The Hays free press., 1922-03-23
PASSING COMMENT
By NJ. H. J.

- AOofAhS OA- Ell 10 twenty COEQS
of wood were provided in the fall for
the boys to practise on. My elder
brother was too proud to make a
figure at the saw-horse, and my
lazy to waste any time as muscular
christian and l fell heir to the job. It
was good for me. That elder lad sue
cumbed nearly or quite thirty years
ago, and Bud" as we called him, is
much impaired, if living, while your
scribbler (not to boast Of it) still is
drifting in his eighty-second year.
10000
When we came up from the south
with General VIM. Tecumseh Sher-
man to join in the Grand Review at
Washington, at the close of the Civil
War, the calves of our legs were as
hard as wood, the result of our long
and continuous marches. Nowadays,
people will die of softening of the
legs because of the automobile.
10000
l knew an old lady-Aunt Polly
who drove a fat old Dobbin, which
could trot all day under a peach tree !
as she drove along, suddenly hte roar
of the cannon ball." coming at a
sixty-mile clip, smote upon her ears,
an she said to hreself, I will beat the
train to the crossing and she pushed
upon the lines and touched old Dob
~, 1;CL+J1y ,,y;tb l,a,. ,,rbi,, CIo -,roe
fairly on the track when the cow
catcher tossed her in the air, smashed
the buggy to flinders, killed old Dob
bin, an set Aunt Polly to one side
and never hurt her a bit, if you'll be-
lieve me!
10000
The vandal will do anything that
his crafty, avaricious heart may sug-
gest. In the principal room at Mount
Vernon is a richly carved mantel-
piece of variegated marble, present
ed to Washington by iberty-loving
adnirer in Italy. The vandal-visitOr
watched his chance and struck from
this precious work of art a knob of
one of the beautifully wrought
flowers and sneaked away with it as
a prize!
The human soul, chaste and fair,
is often marred like that!
10000
Our mail carrier was making his
rounds Monday morning, accompan-
led by his kid-six or seven years old
who was learning daddie's route; !;
he expects to be a mail carrier some
day, or President of the United
States or something worth while; he
was game; he could beat pater to the
box every time. Good boy! and will
make his mark some day.
10000
The city of Hays can make a mem
orial to our soldier dead of the Fort
Hays park of which We will be in
possession some day., and every cit
izen Will rival his neighbor in plant
ing one or more trees there.
10000
You would like to be honored
while living and remembered when
dead. Build monument for yourself
it may be of granite or brass; but
you can do better than that; our late
fellow citizen, NJ. J. R. Treat has left
I monument in Hays-more than one
that time cannot corrode nor
crumble, which will be there in per-
enniaI freshness when the granite
memorials to Washington and Lin
coin have dissolved to dust. Great
wealth has often, here in America,
been wilIed to a fool to waste; be
admonished therefore, my man, and
will portion of your substance to
the city of Hays to be jealousy
guarded through generations; the
ground on which you tread-this lap
of earth-which will be your pillow
some day, can, like Mr. Treats, be
used by you for memorial that will
last coveal with time. Will you do
it?
! Remember the old saying: The
devil had grudge against him and
paid him back in sOns-in1aw.
Be it said, further, that the mem
Forials to Washington and Lincoln are
not in stately shafts nor pilIared
temples, but in the hearts of a CRATE
full people.
i 10000
Another great Chicago fire; not
equal to that OF 1871, but bad
enough. I recall the words of Will
liam Bross, one of the old Tribune
editors of that day; as he fed along
the sidewalk from that Sodom and
Gomorrah coniagration, he turned