The Liberal democrat. [volume] (Liberal, Kan.) 1911-1924, 1912-09-06
AND SCHOOL BEGAN

/ The school book department OF
the Smith Bros. Drug Store was
place Of much interest Monday morn
ing to those who love to study hui
man nature, and watch the amusing
antics of kids"
Many and many mamma routed
a sleepy, towsled headed Johnny"
or "Mable" out of bed that morning
I;an hour earlier than usual, and took
him or her on the back porch and
ilgave neck and ears the first good
Acrubbing for weeks. Made him wash
his feet, put on his clean overalls
and a clean waist, gave him his Sun
day hat and told him to be careful
with it because 1t would have to last
him most all winter. Put some vase
line on his hair and plastered it with
a comb, down tight to his head;
knelt down and took the unconCerned
little student in her arms and kissed
the uncOmmonly rosy cheeks, more
rosy on account of the hard scrub
bing; told him to "be a good boy,
and come right home after school
| because Mamma will be lonesome
/ Without her boy" all of which "John-
ny" did not hear, or II he did, paid
no attention to.
About fifteen minutes later we find
Johnny" with great crowd OF
other Johnnies, Billies, Ralphs, Dicks,
and Old Bills; also HaZels, Berthas,
Mables, and Ruths, all in a babbling
bunch down at the book store. The
clerks are very busy and our Johnny
thinks Of only one thing he wants,
at time, and it would keep one clerk
busy simply waiting upon him so he
is severely rebuked for not getting
what he wants and getting out. But
Johnny meets this with such serio-
comic and winning smile that the
clerk gives up in despair. Johnny
has the suspenders of his new over
alls pretty badly twisted in the back.
too, and he keeps hunching uncon
sciOusly at the uncomfortableness o.
it. At last he gets all Of his things,
in which are mingled lot of pen
ellis, erasers, rulers, pens, etc, that
he does not need, and starts for the
school house, only to step on piece
of broken ink bottle and cut his foot
Johnny Is one of the kind Of individ-
uals who will always be having hard
luck in this world but everybody will
love him, and his smile will carry
him over many rough place In the
road
But there are all kinds of kids. p"
We found little Ralph" over In the
corner crying as If his heart would
break because he had to use the
same old Primer, when all the rest
were going to hove new books, boo
hoo!" and his little sister was trying
to quiet him while she glanced timid-
ly around to see if everybody was
laughing at him. The rich mans
Fool son comes and as usual is very
loud mouthed, and orders what he
wants with a commanding voice 80
that all of the other Poor little kids
will notice him" and when most Of
the children were buying penny pen
| ellis, he rushed up to the pencil case
and grabbed handful OF nickel pen
ellis, while many longing eyes watched
him. The demure little girl was there,
who was so bashful that she could
not tell what she wanted and the
clerk had to lean down so that she
could whisper In his ear what she
wanted. The pretty high school girls
we're there giggling as usual A little
nervous and anxious about the be-
ginning of school and wondering what
the new teachers would be like. All
exchanging silly repartee. Such is
the happiest time of their lives, for
soon the traces of Heaven will disap-
pear from them and the rust that is
formed by the hatreds of different
factions, gossip, passion, and the fight
for the almighty dollar, will take It's
| place.