Middletown transcript., 1908-05-02
EXHIBIT NO. AZ
BY CHARLES NEWTON HOOD

Iau0lHS. Hills uU ohO .
Village County Fair strolled over
to the tent occupied by the young
man who was exhibiting traction
engines, and dropped in famil-
iarly. |
It was the afternoon of the
third day of the fair, and the
horse-racing, the especial fea-
tures," and the parade of prize
winning live stock were taking
place over at the half-mile track.
Where next, johnson ? asked
the elder man as he seated him.
self comfortably on a red-painted
tool-box. l go to the Union
County Fair myself.
I'm not exactly sure yet, an
swered the younger man, step
ping 10 the door to hand an ad-
vertising pamphlet to a stray
visitor who had stopped to glance
in. I expected to be sent to the
Union Fair myself, but I got a
letter from the manager yester-
day, saying that if the new ma
chimes they are getting up for
the Western trade are ready IN
time, he would want me to jump
out to Omaha and take charge OF
the exhibit there, and he would
send a man from the factory to
take these machines down to
Union.
Sorry to part company with
you, remarked the elder man,
now that we have chanced to be
along together at so many fairs,
but it's part of the business.
Yes. I don't care where they
send Frisco, Pekin, st.
Petersburg or Honolulu-it's all
the same to me.
Let me see, remarked the other
where did you say your home is?
Idon't think that I ever said,
answered Johnson with a laugh
which was not strictly mirthful,
but 1 don't mind telling you its
always just where I hang this
I'D, and taking off his shapely
straw hat he reached up and
hung it on a nail in one of the
tent-poles.
No home, eh? responded the
fanning-mill man. Too bad. I'm
a good bit of a rolling stone my
self, but there's a le'farmhouse
up near a York State village
where I hang up my hat once in
awhile, tell about my travels, eat
homemade brown bread, drink
milk from a COW whose grand
mother I used to drive to pasture
and really enjoy life for a little
while.
The young man looked far away
through the door of the tent
toward the crowd at the track.
Wife and children he asked.
No. Not yet. Not till I settle
down somewhere. Good old
father and mother, that's all,
And when l go back there, moth
ing is too good for me. God
bless them
You're in luck, remarked the
young man, ,sententiously. [ don't
suppose that need to tell you
that you can't be too good tc
them.
No, thank God, you don't need
to, though it does me good tc
hear you say il. I'm not much tc
brag about but whatever decency
there is about me l owe to them
But your own parents-are they
dead ?
l don't know. My father is,
know that ; but about my mother
I know positively nothing. Il
happened this way. I was wild
boy. Not a very bad kid den't
think l was-but wayward an6
flighty, and just the sort of a sor
that father couldn't endure. Al
only son-and child-aS that, anG
that tells a good deal. He USED
to say that mother spoiled me
but she didn't-and neither die
he-1 just spoiled myself.
I left the home l didn't know
enough to appreciate at fourteen
and since then I've been a wan
derer. I drifted into a machine
shop thousand miles from home
and suddenly discovered tina
that was where l belonged. Fol
couple of years I wrote to my
people regularly; then ] go
neglectful as I became interested
in my trade, and sort of weanet
from home. Then | was sen
with q gang of workmen to ASH
to help set up machinery for th'
firm. I wrote home several time:
but I never got a word in reply
II they wrote, I was drifting