River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1905-11-02

candle to that for filling up the
waste places and making a hungry
man feel at peace with all the world
Gee, but cheese stops that tired feel
ing in fellow like taking chloroform
for toOthache," said the boy, as he
put himself outside the lunch the old
man had provided. There Is no alb
sent treatment about cheese, like the
Christian Scientists teach. It is the
real stuff. We have been boarding for
a couple of weeks with a woman who
practices Christian Science, and / am
as hollow as woodpecker's nest That
boarding house keeper gives us boiled
water and tells us to imagine that 1t
is coffee, and we are just as we'll off
as though we had the real thing. We
had absent treatment ham and eggs for
breakfast, and there was no ham and
no eggs, and the woman just talked
yam and eggs until we thought we
were filled clear up to the muZZle, but
when we got out of her presence we
were too weak to walk. But dad got
even with the Christian Science board
ing house keeper this morning when
he paid the board bill. He handed her
a blank piece of paper, and told her
to imagine it was a check for $50; but
she is going to sue dad for obtaining
board under false pretenses, and
guess we will be in litigation the rest
of our lives. Say, give me another
cheese sandwich, and cut the cheese
thicker" and the bad boy reached for
another cracker.
Il don't believe much in these new
styles of religion" said the cid man,
as he wiped the cheese knife on a cof-
fee sack. GIVE me the old praying
and shouting kind of religion, that has
a revival in the winter and gets you
all het up, and you go forward and
have 'em pray for you, and you con-
fess to your sins and along in the
spring are baptized, and feel that you
are as brand plucked from the burn
ing, and then, when summer comes,
and the picnic season opens, you back
slide and the people of the church cut
you dead, and point to you as one of
the worst ever, and then along towards
winter you attend the revival again,
and get religion where you left off,
and they fall over themselves to make
you feel that you are as good as any
body, and the next time you are bap-
tized it seems to take, like vaccination,
and you stick to the church always, and
sit up nights to rope in other fellows
that swear and cut up. That is what l
call religion that sticks to your ribs
like crackers and cheese to hungry
man.
But, say, how was it you never
wrote me, when you were abroad,
about visiting Greece? Your dad was
in here t'other day and said he had
had rheumatic ever since he was kid
mapped in Athens, and had to wear the
Greek costume of short petticoats for
men, and sleep out on a mountain-side.
What about it?"
Did dad tell you that?" said the
bad boy, as he laughed, and looked as
though the recollection of the Greek
experience was going to split him wide
open. dad and / agreed that we
would keep that a secret, but if he
has told about it, there is no use OF
my keeping still. We struck Athens.
and dad felt that here was a place
where he could boss the people around.
cause everybody seemed to be dressed
like ballet dancers; the men woIe
sort of starched petticoat, and they all
looked as though they were lovesick,
and didn't do anything but pose to be
looked at, and we couldn't blame them,
for the women were the whitest and
hsndsomest we had seen anywhere,
with red cheeks, and great soulful eyes
like Americans. Yes, sir, everybody
in Athens seemed to be in love, and
dad thought the men looked effeminate,
Dn account of their clothes, but every
man is an athlete and fighter from
the word go.
well, we went up on the hill to the
Acropolis, an old marble ruin that
overlooks the town, and dad paced of
the ground, to see how much terri
tory it covered, and figured up how
much good marble there was in 1t,
that could be used for gravestones,
end when some of the policemen asked
me what the old man was doing told
than he was rich old party from