Judge — August 24, 1901 — page 10: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

ON CRACKING CHERRY- STONES. [N_ THIS wicked and ungodly world there are few more harm- less and yet absorbing pleasures than cracking cherry - stones upon the sidewalk. It is a pleasure, however, only to the initiate — nay, more, only to the analytical and introspective, for athoughtful, reflective temperament is necessary to acquire proficiency. Your born devotee of the art will never crack a cherry-stone on a wooden pavement ; asphalt may do, but flagging is best. Then the touch, Although in- tuitive, and not to be acquired, yet it may be cultivated and improved by study and practice. Only the tyro will throw out a tentative foot, hit or miss, blindly groping for a stone six inches out of his course. The skilled cracker will sight the stone twenty ‘ feet away, and gradually, almost un- ‘ WNW G- Preeti consciously, will shape his course aan? i (4 Ks oe and direct his steps so that he can- ‘ not avoid stepping on it, striking it with the exact spot of his sole best calculated to do the deed. Not the toe, where a forward push is necessary and which makes it a sliding crush; nor too far back, — paper-soled nor too thick, but a shoe with a firm, flexible’sole not yet which misses it; and, the saints forfend!— not with the heel, but a firm, worn slippery. clear pressure with the ball of the foot, resulting in a sharp, short cr-r-rk ! Of course cracking is more fun when one is alone, for a companion, un- so delicious to the trained ear. Proper shoes, too, must be worn; not _ less absolutely in sympathy, may object to the deviations from a straight course made necessary by the lo- cation of the stones. And, too, the companion may step on the very stone we have had our eye on for half a block. To go slowly with down- cast eyes, thinking of the subject nearest our heart, half - hearing the birds, half-seeing the flowers blooming all about, half- feeling the soft breeze, but wholly conscious of a gleaming white cherry-stone ahead ot us, gives us an eager anticipation the de- light of which is only equaled by the satisfaction of stepping squarely on the stone and hear- ing its sharp, clear crack. Why this is a pleasure is as impossible to tell as why we like caviare or Omar Khayyam. It may not be explained or even ad- equately described, but the mere mention of it is at once recogniz- able to those who have ever ex- perienced it. ‘There are not many who know this subtle pleasure in all its fullness ; there are even some to whom it is a sealed book; but the cognoscenti have already felt the first pleasurable thrills of a season which is all too brief. CAROLYN WELLS. BUFFALO NOT THE ONLY ONE. HEAD MEAT GETTER—" Good luck this morning, oh, king. Here's a Yankee explorer I've captured.” Kixc Coo Up Ur—"* Chuck him in de fryin’-pan wid plenty ob grease—heah’s where Lululand has a fan American!” DOMESTIC TROUBLES. Mas. Crow (sefting)—"" Look here, Mr. Crow. I've had to refuse of these eggs — you've got to get me an incubator, and that's all about i HOW TO TELL WHEN WATERMELONS ARE RIPE. Green. Reddening. Curl withering. Dead ripe. comicbooks.com