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Show ( THE j ( NEWSBOY'S ) GREETING t By FRANCES GRIN STEAD IT WAS a frosty morning In the days of Franklin stoves. The paper carrier, a small boy wrapped In a red and black striped muffler, his nose and eyes showing beneath a cast-off cast-off plush cap of his father's, and wearing wear-ing a nondescript coat once big brother's, broth-er's, slipped in the door of the hardware hard-ware store with an armful of newspapers. news-papers. He blew his cold breath In the chill air and held his hands to the rapidly heating stove. Only then did he muster nerve to fish in the coat pocket hanging near his knees, and to proffer, with the morning paper, a New Year's card elaborately printed in two or three colors of ink, and decorated with a variety of borders, rules and sizes and styles of type. This he offered shyly, with a retreating re-treating motion toward the door. The hardware dealer glanced over his spectacles, looked at the greeting as if surprised, and exclaimed: "Well, well, Henry, but this Is nice. Thank .you and here's a dime." Henry left the stove's Increasing warmth with more haste than usual, He Glanced Over His Spectacles as If in Surprise. in order to make his New Tear's call upon Miss Mattle, milliner and dealer deal-er in thread, needles and buttons. With her and with others on his route from the mayor to the grocer and blacksmith he left the daily paper and a copy of the annual work of art from his editor's printshop, conveying convey-ing In lines that rippled with eloquence elo-quence the paper carrier's hope that his patrons would wax prosperous and maintain a state of general good health "throughout the glad New Year." Each of his customers would express ex-press an agreeable surprise and a gratifying knowledge of what was expected, ex-pected, responding with gifts that ranged from the hardware man's dime to the mayor's fifty cents. Among the samples of work done which printing offices go seldom throw away, there must rest many examples of the carrier boy's card of thirty to fifty years ago. It was a widespread custom. Under the dusty eavesof one printshop has lain a carrier's card that will soon round out Its century of aging yellowness. yellow-ness. The 120 lines of the "poem" It bears deal with the fleeting character charac-ter of Time, present the merits of Henry Clay over William nenry Harrison, Har-rison, and end with this verse: The Ladles Fair! God blena them all. Will raise the swelling lay And help un onward roll the ball The ball for Henry Clay. Thus when you revel In your hall, Midst mirth and lauph and Joy, At how you nobly "rolled the ball, Think of the Carrier Boy. Western Newspaper Union. |
