Bill's in Trouble-Anonymous

                                         Bill's in Trouble
I've got a letter, parson, from my son away out West,
An' my ol' heart is heavy as an anvil in my breast,
To think the boy whose futur' I had once so proudly planned,
Should wander from the path o' right an' come to sich an end?
I told him when he left us only three short years ago,
He'd find himself a-plowin' in a mighty crooked row-
He'd miss his pather's counsel, an' his mother's prayers, too,
But he said the farm was hateful, an' he guessed he'd have to go.
I know that's big temptation for a youngster in the West,
But I believed our Billy had the courage to resist,
An' when he left I warned him o' the ever-waiting' snares
That lie like hidden serpents in life's pathway everywheres,
But Bill he promised faithful to be keerful, an' allowed
He'd build a reputation that'd make us mighty proud.
But it seems as how my counsel sort o' faded from his mind,
An' now the boy's in trouble o' the very wusted kind!
His letters came so seldom that I somehow sort o' knowed
That Billy was a-trampin' on a mighty rocky road,
But never once imagined he'd bow my head in shame,
An' in hte dust'd waller his ol' daddy's honored name,
He writes from out in Denver, an' the story's mighty short;
I just can't tell his mother; it'll crush her poor ol' heart!
An' so I reckoned, parson, you might break the news to her-
Bill's in the legislatur' but he doesn't say what fur.

Lost and found

I thought this blog had disappeared. I didn't notice the view more tab on the bottom of the list so assumed I had deleted it, or something. Will have to find some more interesting old stories to post here.

Clean careful workers--an editorial

Here and there is to be found a firm of plumbers, painters, decorators, wall paperers, which makes a serious effort to lighten the burden which its invasion of a private dwelling necessarily entails. We hear of a plumber, for example, who picks and pays men whom he can trust to make honest use of their time and have a due regard to the cleanliness and comfort of the houses in which they work. This plumber is fairly overrun with business. Decorators have arisen in the past two or three years who strive to push their work through with as little delay as possible and to employ workers who are respectfully mindful of the wishes of the householder. There are painters who succeed in retaining men whose presence in and about a house is not an occasion of disgust and fear.
One can hardly expect the man who paints one's house to be a university graduate, or the journeyman plumber to wear the graces of a Chesterfield, but we are beginning to witness a demonstration of the power and money values of cleanliness and deceny in the workers

Description of a housekeeper

From Goodhousekeeping Magazine.
The Artist evolved the plan of housekeeping. She was young and blonde and she had a dual nature-no, not dual but multiple, and this was something the photographer could never understand. One of her many sides was that of intense practicality combined with perfect equity. In questions of art or ethics she soared into shadowy realms of thought, but in matters of finance her desire was for absolute objectivity and tangible results. After earnest pondering on the scheme she wrote a detailed letter to the Teacher and announced: "We have a jinger jar."
In moments of inspiration she had a soul above spelling, and to the Teacher and Photographer "Jinger Jar" endeared itself at once, and became more suggestive and harmonious than "ginger jar" could ever be. So the "J J" it became.