Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1907-03-28
ThoRoFARE.


4 From the present without blame
just one memory from its stores%--7
Ere it goes to come no more?"
What has become Of one young gentle
tman who used to carry canes, land why have
Hcanes gone out OF fashion? can remember
Ia time when the cane was considered as
necessary a part Of a mans toilet as his
coat. 1t would be said Of the young man
| taking his afternoon stroll on Fifth Avenue
/ Without cane that he must be country
| Jake, y or have come from foreign ports
| These canes, of bamboo or ebony were light
and slender, and often richly ornamented at
the top, but they could get in good work N
case OF an emergency. The secret society OF
every college man was known by the stick
| he carried. Then there was the larger cane,
smooth and well-polished, with its ample
goId-head made smooth on top to suit the
palm of the elderly person who carried 1t;
| for nobody went down the hill Of life IN
those days without his cane. Even elderly
ladies found it sustainer, as they ambled
peacefully along, after having laid aside
their dancing slippers. The use OF sticks IN
general is Of the greatest antiquity. LIZ is
impossible to conceive a state of society in
which boughs should not be plucked from
trees for some purpose Of utility or amuse-
ment. Savages use clubs, hunters require
lances, and shepherds their crooks. Then
came the sceptre, which is originally moth
ing but staff, or lance. The Greek word
for sceptre signifies also walking stick.
Canes became so common before the decline
of the use of sticks, that whenever man
is beaten with stick, no matter ct what
sort, it is still usually said that he has had
s'caning.u Among other comparative In
iuries which we are accustomed TO give to
the characters of things animate and mani
mate, in order to crafty our human vanity,
is habit of calling insipid things or per-
sons ssticksu We protest against this
injustice done to those useful and once
fourishing sons of good old stock. Take,
for instance, common cherry stick, which
is one Of the favorite sort. 1t is pleasant to
look at, the grain running around it IN
glossy and shadowy rings. Then it is OF
primaeval antiquity, handed down from
scion to scion through the most hourishing
of genealogical trees. Is is OF Eastern OIL
gin; of stock which may have furnished
Haroun AL Rascbid with a diereed, or Ma
homet with camel-stick, or Nenophen, IN
his famous retreat with fences, or Aerxes,
with tent pins, or Alexander with laye-
lin, or Sardanapulus with darts, or Solomon
with smile for the lips of his mistress, or
Jacob with crook, or Methusalem with
shade, or Zoroaster with mathematical in
struments, or the builders of Babel with
scoffolding. How do you know that you
haye not eaten cherries off this very stick
It was once alive with sap, and rushing
with foliage, and powdered with blossoms,
and red and laughing with fruit. There IS
mechanically a ttWisdom of the stick. "
besides the famous .sDiyining Rod, with
which people used to discover treasures
and fountains, and the rod Of Aaron which
could breed and blossom at its own sweet
will. Deprive a man Of his stick, who is
accustomed to carry ore, and with what a
diminished air of vigor and gracefulness he
walks. His self-possession, like that OF
Aeres's on the background, has gone out
at the ends of his fingers. Let us hope for
the return of the stick