Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1916-04-22
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events. whether one, two, or four or
five years have elapsed. I can only
roughly tell the passage of time BY
judging the changes in the appearance
and pursuits Of my fellows.
Also can apply the logic OF events
10 the various happenings For in.
stance, there is no doubt whatever that
my mother and l were freed by the
wild pigs and fed and fell In the DAYS
before l made the acquaintance OF
Lop Ear. who became what NAV call
my boyhood chum. And 1t is Just as
conclusive that between these two De-
RODS must have left my mother.
have no memory Of my father than
the one I have given. Never in the
years that followed did he reappear.
And from my knowledge of the times
the only explanation possible lies IN
that lie persisted shortly after the ad-
venture with the wild pigs That it
must have been an untimely end there
IS no discussion. He was in full vigor.
and only sudden and violent death
could have taken him off. But I know
not the manner Of his going-whether
he was drowned in the river or was
swallowed by a snake or went into the
stomach of old Saber Tooth. the tiger.
Is beyond my knowledge.
For know that I remember only the
things I saw myself with nv own
eyes in those prehistoric days II my
mother knew my fathers end she never
told me. For that matter doubt If she
had q voca bulary adequate to convey
such information. Perhaps. all told
the folk In that day had a vocabulary
of thirty or forty sounds
] call them sounds rather than words
because sounds they We're primarily.
They had no fixed values to be altered
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 adjectiyes and adj
verbs. We qualified sounds by intona-
ton. by changes in quantity and pitch,
by retarding and by accelera ting. The
It-lS III u AlLLt Gil E'ipftu III lIt uiltl-
anCe of a particular sound shaded its
meaning.
We had no coniugation. 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 he was hard put
TO communicate it to his fellows. There
were no sounds for it He was press
ing beyond the limits of his vocabu-
larry. If be invented sounds for 1t his
fellows did not understand the sounds
Then IL was that he fell back on pam
tomime. illustrating the thought wher-
ever possible and al the same time re-
peating the new sound over and over
again.
Thus language grew. By the few
sounds We possessed We were enabled
10 think a short distance beyond those
sounds; then came the need for new
sounds wherewith to express the new
thought Sometimes, however, we
thought too long a distance in advance
Of our sounds, managed to achieve alb
stractions dim ones, l 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 a lot that is
not known today. We could twitch our
ears, prick them up and fatten them
down at will. And we could scratch
between our shoulders with ease. We
could throw stones with our feet
have done II many a time And for
that matter, l 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
! only wish the twentieth century boy
could see us. But we made no collec-
ton Of eggs. We ate them.
! remember-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 q second hus
band. I have few recouectfons Of him
and they are not Of the best He was
light fellow. There was no soIidlty tt
him. He was too voluble. His inferna
cbattering worries me even now as
frf- IncnD
quential 70 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 or DIN
and his malicious pranks. Whenever
be came In sight ! crept close to my
mother and chung 10 her. But / Wa'
growing older all the time. and 1t wa'
tneyita bic that ! should from time Il
time stray from her and stray fnrthe
and farther. And these were the OPP
portunities that the Chatterer waited
for Il may as well explain that VIZ
bore no names In those days; were no
known By any name. For the sake o.
convenience have myself given names
10 the various folk | was more closely
in contact with. and the ''Chatterer Il
the most fitting description | can f1nt
for that precious stepfather OF mine
AS for me, have named myself Big
Tooth" My eve teeth were pTonounc
edIy large