The Tupelo journal., 1903-06-26
MRS. ARP'S BIRTHDAY
Bill Celebrates It and Will Shortly
Celebrate His Own.
And Then Come Some Others-A Visit
from the Boy Who Lives In Mex.
leo Something About Our
NeighbOring Republic,

You write with ease to show your breed
ing, ks
But easy writing is curst hard reading"
L am too sick to write easy, but
don't wish to be cursed about it. This
gloomy weather takes away all my
hllarity. Lowell says: 'Oh, what's SO
rare as a day in June" 1t 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. | was sick the night
before, and she was up with me half
the night and slept late. 1 had creeped
In to breakfast and slipped a five-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
labial 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 ~ 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"
Il am only H." said my wife. "Why
do> you try to make me 72Y" "Be-
cause said 1, you have had 72 birth
days. You had one the day you was
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
Monday ! will be ~. On the 23d one
of the girls will be 40. On the gath my
mother was born, and so was my
little grandchild, Caroline. who was
named for her. My wife can tell
the birthday of every child and grand
child. but | know only half a 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 the Arabs
And silently stole away
And the little boy. who is only 20
months old, and looks like me, joins in
up his skirts and dances the cakewalk
and kicks up his heels 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
world, and I think So, for they say
he is Just like me. What kind of a
world would this be without these lit
tie children, and yet the last census
says they are not wanted up in New
England any more. They say that
Roosevelt loves children. and wants to
encourage maternity. Well, I'll give
him credit for that when he retracts
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
night. A peon is the biggest vaga-
bond on earth. He will work one or
two days in a week for 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
on this for a week. They will steal
everything that is in sight and not
locked up; says he has known them to
break into a car that was sidetracked
and steal and carry off 1000 pounds of
machinery. 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-
sides the archbishops and bishops, no
less than IS priests officiate around the
chancel in the great cathedral every
Ior- CN,pohnIv nn1ct Stay thpra tn rp-
ceive the offerings and grant absolu-
ton and remission of sins. This is the
largest cathedral in the world, except
three. 1t is 46 feet long. 400 feet wide,
and 40 feet from the floor to the
| ceiling, and the walls are literally
overlaid with gold and silver images
| and cricifiXes. The church is rich and
controls President Diaz. Diaz O.
trolls the Castilians, and the police all
| over the towns and cities, and the po-
| lice control the poems and the common
people. So at the last it is the priest
| hood that dominates the government.
| Liberal concessions are given to Amer
leans to build. railroads and dig canals
and to mine for precious metals. The
charter under which the Mexican Ma
| tional was built requires II members
Of the board of directors, and five of
them must live in Mexico; the others
may live anywhere. Our boy Carl is
a Mexican director, having lived there
long enough to become eligible, and
that is how he was called to New York
last week to a meeting of the board,
and got a chance to come by home