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Show A man may know no more of mfastc, . .'-.nically, than a dog does of . a colognctinctured bath, but his soul yearns for it and his heart is touched by sweet harmonies. The fanner's hired man has his "mouth-prgan,". and, occasionally, his "fiddle." Almost every home in the land has some musical musi-cal instrument in it, from a jewsharp to a grand piano. We are told the man who has no music in him, who is not stirred by. the concord of sweet sounds, is fit for strategies and things of evil. In the city, the Italian with his music box is the chief delight of the children who dance upon the pavement pave-ment to his air. There is music everywhere, every-where, good, bad and indifferent, from the masters' down to the rag-time pi ducers that thump lively in "emporiums" "empori-ums" and beer saloons "Man's best friend is his dog," says the one who makes saws and axioms. He should have observed further and noted it is only between a boy and a dog that the ideal friendship exists. It .. is as natural for a boy to own a dog as to have a sore toe and a stone-bruise. stone-bruise. : He is a real boy who has all three at one time. What man among you never owned a dog? We had a dog ;when we were in the goin'-in-swimmin' iage, and we will wager our prospective raise in salary that President Roosevelt Roose-velt owned a dog when he was a boy. So did J. Pierpont Morgan, John W. Gates and Cap'n Streeter of Chicago But not all the worshipers of Apollo love made music best. This is especially espe-cially true of the country folks, who, happily, are better situated to appreciate ap-preciate the music of nature. They hear greater rhapsodies than ever Wagner, or Chopin, or Liszt have produced. pro-duced. Theirs is the vast music hall of strains akin to God. They list the harmonies of sublime wings, the heart music of the spheres. They hear the murmur of the babbling brook crooning croon-ing to the daisies, the rustle of the leaves, the crescendoes of the wind, the sighing of the reed, the gushing of a rill, the rose-lipped shell that murmurs mur-murs of the eternal sea, birds that, ;and the "Deestriat of Lake Michigan." 'Our dog was not of Blenheim birth, but a mangy cur with yellow eye-ibrows. eye-ibrows. He had scraggly hair and was ,a cross between a whelp and a wire fence. We would not have admitted it in the olden days, but time has dulled our pride and made us more i susceptible. to truth. He was a lonely lone-ly dog and had fleas but, gee whilli-kens! whilli-kens! he was a fighter! His hair was so long the offending dog could not set fangs through it into his flesh. Hence it was merely a matter of time sing of matin joys, trees that sigh for monarch brothers razed, the waving whirring of the grain, the silken rustle of the corn, the grand roaring of the ocean all these are beautiful to one who understands. It is only the musician musi-cian who hears best the troubadour touching his guitar, realizes keenest the strains from Antonio Stradivarius' violin, enthuses over soft Lydian airs and applauds most understandingly the master handling of the harp "that once through Tara's halls the soul of music shed." until our canine had the other fellow's dog hors-du-combat. Many is the time we (and the dog) have cleaned up the neighborhood dogs and left for new dogs to conquer, in a state of bloated pompousness at our victory. During the cleaning up process we remember distinctly that we had' most of the work to do "sicking" Yip onto the enemy. en-emy. All Tip had to do was to pay attention to us and do the fighting. We assure you he had much the lesser task, and no responsibility whatever. To own the best fighting dog in 'the town is a responsibility which all prominent men who have owned good fighting dogs, will at once appreciate. But there came a sad and tearful day for us, a period between sunlight and shadow when woe entered the enchanted en-chanted Circle of boyish happiness and - J"t us --eaping like Niobe, all tears, for the loss of our faithful dog. In an evil moment, when not busily engaged in maintaining his position of sunrem- It Is but the musician who can best enjoy the made music, but who cannot with Shakespeare say: "How sweet the moonlight sleeps upon the bank! Here will we sit and let the sounds of music Creep in our ears: soft stillness, and "th night Become the touches of sweet harmony." Dr. George F. Hall of Chicago, deprecates dep-recates gum chewing. He says if he had the gum money of the city of Chicago for one year, he could build and dedicate free, a magnificent auditorium audi-torium with a, seating capacity of 10,000. This reminds us: If we had the "mazuma" spent annually an-nually in Chicago for face powder, we could buy fireworks for all the newsboys news-boys next Fourth of July and have money enough left to endow a found- aoy in the village, Yip ate a new wife's ;first apple-dumpling, or some other jdeadly matter of refuse, and died with a pain in his midst as big as a feather feath-er bed. Mother, God bless her, covered cov-ered his body with a rug and broke the news gently but there were lamentations lam-entations and -mourning in sincerity and in truth, for that dog, despite her carefully worded preparation. Out in a favorite playground among the hazel brush we dug a grave and planted Yip. lor weeks we visited his grave and wished him back again to fight new ling society. If we had the "tin" spent annually in Chicago for playing cards, we cculd take all the worn out women and children in the city on a vacation once a month and show them how to be happy, though living! If we had the filthy lucre spent annually in Chicago for curl papers and the damage they do in the roseate light districts, we could double the size of the loop and make it possible to get down town during the forenoon fore-noon in time for luncheon. . And further: If we had all the cash equivalents spent annually in Chicago for gum, face powder, playing cards, vice and liquor, we could keep Chicago CLEAN enough so a fellow could wear one collar a whole day without totally blackening it and we would, too, by guinea! if we had to quit writing and look after it personally. Returning to Dr. Hall and his figures, fig-ures, we side with the doctor and believe be-lieve he speaks the truth. What a sad commentary In the words: "Man's Inhumanity to man Makes countless thousands mourn." , A denial of the harmful things of life would make those "countless thousands" happier and better. We are yet some leagues from being perfect! per-fect! - 'battles. Other dogs came and went, held the championship and departed the way of the eternal bow-wows, but never a dog entered our heart's affection affec-tion as that one. He was a scrapper from the bone-yard district, and if there are dog fights in heaven, we rest happy in full faith that he still holds the belt. 5 5 5 The onlooker who sees nine children chil-dren calling for "ma" at one time, may wonder if the romance of wedded wed-ded life has not many false halos. One writer says when a woman has that many children she begins to have suspicions about some of the beautii'ul passages in love stories! But. ble?s you, why should she? From babyhood that mother has loved children. Her first wa3 a nigger-baby which she loved none the less because be-cause she mauled it. Her second was- a beautiful china creation with golden hair, eyes that opened and Some low-browed plebeian out in Denver has referred to woman, lovely woman, as a "repeater." Two young people bet on a church fair election. The wager was a pair of.opera glasses against 300 kisses. The woman "just knew she would win the bet, or, of course, she wouldn't have wagered!" Of course! But, horrors! there were more pumpkin seeds in the pumpkin than she had dreamed of and she lost. . The young man went up to the house the very next night to claim hia wager. The young woman was in a paroxysm of shame and frizzes but she always kept her word. The ordeal began at 8:30, with lights turned low, the girl's little brother behind the sofa. When only half through the youngster went to sleep and breathed so hard he frightened the osculation all out of the kissers and now they have to begin all over again! A woman has to pay her debts, doesn't she, even if she is a "repeater?" ciosea, uainty silken garments, soft and shiny shoes, and withal a veritable veri-table fairy of a dolly. Even when she had grown to girlhood she had a big doll in her snuggery, daintily arrayed ar-rayed in a cozy corner of the room on a mantel. Then came her love, her marriage and its first fruit a real baby. And she loved it and lived foe it! And did she love either the less for the second baby? One by one as they came, flowers from heaven, hea-ven, her heart broadened and widened and her horizon grew. Her visioa took in leagues of understanding and she was the ideal woman at last a mother! With her children she lived, happy in their joys, sympathetic in their sorrows,' but gladsome always in maternity. Ask the mother of nine children if the passages in the love stories are true and she will answer promptly: , "Yes, indeed! Every one of them!" |