The Cairo bulletin. (Cairo, Ill.) 1???-1928, 1908-01-06
Protectors
The Fat Mans memory Was stirred

saw a chicken BIZ fher wearing d
pair Of those bas'.A ,leeye protectors
and ! stood and lau he'd Ike fool !"
said the lat man With the white
woollen mittens ifst time I'd seen
a pair OF basket 81 We protectors for
years don't gat ID markets much
and 80 | jtlst had - "A Oh. Ten you'
why. When Was a IKE used TO-
look with wonder and avs upon a Eel.
low who wore pair o. hisket sleeve
! protectors | considered that a fell
/ low with a pair Of these {, ings was
all right all right, and then pit some
more.
They had a kind of jounty, devil
maycare air about EN- that cant 1e-
fine. but it was there, and reyc Ell
and reverenced EN- | made up LILY
mind that II ever grew up and
| the price, me, too. for pair OF thos.
basket sleeve protectors, no matt
what sort of WORK II happen to tack
10 make living
7Qqecf dickenses boys hey? Men.
| b@r those ateut pencil attachment
that mark, tnen used to have ma
have en- yet hitched to their aprons
Wen, ! thought those We're pretty
nifty thinss. too, and | used to secret.
" banker to own one ot EN- Made
up my miad that would own one Of
EN-, too, when ! got TO be a man
but somehow Of another | never
seemed to want one after ] reached
The shaving age.
Guess some OF my ambitions as q
boy were pretty crazy, anyhow was
30 jealous Of the first boy | ever met
that could spit through his teeth at
mark ard hit 1t that hated him That
same boy pretty early in life got q
job driving delivery wagon for a
grocery Wen pratty soon after he
got that job he was wearing pair OF
these patent elastic shirt sleeve sup.
porters or holders, or whatever you'd
call iem; things with d clutch at either
end that pulled the cuff Of the sleeve
back from the wrist This boys pair
of these things were Of ping elastic.
and how he used TO aauut them before
my eyes.
He knew banned well that those
ping elastic sleeve supporters looked
finer 10 me than any Star Of India
or Victoria Cross could possibly look
and he knew, besides. that because
had to go to school and wasn't earn
ing anything there wasn't possible
chance on earth for me to get pair
like 'em-and so he Just held EN- over
me and made my life miserable. Yet
when | got to the wage earning age
never seemed to care at all for
a pair Of pink elastic sleeve support.
ers.
Another boy that | hated had
maroon colored Cardigan jacket That
was before the day of sweaters. This
hated boy wore the Cardigan jacket
beneath his regular outer coat and SO
be didn't have to wear any overcoat
That | considered was gorgeous
olessing-not to have to wear an over
sat to school | despised this boy
.oi wing II on me that way. Any.
lo@, ais maroon colored Cardigan
JACKET had a couple of pockets in
'ront that he kept full of all kinds OF
he even carried mice
o school in EN-. And that made my
Indignation all the greater--the fact
hat he had those fine covered up
pockets to his Cardigan jacket
"one great triumph did come to my
yke life, though and that was the
act that | was the first boy of my
chool to own pair OF copper-toed
'oots Well, | srrang the first pair
IS ! say. at my school, and guess
idnt break the hearts OF all the
Their boys or nothin Besides the cop.
er toes these boots had red tops,
With silver star and crescent
tamped on the red tops. and that
lade the blow all the more frightful
D the other tads that had to see me
talking around in those boots. After
while, though, nearly all OF the other
showed up with copper
bed boots and thus took the wind
NJ Of my sails.
We never see boys wearing peaked
APPS any more-notice? don't mean
lese dinky little cloth caps with
eaks TO EN-, but regular soldiers
APPS, with glazed peaks. First boy
lat turned up in our neighborhood
ith one of those things on made
snsation all right This same boy had
II hold of a carpenters pencil some
here. and he'd stick that carpenters
sncil underneath his forage cap, with
e sharpened end projecting in
lightly blase way that certainly
used us to regard him as some pun.
MS was alwavs crazy for a car
snter's pencil when-I was a boy, but
never got hold Of one Never did
I'VE much luck when | was a boy.
'yhOw, because my folks were too
AIMED respectable.
As matter Of fact-you can be
we IL or not. but I'm telling you the
wouldn't let me at the age
ten apply for the job of brakeman
a passenger train. That. | thought.
IS the finest job in the world
q lrn~-ar -. q rauuo-uas. train Tt,-s