Year: 1878

y
the popular superstition that mas
painted him coming into the world
full grown, with whiskers and NOUS
tache complete, and the prevailing
belief that there wasn't a boy in the
world until Eve came and raised the
Old Boy with Adam; yet we prefer
to think of our ancient progenitor
as having had something of a boyhood,
and we suppose we have as good
right to theorize upon the subject as
any one else.


Adam was probably as mischievcus
naturally, as boys generally are. LIN
fact, Darwin says he was perfect
little monkey" which, we believe, is
a synonym for mischievousness the
world over. But he had no compan-
ions In his gambols. If he stayed
out after dark and got to cutting up,
it was all by himself. And what
sport could he have ringing door-bells
without lot of other boys to scamper
away with? And consider the mel
ancholly fun Of fastening cords across
the walk at night with nobody to trip
over them.


We can imagine young Adam, with
all the instincts of boy two inches
thick in his nature, looking about for
some way to divert himself as other
boys do, and whimpering to himself:
t'Can't have any fun.''


Of course he couldn't by any pos
sibility have any fun. No fun rum
ming away from school, or stealing
of to 60 in swimming, because there
was no one to lick him when he got
home. No fun sneaking up into the
haymow to indulge in surreptitious
game of euchre-always had to ''play
it alone" He couldn't play 'tag,"
because he might yell, ''I've got the
tag" all day, and there would be no
one to come and take it away from
him. "Hi-spi'' had no charm, for a
boy soon gets tired of hiding when
he has to go to work to find himself.
And where is a boy who likes to work
and ''find himself"


The more we think about Adams
lonely boyhood, the more we are in
clined to pity him. He never knew
what circus meant, at least not until
Eve came and introduced him to one.
But we have nothing to do with that
now, as we are only treating of
Adams boyhood. True, there was
a big menagerie all around him, but
the animals were tame affairs; lambs
and lions lying down together in the
most spiritless concord, and the hip
popotamuses and canary birds play
ing with each other like kittens. Lit
tie Adam never sat way up on the
highest seat, and gazed awe-stricken,
while man in spangled tights sprang
whip in hand, into cage of savage
beasts that rolled their eyes, gnashed
their teeth, and roared until the cam
vas overhead tapped for very fear. |
No, indeed. He never saw a thin
legged female in short skirts, ride
Looping horse around ring and jump
through hoop, while a man with his
face painted white, and his mouth a
red exaggeration, tells that convulsive
story about stuffing hay into his shoes
to fill them out, and his calves going
down to eat the hay. Young Adam
never saw ''the old CLOWN" though
he came very soon after Adams day,
and the jokes he commenced with he
has been getting off ever since.


And how about base ball? Do you
suppose that Adam knew anything
about that exhllarating diversion that
is now doing so much toward develop
ing the intellect of our American
youth? There is no likelihood of it,
not while he was a boy. His son
Cain, however, seems to have been
the first who got up "club," but it
was the death of his brother Abel.


While there were so many things
that the boy Adam missed, think not
that bis solitary life was without its
compensations. There was no other
boy to steal his marbles, or hide his
top, or jeer at him because he had to
syear his big brother s cast-off clothes,
or fix bent pin for him to sit down
on,or make faces at his sister, or spell
him down, or steal his dinner, or tell
on him when he had been in mischief,
or beat him out of his sweetheart.
Adam escaped these and thousand
other annoyances that boys subject
each other to. He hadn't any brothers
and sisters to tease and worry him,
and with whom he was compelled to
divide his play-things and any nice
things to eat that might come that
way. He could leave piece of sweet
cake lying arodnd anywhere, knowing
that none of the rest of the children
would touch it; ami at night, on re-
tlring, he could stick his gum on
to the head-board, confident that it
would rest undisturbed until morn.
ing.


Whatever trouble and annoyances
his matrimonial life may have brought
him, we find kind of satisfaction in
rejecting that Adams boyhood was
exceptionally free from care, and on
that account we are bound to con-
clude that his life was not an entira