The age-herald., 1902-03-30

attract attention was a blanket On the old horses back, and painted on the blanket was the advertisement of a cer- tain brand of coffin-nails. vulgarly called cigarettes-'1O for D.
 The whole show was sly and inex- pressbly ludicrous; but no mortal with any sense of humor could look upon 1t and not laugh. And as 1t moved from one great street to another it brought laugh ter to probably two hundred thousand people-two hundred thousand laughs at a literal exhibition of the old saw of ''the cart before the horse." If one had any present use for coffin-nails one would surely purchase the brand the. old horse bore. Why, 1t were worth a whole barrel of those things to have seen four young maidens stop still at F and Thirteenth streets and laugh until their wondrous eyes were brim ming with that liquid which to woman is at once hr refuge and her joy-tears, not idle tears; for to wo- man tears are never idle.
 Silly and ludicrous was this shop spect- acle of ''the cart before the horse! Yes; true enough. But Is there not a vast value to humanity in that which can cause two hundred people to laugh? Is not laughter the highest philosophy of the human mind? Is not there more true joy in the world over the one man who laughs than over the ninety and nine who nope and moan and grunt discontentedly? Is it not true that if you laugh the world laughs with you, while if you weep you weep alone? Are we not told that when little children laugh in their sleep the angels are kissing them?
 wondrous magic and surpassing power of laughter!
 Listen.
 Once upon a time-long time ago-there dwelt upon cotton plantation in Ala bama very small boy, very sturdy but much given to dreams. The first of his abiding recollection was of his beauti- full mother and a dear old woman who dwelt mile away joining in his mothers house in the celebration of Easter. The boy had no conception of the meaning of Easter; if 1t had been explained to him he could not have understood He knew in a way it had something to do with religion, but even religion was to him a mystery not to be solved for nigh thirty years, and while he enjoyed the great feast of dinner on Easter Sunday, the sacred festival was beyond his real ization and maybe that was fortunate. When the truth finally came to him it was al-truth, and he had no past.
 The dear old woman would come to the kpy's home on the evening of Holy Sat- Grday and remain with his mother until Easter Monday. They attended no church on Easter Day; but rising with the sun they would superintend the preparation of an ideal breakfast in the country To- wards 10 o'clock they would begin to make brief visits to the big kitchen, some sixty or hundred feet from the ''big house." The boy knew that those visits meant preparation for the best din- ner of all the year. and being content that the meal would be served in good time, and that about his own plate would be enough food for three boys, or at least six men, he went away to play with whatever presented itself, with cer- tain restriction against shouting, fishing in the brook near by, and shooting with bow and arrow; these pastimes being vigorously forbidden every Sunday.
 At noon dinner was announced by an old black nanny, and the family. and the guests, of whom there were many. proceeded solemnly to take their places at the table. The boy was awed to sil- ence, but in his mind there was spirit
 sx. lt. contemplation and consumption of a feast like that. When the dinner was we'll begun there was much decorous laughter and gossip and merriment, and the beautiful mother and her aged neigh bor woman, who were directly responsible for the feast, were the happiest good souls in the world.
 The mother and her neighbor helper.