Watch Yourself Go ByField, Al. G. (Alfred Griffith)
General
Watch Yourself Go By
Field, Al. G. (Alfred Griffith)
Circus performers -- United States -- Biography; Field, Al. G. (Alfred Griffith), 1848-1921; Wit and humor
Governor Tener, Doctor Van Voorhis, Mr. Daly and others of John's
friends will no doubt be surprised at this leaf in his life. In all the
years that John and Alfred have lived since, neither has ever forgotten
his first experience with a tin cup that was loaded.
FOOTNOTES:
[A] The flags referred to were painted on the upper doors of James
Fouts's barn, situated on the old pike three miles east of Brownsville.
The flags were very brilliantly colored and naturally draped. They were
the admiration of all travelers over the great thoroughfare. As the war
progressed the Confederates raided near that section several times. The
owner feared that the flags might imperil the safety of the barn and
other buildings on his farm. He therefore sent an order to Alfred's
father to paint the flags over, who desiring to cover their brilliant
colors with one coat selected dark Prussian blue. Very soon after the
flags were painted over, their colors began to appear through the blue.
Not many hot summer days had gone by until the flags were almost as
distinct as when first painted on the big doors of the barn. The
reappearance of the flags was regarded as a phenomenon or a miracle by
the country folk. The "Brownsville Clipper," in commenting upon the
miracle, declared: "It is an omen of victory for the Federal armies; you
cannot efface the Star Spangled Banner, it still waves on Fouts's barn."
The paper criticized the owner for having the flags daubed over and
intimated that Fouts was lacking in loyalty. (Fouts was a Democrat.
Three weeks later the owner of the paper ordered Danny Stentz to pull in
the big flag that hung out of the third story window of the "Clipper"
building; the Confederates were reported as but fourteen miles away. The
chemical properties of the coloring matter in the paints was the cause
of the reappearance of the red bars of the flags through the blue paint
that was spread over them.)
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
The man who borrows trouble
Is always on the rack,
For there's no way, by night or day,
That he can pay it back.
MT. PLEASANT, PA.
DEAR MUZ:
We got here safe and sound. This is a pretty place. Palmer lives
on the edge of the town; it's an old house; one end of it is all
taken up with his "art studio," he calls it. He biles glue and
the smell goes through the whole house. You and Lin thought I
stunk when I worked in the tannery, you ought to smell Palmer
and his art studio.
He has another preacher helping him. His wife is very quiet; she
is making the clothes for the panorama; they have a pile of
clothes to make. He asked me if I had read "Pilgrim's Progress."
He knows the book backwards, so I have to read it and learn it
too.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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