THE LIME-KILN CLUB.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3592, 16 January 1883, Page 4

THE LIME-KILN CLUB.

: 'De odder nite de oie man Suleratus Brown dropped ober to .-n.-e me," began the old man as Pickles Smith got through swallowing a ten-penny nail which he was holding in his mouth to cure the backache. '•lie sot down wid a grunt, shoved out his feet wid a -jwoan. and remarked dat times had so changed dat he didn't: >-uv' to lib anoder day. it made me iiarvous toll ar him tak ,, on an' tell how modern folkst> war dvin' <>1f modern hoii.-es no belter dan colling modern food a y'v/.m to de system -.. an' dat ninety-nine men out oh obery hundred war liars, cheats, .'in' thieves, "Almo-' e'licry day I h'ar some ob you taldn" on "bout: de good o!u times when nobody died an' de front doah ob ebery house'stood open. You doan' know what yer takiu' 'bout ! \n de good ole times de common house was 'bout as comfortable as de common hog-pen. '.More peopl" had to l-idc ten miles fur a doctor dan a less distance, an' when, he arrovc he dint know bran from broomsticks. Any sort ob a man who knew Moses fro!:i Arou was good 'nuf fur a preacher, an' de man wid de loudest voice an , de best bellow was de bes' lawyer. Women war freckled ml' men went bar"-fitted to church, an' de faddcr who dint bring up his son- wid a great deal ob stern dignity and blue-beech gad mixed togoder expected d< , boy to turn out a pirate. '•Ju h<j μ-ood ole limes men stole ;m" cheated an' tied an' played, hypocrite, jist de .same as men do now, an' if do women dint gad quite so often dey gossiped jist as much. De man who sighs fur de good ole tilucs. am frowin' away his breaf, an, dar am a dim suspishuu in my mind dat he am lazy an' sbifiless. De pussou who can't play his hand wid de world ob to-day am cither lijj'ht in de head, or wobbly in de knees. I furder desire to add dat de nex" time J h'ar a member ob dis club wishin" fur ;; ob de 'lays when only one family on a road ton luik-.-, Jong had an umbrella to lend, and not one family outer sixteen could lend a cupful o' sugar v.'idout scrapin' de bottom ob de box. I shall piirceed to read him a lecktur dat will slant his ears at an tingle ob fo'ty-seben degrees.