The Logan Republican. [volume] (Logan, Utah) 1902-1924, 1916-04-13

by adjectives and adverbs. These lat
ter were tools OF speech not yet invent
ed. Instead Of qualifying nouns or
verbs by the use Of adjectives and ad-
verbs, we qualified sounds by intona-
ton. by changes In quantity and pitch,
by retarding and by accelerating. The
length Of time employed In the utter
ance of particular sound shaded its
meaning.
We had no conjugntion. One Judged
the tense by the context We talked
only concrete things because we
thought only concrete things also we
depended largely on pantomime. The
simplest abstraction was practically
beyond our thinking, and when one did
happen to think one lie was hard put
to communicate 1t to his fellows. There
were no sounds for 1t. He was press.
ing beyond the limits of his vocabu.
larry. II he invented sounds for 1t his
fellows did not understand the sounds.
Then II was that he fell back on pan.
tomime, illustrating the thought wher.
ever possible and at the same time re.
peating the new sound over and over
again.
Thus language grew. BY the few
sounds we possessed we were enabled
to think II short distance beyond those
sounds; then came the need for new
sounds wherewith to express the new
thought. Sometimes, however, we
thought too long n distance In advance
Of our sounds, managed to achieve alb.
stractlons dim ones, | grant. which
we failed utterly to make known to
other folk. After all, language did not
grow fast in that day.
oh, believe me, we were amazingly
| simple. But we did know lot that Is
not known today. We could twitch our
ears prick them up and tlattcn them
down ut will. And we could scratch
between our shoulders with ease. We
could throw stones with our feet.
have done 1t many Il time. And for
that matter. could keep my knees
straight, bend forward from the hips
and touch, not the tips of my fingers.
but the points of my elbows, to the
ground. And as for bird nesting-well
could see us. But we made no collcc.
ton of eggs. We ate them.
remembcr-but | outrun my story.
! First let me tell OF Lop Ear and our
/ friendship. Very early in my life sep
/ arated from my mother. Possibly this
was because after the death of my
father she took to herself second hus
] ha, lao, %, Ill. LII.
and they are not of the best He was
light fellow. There was no solidity to
him. He was too voluble. His Internal
| chattering worries me even now as |
think of it. His mind was too incense.
quential to permit him to possess pur.
pose Monkeys in their cages always
/ remind me of him. He was monkeyish
That is the best description can give
of him.
He hated me from the first. And !
quickly learned to be afraid Of him
and his malicious pranks. Whenever
he came in sight crept close to my
mother and chung to her. But | was
growing older all the time. and 1t was
inevitable that l should from time &c
time stray from her and stray farther
and farther. And these were the op
portunities that the Chatterer waited
for. II may as well explain that we
bore no names in those days: were not
known by any name. For the sake OF
convenience have myself given names
TO the various folk I was more closely
In contact with. and the "Chatterer" Is
the most fitting description I can find
for that precious stepfather of mine
AS for me, have named myself big
Tooth" My eye teeth were pronounc
eddy largeJ
But to return to the Chatterer. He
persistently terrorized me. lie was nj
ways pinching me and cutting me. and
on occasion he was not above biting
me. Often my mother interfered, and
the way she made his fur fly was Joy
TO see. But the result OF all this was
beautiful and unending family quar-
rel. in which was the bone of con
tcntion.
No. my home life was not happy.
smile 10 myself rs | write the phrase
Home life. Home. | had no home IN
the modern sense Of the term My
home was an association. not habi
tauon. lived In my mothers care
not In house. And my mother lived
anywhere, so long ns when night cam,
she was above the ground.
My mother was old fashioned She
stlll chung to her trees II Il true, The
more progressive members Of our hord'
lived IN the caves above the river Blu
my mother was suspicious and unpro
gressivc. The trees We're good enough
for her OF course. we had one par
tlcular tree in which we usually rOost
ed, though we often roasted In othe
trees when nightfall caught us. In 1
convenient fork was sort of md,
platform of twigs and branches ant
creeping things, II was more Ike 1
huge bird nest than anything else
though It was thousand times crude
In the weaving than any bird nest
But It had one feature that have
never seen attached TO any bird nest
namely roof