St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1903-05-23

fooling people still prevails In mary
countries among the young people.
It's origin is unknown. Some say it 10
a relic of an old heather festival. Some
say that in the middle ages they acted
q play taken from the life of Christ,
where he was sent from Annas to
Caiaphas and from Plate to Herod,
and so an April fool is one who is sent
| all about on an errand, as for instance,
for some pigeon milk, or for a book
giving the history of Adams grand
father, or to stop horseman and tell
him his saddle girth is on-buckled,
meaning unbuckled, SO he gets down
to buckle it and they run off and shout
April fol. The Hindoos practice the
same thing, but their All Fools day is
the 31st of March.
My folks killed snake in the flow
er pit to-day and before knew it our
mischievous school girl had coiled it
on the front steps and everybody who
came cried out, Here's a snake"
while the children watched from tho
window. The snake was dead, but
the fools were alive. My wife was
spending the day in the country and
knowing her horror of snakes they
telephoned her, ''Snake in the flower
pit and grandpa is afraid to go out
and kill him. He says you told him
to stay in the house. What must we
do?' She answered promptly, kill
him! Let your grandpa go out and
- e., L: 70 h0
always insists that every snake has 8
!, mate. Maybe it has, but they don't
go about together. Even the mother
leaves her young as soon as they arc
Matched or born and they have to
shift for themselves. Some snakes
are oyiparous and lay eggs and some
are viviparous and are born in their
mother and come forth from her
mouth. But all snakes are horrid
creatures and the curse that is upon
them is strong proof of the scrip
lures. "And l will put enmity be-
tween thee and the woman Chat is,
my wife) and between thy seed and
her seed. It shall bruise thy head
and thou shall bruise his heel"
When my wife came homo they
showed her the snake tit was .
striped garter snake), and told her
we couldn't find it's mate, but l am
going to put this one back in day
or two and kill him again for mate
but I'll bet she won't go in that pit
any more this summer.
But there are worse things than
snakes. I want to know who started
this late move to idolize and ovate
the memory of Henry Ward Beecher
in New York. It has been forty-four
years since he sent old John Brown
to take the arsenal at Harper's Ferry
and raise an insurrection among our
negroes. What did they wait so long
for? How come old Grover Cleveland
into it? What did old Beecher do to
command his admiration7 He got old
Brown to take al the risk, and he
and thirteen Of his comrades were
hung for it, and the negroes wouldn't
rise at all. Beecher and his sister did
more to precipitate the terrible war
than all other causes combined. IL
old Grover lauding him for that?
The lecherous old scoundrel debauch-
ed the wife of an elder in his church
and ruined his home and his happi-
ness. That was twenty years ago.
wonder if Grover is ovating him for
that? We are done with old Grover
row and forever. Let him hunt
ducks if he wants to. We have no use
for presidents who hunt duck or bear
or who love Beecher or love the
negroes better than the southern
white folks. Great heavens! Are they
fixing for another war. and have we
got to whip 'em again. Thank good
ness I'm not duck nor a bear. So
I reckon I'm safe.-Bill Arp, in At
lanta Constitution.