. The long ago. rner o nights. But hisboy, old Jimmys grandson, is still a lamplighter—still illuminating the streets of his town, still turn-ing on its lamps when the loon calls weirdly acrossthe river in the gathering dusk. He bears no ladder nor fitful taper—^he dreads nosultry summer heat—he breasts no snowdrifts—^hebattles against no wind-driven sleet and rain. There he sits, inside yonder great brick building,his chair tipped back against the wall, reading theevening paper while the giant wheels of the dynamopurr softly and steadily. He lowers his paper—looks at the clock—then out into t
. The long ago. rner o nights. But hisboy, old Jimmys grandson, is still a lamplighter—still illuminating the streets of his town, still turn-ing on its lamps when the loon calls weirdly acrossthe river in the gathering dusk. He bears no ladder nor fitful taper—^he dreads nosultry summer heat—he breasts no snowdrifts—^hebattles against no wind-driven sleet and rain. There he sits, inside yonder great brick building,his chair tipped back against the wall, reading theevening paper while the giant wheels of the dynamopurr softly and steadily. He lowers his paper—looks at the clock—then out into the early twilight. . then slowly turns to the wall, pushes abit of a button, takes up his paper again, and goeson with his reading—^while a thousand lights burnwhite through the city! .... Ah, Jimmy, Jimmy! the world is all awry, man!Your sons son lights his thousand lamps in a flashthats no more than the puff of wind that used toblow your match out when you stood on your ladderand lighted one!. I E ?Jliia^IS Come to think of it, the Old Folks never madesuch a fuss about flies as we make nowadays. Youcannot pick up a magazine without running plumbinto an article on the deadly housefly—^with picturesof him magnified until he looks like the old million-toed, barrel-eyed, spike-tailed dragon of your boy-hood mince-pie dreams. The first two pages con-vince you that the human race is doomed to exter-mination within eighteen months by the houseflyroute! Grandmother never resorted to very drastic meas-ures. The most violent thing she ever did was toget little Annie, Bridget-the-housewomans Annie, tohelp her chase them out. They went from room toroom periodically (when flies became too numerous),each armed with an old sawed-off broom-handle onwhich were tacked long cloth streamers—a sort ofcat-o-nine-tails effect, only with about a score ormore of tails. After herding the blue-bottles and alltheir kith and kin into a fairly compact bunch atthe door, little Annie opene
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, bookidlongago01wri, bookyear1916
