St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1903-07-25
MRS. ARP'S BIRTHDAY
Bill Celebrates It and Will Shortly
Celebrate His Own.

@gg E SA~UA0S AAA0 As 5%E4
And Then Come some Others-A visit
from the Boy Who Lives In Mex
leo Something About Our
NefEhboring Republic.
Joel Chandler Harris says that "easy
reading is hard writing" and sheri-
dan gives the antithesis when he says:
'You write with ease to show your breed
ing,
But easy writing il curst hard reading"
I am too sick to write easy, but /
don't wish to be cursed about it. This
gloomy weather takes away all my
hilarity. Lowell says: "Oh, what's SO
rare as a day. in June" It has rained
every day and every night since the
list, and we didn't Like it at my house,
for it was my wife's birthday, and we
hoped it would be bright and balmy,
for the poor woman don't get but two
maternal feasts in a year, and two
paternal kisses. / vas sick the night
before, and she was up with me half
the night and slept late. / had creeped
in to breakfast and slipped a fve-dol-
lar gold piece under her plate, and in
tended to rise and kiss her unwrinkled
brow, when she appeared, but she
slipped up behind me and kissed me
first. She never did it that way be-
fore, and the boys hint that she saw
the gold shining, and it excited her
labia1 views and osculatory glands,
and she couldn't refrain.
"Gold. gold, gold, gold,
Bright and yellow. hard and cold,
Heavy to get and light to hold,
Spent by the young but Rugged by the old
To save to ruin, to curse or to bless,
Now stamped with the image OF good
Queen Bess.
And now of bloody Mary"
But she got more than I gave her,
and nobody got a kiss but me. "Chil-
dren," said |, this is your mothers
seventy-second birthday. You know
that the stars fell u years ago, and
that's the reason they fell. They knew
that a brighter star was coming, and
so they paled their Intellectual fires
and fell to the ground and expired"
IT am only Il" said my wife. "Why
do you try to make me 72?" BE
cause" said I, you have had u birth
days. You had n the day you al
born. When you were a year old you
had had two Then she gave it up.
These birthdays are the milestones
that measure the journey Of life. Next
NEo~lor 7 will ~ 10 ~. %hn OQl 1ro
of the girls will be 40. On the oath my
mother was born, and so was my
little grandchild, Caroline. who was
named for her. Ny wife can tell
the birthday of every child and grand.
child, but / know only halfza dozen.
Well. the Mexican boy did come. and
for a whole week we have Toasted on
his presence and listened to the same
old songs he used to sing. He Is a fine
singer. and has plenty of help from the
children and grandchildren.
And the night was filled with music
And the cares that infest the day
Folded their tents like h Arabs
s And silently stole way "
And the little hoy, who isAonly 20
months old. and looks like me, joins in
the hilarity and tries to sing, and holds
up his skirts and dances the cakewalk
and kicks up hissheels and bows to the
audience with great solemnity. He
plays monkey in the show. and his
young mother thinks he is the Smart
est and prettiest child in all the
and I think 50. for they say
he is just like me. What kind of a
would this be without these lit
tie children, and yet the last census
says they + not wanted up in New
England any ore They say that
loves children. and wants to
maternity. Well, I'll give
him credit for that when he r%etracts
and apologies. Our Mexican. boy says
the poems of Mexico have them by the
score Their adobe houses have but
one big room. with a dirt floor. and
you will see a man and his wife and a
flock of dirty, lousy, greasy children.
and half a dozen dogs all gathered
there by day and roosting there by
A peon is the biggest yaga-
bond on earth. He will work one or
two days in weekfor 81 cents a day,
and be paid in Mexican silver that is
worth only half what ours is, and he
and the family and the dogs will live
this for a week. They will steal
everything that Us in sight and not
locked up; says he has known them to
break into a car that was sidetrackea
and steal and carry off 1900 pounds OF
They will get it to the
city some way, and sell it to a junk
shop for a dollar or two. The Amer
leans do all the manufacturing; the
Germans all the hardware business;
the French all the silk and fine goods,
and the natives all the little shop
business, and run the saloons. Be
the archbishops and bishops, no
less than IS priests oficiate around the
chancel in the great cathedral every
day. Somebody must stay there to re-
ceive the offerings and grant absolu-
ton and remission of sins. This isthe'
largest cathedral in the world, except
three. It is 46 feet long, 400 fee wide,
and no feet from the floor to the
and the walls are literally
overlaid with gold and silver images
and cricifxes. The church is rich and
controls President Diaz. Diaz con-
trolls the Castilians. and the police all
over the towns and cities, and the po-
lice control the poems and the common
So at the last it is the priest
hood that dominates the government.
Liberal concessions are given to Amer