Democratic Sentinel, Volume 17, Number 48, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 December 1893 — The Snail. [ARTICLE]

The Snail.

He has no ground rent to pay, toj he does not build his house upon any, and asks no better foundations for what he lives in than his own hack. Being his own landlord, he is not liable for house rent, and when he is not inside them his apartments are unfurnished ones. Where’er he dwells he dwells alone, Except himself has chattels none, Well satisfied to be his own Whole treasure. He is the despair of his creditors, for he has nothing to levy upon, and if the brokers seize his house they seize him 'too, and he is none the worse, for he was at home as he was. Income tax collectors gnash their teeth over him, for if they assess him on his house property he walks out of it. It is his freehold only so long as he remains within. Once outside it is nothing,, a mere shell, and no heading in any schedule meets the case. This is Why. no doubt, he somtimes leaves his lodgings and goes into others, to baffle the Commissioners and leave the lawyers to tax each other’s costs at their own expense. Nor does'he run up any bills. He is his own hosier, hatter, tailor, and shoemaker, and as for his food, he takes it where he finds it. If the caterpillar tells him he has no right to eat the cabbage, the snail replies with a tu quoque, and if the earwig protests against his coming into the lettuce he ask? it to show its title to possession.—Good Words.

It is the united action of the brain and the eye that forms the habit of close observation. We must, think nbout what we see if It is to permanent impression. When the mind is vacant, the eyes are robbed of half their value.