saying cheery things in German to the child I thought the whole thing very beautiful. That's the kind of an old man who, saying goodbye to his son, would lean and kiss the young mans hand, as in the Dutch regions of Penn sylvania, two or three weeks ago, I saw an old man do
 Mark Lemon must have intimately known and loved the genteel old man of the city when the once famous domestic drama of Grandfather Whitehead" was conceived. In the play the old mana once prosperous merchant-f1nds a happy home in the household of his son-in-law And here 1t Is that inc gentle author has drawn at once the poem, the picture and the living proof of the oid Wordswor- thian axiom. "The child is father to the man." The old man, in his simple way in his great love for his willful little grandchild, is being continually distract ed from the grave sermons and moral lessons he would read the boy. As, for instance, aggrievedly attacking the little | fellow neglect of his books and his in- ordinate tendency toward idleness and play-the culprit, in the meantime. down | on the floor clumsily winding his top the old man runs on something in this | wise:
 "Playl playl play! Always play and no work, no study. no lessons. And here you are the only child of tne most indul- gent parents in the world-parents that proud as they are of you, would be ten | times prouder only to see you at your book, storing your mind with useful knowledge, instead of day in. day out,