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up and down, back and forth, across a star-lit sky; providing a display |
without a par in local annals. |
But not only did Youth thrill at so fantastic a show. Adults had many a |
Fourth of July brought back from a distant past; in which our national |
custom wound up our most important holiday with a similar display; |
only, in our Fourths of long ago, horrifying, gigantic concussions |
would disturb old folks and invalids until midnight; at which hour, |
according to law, all such carrying-on must stop. But did it? Possibly |
in _your_ town, but not around _my_ district! All Fourth of July |
outfits don't always function at first, you know; and no kid, (or |
adult!) would think of quitting until that last pop should pop; or that |
last bang should bang. And so, many a dawn on July fifth found things |
still going, full blast. |
III |
Youth cannot stay for long in a condition of inactivity; and so, for |
only about a month did things so stand, until a particularly bright |
girl in our Organization, thought out a plan for caring for infants of |
folks who had to go out, to work; and this bright kid soon had a group |
of girls who would join, during vacation, in voluntarily giving up four |
days a month to such work. With about fifty girls collaborating, all |
districts had this most gracious aid; and a girl would not only watch |
and guard, but would also instruct, as far as practical, any such tot |
as had not had its first schooling. Such work by young girls still |
in school was a grand thing; and Gadsby not only stood up for such |
loyalty, but got at his boys to find a similar plan; and soon had a |
full troop of Boy Scouts; uniforms and all. This automatically brought |
about a Girl Scout unit; and, through a collaboration of both, a form |
of club sprang up. It was a club in which any boy or girl of a family |
owning a car would call mornings for pupils having no cars, during |
school days, for a trip to school and back. This was not only a saving |
in long walks for many, but also took from a young back, that hard, |
tiring strain from lugging such armfuls of books as you find pupils |
laboriously carrying, today. Upon arriving at a school building, many |
cars would unload so many books that Gadsby said:-- |
"You would think that a Public Library branch was moving in!" This car |
work soon brought up a thought of giving similar aid to ailing adults; |
who, not owning a car, could not know of that vast display of hill and |
plain so common to a majority of our townsfolks. So a plan was laid, by |
which a car would call two days a month; and for an hour or so, follow |
roads winding out of town and through woods, farm lands and suburbs; |
showing distant ponds, and that grand arch of sky which "shut-ins" |
know only from photographs. Ah; _how_ that plan did stir up joyous |
anticipation amongst such as thus had an opportunity to call upon old, |
loving pals, and talk of old customs and past days! Occasionally such a |
talk would last so long that a youthful motorist, waiting dutifully at |
a curb, thought that a full family history of both host and visitor was |
up for an airing. But old folks always _will_ talk and it will not do a |
boy or girl any harm to wait; for, you know, that boy or girl will act |
in just that way, at a not too far-off day! |
But, popular as this touring plan was, it had to stop; for school |
again took all young folks from such out-door activity. Nobody was so |
sorry at this as Gadsby, for though Branton Hills' suburban country is |
glorious from March to August, it is also strong in its attractions |
throughout Autumn, with its artistic colorings of fruits, pumpkins, |
corn-shocks, hay-stacks and Fall blossoms. So Gadsby got a big |
motor-coach company to run a bus a day, carrying, gratis, all poor or |
sickly folks who had a doctor's affidavit that such an outing would aid |
in curing ills arising from too constant in-door living; and so, up |
almost to Thanksgiving, this big coach ran daily. |
As Spring got around again, this "man-of-all-work" thought of driving |
away a shut-in invalid's monotony by having musicians go to such rooms, |
to play; or, by taking along a vocalist or trio, sing such old songs |
as always bring back happy days. This work Gadsby thought of paying |
for by putting on a circus. And _was_ it a circus? _It was!!_ It had |
boys forming both front and hind limbs of animals totally unknown to |
zoology; girls strutting around as gigantic birds of also doubtful |
origin; an array of small living animals such as trick dogs and goats, |
a dancing pony, a group of imitation Indians, cowboys, cowgirls, a |
kicking trick jack-ass; and, talk about clowns! Forty boys got into |
baggy pantaloons and fools' caps; and no circus, including that first |
of all shows in Noah's Ark, had so much going on. Gymnasts from our |
school gymnasium, tumbling, jumping and racing; comic dancing; a clown |
band; high-swinging artists, and a funny cop who didn't wait to find |
out who a man was, but hit him anyway. And, as no circus _is_ a circus |
without boys shouting wildly about pop-corn and cold drinks, Gadsby saw |
to it that such boys got in as many patrons' way as any ambitious youth |
could; and that is "going strong," if you know boys, at all! |
But what about profits? It not only paid for all acts which his |
Organization couldn't put on, but it was found that a big fund for many |
a day's musical visitations, was on hand. |
And, now a word or two about municipal affairs in this city; or _any_ |
city, in which nobody will think of doing anything about its poor |
and sick, without a vigorous prodding up. City Councils, now-a-days, |
willingly grant big appropriations for paving, lights, schools, jails, |
courts, and so on; but invariably fight shy of charity; which is |
nothing but sympathy for anybody who is "down and out." No man can |
say that Charity will not, during coming days, aid _him_ in supporting |
his family; and it was Gadsby's claim that _humans_:--_not blocks of |
Subsets and Splits