The Savannah morning news., 1903-11-29

solution that doesn't seem to have
occurred to anybody else. at any rate"
said he.
'All sorts OF ideas that never occur
to anybody else occur to Tommy" said
the Idiot. HE advanced the PROPOSE
ton the other day that the only part
or arithmetic that was of any practical
value as far as his experience went
was subtraction, because his allowance
was never added to, multiplied or di-
vided, but alwayqs subtracted from, a
theory that fits snugly into the finan-
cial condition of ninety-nine out of ev-
cry hundred citizens of this country. To
spend years learning how to write with
a pen when typewriting machines can
be bought for a song, he regards as a
great waste of time and energy, and
to study spelling when you can have a
secretary to do your letters for you is
silly. AS for history, he considers it
useless to stow away in your head I'M
til it aches, pages of stuff that you can
find in a book whenever you need to
use it, advancing the undeniable truth
that what's going to happen is better
worth the knowing"
by Jove," laughed Mr.. Brief. Hes
your nephew, all right, isn't he? Ideas
ily."
Yep" returned the Idiot. THAT'S
one reason why / don't like to spoil
the youngsters with the commonplace
ideas that anybody can have. What's
the use of a special point of view if
you don't avail yourself of it,"
II should like to hear about the five
year old literary prodigy" said the
Poet.
He's dandy" cried the Idiot, en-
Enthusiastically. ellis comment on
Browning, to my mind, sizes up the sit
uation to perfection"
"Oh, come off" said the Bibliomaniac
What rot. I don't believe any five
year old boy except possibly the Bos-
ton lad of the comic papers who never
existed, ever read a line of Browning.
You are drawing upon your magma
ton"
II never said Bobbie had read Brown
ing" retorted the Idiot. Save in your
imagination. 1t is you who are over
drawing your account"
How the deuce can he size Brown
ing up then if he hasn't read him?"
demanded the Bibliomaniac trium-
phantly.
by listening when others read him."
replied the Idiot. MY brother is very
fond of reading aloud and if walls had
ears, and could spout what they have
heard, there isn't a British poet that
the plaster of his library couldn't re-
produce. Last Sunday night he began
on Sordello and stuck at it manfully
to the end. Bobbie was sitting on the
floor counting up his marbles, and APP
parently not paying much attention.
My brother had read about twenty
minutes when he paused to cut two
pages apart with his paper knife, when
Bobbie put in, Say, Pa-if little boy
got lost in the middle of that poym,
do you think he'd ever find his way out
again?"
THAT boy is all right" said the gem
ial old gentleman who occasionally inn
bibed. 81 feel exactly the same way
when I'm sober. l can't understand
half of Browning's poems, unless I've
had half a dozen cocktails and then
I'm so tongue-tWisted l can't explain
EN-"
"You should wait till next morning"
said the Poet, with a twinkling eye,
land then write out your solution"
''The trouble with that" replied the
genial old gentleman, lis that when
next morning comes, I've forgotten the
explanation"
well, that's too bad" laughed the
Idiot. IF you only could remember,
you could write { sort of Baedeker to
Browning which would fill long-felt
want"
"Pah," calculated the Bibliomaniac,
II have no difficulty in comprehending
rowning-though you've got to take
him in small doses and think 1t out
that admit
You're perfectly right there" said
the Idiot. Il can testify to that. l
have found by personal experience that
taking Browning one word at a time,
1 can understand. When ne speaks of
embers 1 know that he doesn't mean
snow-balls, and AN allusion to bios
soming trees can't be mistaken for a
reference to lawn-mowers by a man
who stops to think. It's when he COM
bines the words in sentences that 1 get
off the track"
What does Bobbie think of the his
torical novel?" asked the Doctor. docs
he approve Of that?"
81 was coming to that" said the
Idiot. II caught him sitting in a ham
mock one Sunday morning off in the
country last summer, and he had Susan
Brlnckeroff Sudberry's Red Feather
of Providence in his hand. He was
chuckling away to himself to beat the
band. What's the joke, Bobbie?' said
1. Use yeadin'' he chuckled. And
you like the book very much, eh?'
queried. Yes he said. It's orful
funny. Use yeadin' it upslde-d'own.
And he was. BY lingo, 1 believe that
boy has the making of a critic in him.
His faVOrite characters in fiction are
Ernest Thompson Seton and Noah, be-
cause they know all about animals. In
history he has a pronounced liking for
Jack the Giant Killer and Theodore
Roosevelt, and for the Babes in the
Wood he has no use at all, because
they hadn't sense enough to telephone
for the police and have their wicked
uncle arrested as soon as he began to
treat them badly"
II should Judge that that young man
will be an author some day." smiled
Mrs. Pedagog.
"He is already Madame" returned
the Idiot. HE has delighted me fire.
quently with a romance of his own in
which Little Lord Fountleroy goes out
to capture an Ogre, and is eaten by
the latter before he has a chance to
draw his riding whip and stab the wick
ed giant to the heart. 1t is very
short narrative, but it is full of dra-
fiction can be so, it strikes me as be-
ing relentlessly realistic"
did I understand you to say that
there was a 15-year-old in that family
who has reasoned out a philosophy of
living that is worth while?" asked the
Lawyer.
"Yes," said the idiot. "He belongs
to the Don't Worry Club When he
plays golf, and his bali lands in hole
he doesn't use Incorporate language
the way his elders do, because as he
remarked the other day, he never knew
a Golfer to swear a ball out of a hole
yet. When he broke his arm at foot
ball and began to sympathize with
him, he cut me short with the state
ment that 1t might have been his head.
and then he couldn't play chess. When