Rensselaer Republican, Volume 26, Number 41, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 June 1894 — Tommy Got There. [ARTICLE]

Tommy Got There.

The great circus had of course created an intense longing in the heart of the small boy to see the show. A Journal man heard a rather good story on a certain South Enc gentleman, who is a strict churchman and very sedate withal. This gentleman has a boy whom we wi. l call Tommy. Tommy is a boy all through, and, being one naturally craved a sight at the inside of thecircus. He saw the parade, Tommy did, and he come home full of it. Papa was reading his evening paper, when Tommy opened the conversation by asking his father if he might go to the circus. Papa was horrified; he looked at his son and heir with much displeasure. “No, my son,” he said, “1 cannot sanction your attendance at the circus. It is a very low place, and respectable people keep away from such places.” ‘ “But I’m only a boy,” wailed Tommy. “I ain’t respectable yet, ’cos I ain’t growed up.” “My son,” replied the father, “begin now while young, and you will grow up to be respectable.” “Didn’t you never go to a circus when you was a boy?” asked Tommy, wiping the tears away with his dirtbegrimed paws. ‘‘Hem, I’m busy reading, do not bother me now.” Tommy passed a sleepless night. The next morning he collected his “old junk” which he had saved for the Fourth of July disposed of it, and with the proceeds of it, and with the proceeds went to the show. The funny part of this tale is that Tommy declares that he saw his father there, and he doesn’t see whai his pa was up to anyway, talking about respectable people not going to circuses.