| Show A BOOK OF remarkable CHANGES SEEN IN SOME illustrations points that an inquisitive boy and Coorn laed ilia father that appear to have an wardrobe papa asked the boy looking up from his book can a man grow a real beard in one day 1 I should say not answered the father cautiously being mindful of the fact that within a week the boy had put to him this question why does a woman walk on her heels in crossing a muddy street and when be answered that he did not know the boy had said to get across but there was no sell about the question the boy asked nor about the next one which was this can a man get bald in one lightf he might in an indian country answered the father whereupon there was silence for a little time then the boy impatiently said 1 I dont understand these pictures at all everybody in them keeps changing around and I 1 dont know who is who and I 1 dont see how they know each other half a day running the book was tho swiss family robinson and the title page declared that there were illustrations it was worth while to follow the family through the pictures putting aside a colored frontispiece which depicted a lusty barelegged boy on a rock with a polo cap crowning a shock of yellow hair parted in the back a bow in his hand and his eyes fixed on a spouting whale that looked like a sardine sneezing violently the panorama opened with the family kneeling in grateful prayer for its escape the father with head bald on top smooth shaven face and long locks of white hair falling on his was the central figure and made an ideal vicar of wakefield fritz the eldest son wore a long coat and long trousers and franz the youngest was distinguished by a large button on hh coat in the small of the back this was in the forenoon CHANCES A few hours later in the afternoon behold the change the father had grown fine closely trimmed side whiskers and he and his sons had changed their straight locks for crisply curling hair from a gentle faced madonna the mother had been changed into a vivacious looking jewess and strangest of all two st bernards in the first picture had become trim bulldogs with every appearance of being ablerto maka a good fight then there came a lightning change in five minutes their fathers whiskers had grown an inch or two fritz and he had gotten into knickerbockers terminating in the father s case in blue stockings and buckled shoes both of them had lost the curl out of their hair and one of the bulldogs had been metamorphosed into a setter standing over a redish brown rabbit that waa declared in the text to be an agouti noon the next day and thy rather and fritz were again presented seated this tina y a brook but conveniently near a stone jug that might have held molasses and might not the father looked like a highlander in a farmers lothes and fritz who had grown three or tour years older was dressed like when that gentleman was of some consequence in paris and looked like him one of the dogs had become a king charles spaniel the other did not appear but was probably in seclusion settling on the treed in which ho would next appear the pair were on a hunting excursion on their deserted island A few boura later fritz had gotten his shock of yellow hair back and traded his danton costume for knickerbockers blue stockings and a sack coat while his father had somewhere picked up a russian peasants dress and grown a full brown beard and the bang charles had become a setter the jug had disappeared PERSONAL appearance that night the father shaved hunsell down to the sido whiskers dyed his owe and fritzs hair black put a sailor shirl on himself and a pair of striped lawr tennis trousers on fritz and the next morning went out sailing while the were absent the jewish faced n othe changed her countenance for a subdued irish arrayed herself in a dark blu gown that disclosed a red petticoat anc put a yellow handkerchief on her head taking jack one of her other sons and putting a trim polo cap ou his yellow locks the two accompanied by ono of the st bernards went out for a walk A day or two latr lat r the father had gotten back his full yellow beard which he seemed to wear his peasant costume and one of the dogs had changed into a hound but if you hoped the father would stay that way long enough for yuu to get acquainted with him divest your mind of that thought before night ha had returned to his trim side whiskers and curly hair while fritz had shrunk in length broadened in girth and put on long trousers that were too short for him and heavy shoes and so the picture run the father changes his clothes his beard and his hair at least once and often two or three times a day fritz is a good second in this kaleidoscopic performance the mother racially runs through all the races and exhibits a bewildering number of different costumes the little boys must hare been branded or their parents would never have been able to keep track of them BO extraordinary were the changes they underwent and the dogs offered enough varieties to have given a capital bench show the one hundred illustrations were altogether the most entertaining things about the copy of the swiss family robinson over which the boy puzzled and the boys father laughed new york times |
