No End Of Fun

l_ --- j OAST turkey and fa RwWA Take a run round '15% fití. VJ Y New England and ÉS ask all the boys you jSfjSn jEíC meet what t h e y l!jjTjk1s}-'tfif" think of it. Whl Hl' I I lll'HPï M beaI" them nowl=JJ wWL&. r When you come to SB3Stiv.'u WO quaint Connecticut town- what will the boys teil you there! "Roast turkey and 'fixin's,' " you will say, and the boj-s will look at you and grin. Theu go up to them softly and whisper Thaiiksgiving- and then? "Barrels!" That's what it is. Barrels. Turkey first and barrels af terward. As early as the ürst day of October the Norwich boy begins to make plaus for Thanksgiving day, and his ürst and central faucy turns to barrels. From that time on to the festival uo inan's barrel is safe iu Norwich. Au evil spirit seems to possess it. If a boy passes it iutho soberest stylo in the world, if ho so niucu as casts one coquetting sidelong glance that way, instantly the barrel begins to dance and rattle, and if uo one is watching and the youngster rubs up against it, it gives a sudden hop, topples over on its side and scurries away. Of course the boy Las to follow it to kick it straight when it gets askew on its rumbling course and to keep it from praucing against pedestrians; and it 111variably happens that the boy has to drive it into its lair before it will submit to government. There is littla usa of attempting to control a barrel after it has contracted the Thanksgiviug faver, and the owner looks forward resignedly to its inevitable desertion from him. It looks very singular to a stranger coming into this town at this season of the year to see barrels rolling Dff in every direction, and staid citizens skipping nimbly and good humoredly out of the way of the procession. He cannot account for the phenomenon. Perhaps he is curlous enough to try and find out. But the Norwich boy is up to snuff. "Say, sonuy," the stranger asks, "what's up? Whero are you goiug with all thes barrels?" And tho boy replies, innocent!y: "Nothin's up, mister. The barrel dont b'long to nobody nor nothin'. Found it loose up the Street and run it in. Say, there, Jimmy, give her a lift. Let her go, Gallagherl" And with a whoop the wholo company are off, kickiug the whirling things swif tly into the darkness of a side street. These youngsters are systematic The work of collecting the booty is marked from the opening of the campaign to its finish by thorough discipline and organization and a hearty respect for the rights of each squad. First, all the boys in town array themselves into about a dozen independent brigades, and each force is duly empowered to look after the barrels in its own precinct, andan unwritten law that is at least 200 years old forb.ds the bands to trespass on territory not assigned to them. The largest squads are thus placed: One at Beau Hill, the ancestral home of President Cleveland, wliose grandfather was a barrel burner; one at Norwich Town, twoatthe Falls, two at the West Side, one at Jail HUI, in the center of the city, one at Laurel Hill, one at Greenville, and the rest are scattered about in the suburbs. Each band has a hiding place for its collection. called the "Home Base," and to each is assigned the hill on which the stacks are to be burned. The prelimiuary arrangements completed, the boys go to work with a will to get their barrels together. Supposa they had to do this. How they would growl. The custom of burning bonfires on Thanksgiving night is peculiar to this town, and its origm is lost in the obscurity of early colonial tradition. It was old when Benedict Arnold was a boy, and into the sport he entered with cbaracteristic inipetuosity and wiiliulness. It is mentionod in the flrst chronicles of Norwich; and Miss Caulkins, a local historian, describes a fiery encounter between Benedict and a soleniu constable who undertook to rob him of his barrel, in which Arnold stripped oñ his coat and dared the big man to fight. ilany attempts have been made by local antiquarians to trace the custom to its source, but vainly ; the only plausible explanation essays to connect it with a practice tuat prevailed in the hill towns of the llassachusetts colony of burning bush tires early in November to celébrate the miscarriage of the G-uy Fawkes guupowder plot It was suspected that as Thanksgiviug was appointed at that peried at about Nov. 5 the custom attaehed itself to Thanksgiving, after its original iutent was lost, aud that it was imported into tUis town by the first settlers a Uttle after the mídalo of the iSevynteenth centui-y. But tbe llassachusetts rito differs importantly from tiie Norwich spirit in that brush wes burned instead of barrel stacks. There Ís nothing uniquo about brush bonfires, which were common among the ancient Britons and tícots, but a barrel fire is an elabórate and startling creatiou, a product of the juvenile genius of ancient Norwich. Boys, think of it. Thiiik of huuting. huntlng for da3"s together, for barrels. ïbüu of the work, and it takes work. Bul Uien, it's great f un, you say. Soit is. Te make a lof ty and successful barrel bonfii-e demands native tact, talent and constructivo abilities. The first thing to Co is to get the pole about which the bori'lá ero to ba strung like giant beads, and tüj usually is cut and peeled a few dars bofor te forthcomiug ceremouy. A slrai, straight hickory, lree from knots, end uot lcss taan fifty or ixty feet high is selecteá in the forest, and, liiter it kas been trimmed aud denuded of its bark, it is trailed inlo town at the hcels of a dozen swirdy boys. O a ïüanksgiving day morning it is di'awn to tlio apci of the hül on whicii it is to do duty, wüjreon scores of citizens have gatberetl to lend u. hand in eieijting tho staif or turtjih the necesiary advisoiy remarla to the worei-s. Tho barrels are quiekly bung about the polo, und tlien comes the hard and deiicata tabk of Uiting it üito the dug liólo waicü has uii-ecdy beon preparad íor it. With loiig repes aa:d sieadying cuys, and e. huna-ed hands ty help, lije great hollow staclf goes slov.-y up, tüe barrels cre_kuig and rumbLng lcosely tbout ita stuff, and tho polo i'i left Ewayiag tlii-eateaingly at tlia toiling pigmii.s at its baso. At last it reaches the bolanclng point, slips easilyinta tje cavity with a heavy mnffied "kerplump," ar tha worst of the Etruggla is over. The loose carth .bout tea rim of the hole is shoveled in and tamped solidly down, and the boys and spectators walk off siz rods and inspect the structure. Next cans of kerosene are emptied over the bottom barrels; shavings, saturated with oil, are piled msido; a few part.ng pats and shakes bring refractory barrels into position, and make the funiiel straight and symmetrical, aud then everything is ready for the evening fun. And what fun I The boys can hardly wait In patience for the coming of dusk. But it comes at jast the right time. It comes af ter tbe turkey is eaten. You know it's turkey flrst and barrels afterward. Poor fun it would be to watch a bonfire on au einpty stomach. But think of stuffing yourself so f uil of turkey (it's allowable on Thauksgiving) till you almost feel as if you could gobble, and theu going out aud watching a uice big blazo on the hill. It usually comes about an hour and a half after dinner, when the lamps have hardly been lighted in the houses, the quiet, dusty streets have barely grown gray in the obliterating twilight, aud the four solemn faces of the big illuminated city hall clock glow like four dim moous through the tree tops. With a jubilant rush and yell the bands aro off like the wind to the hilltops. Having reached the grabs each band forms in military array about its stack, the leader silently and with an air of conscious self importanee advauces to the bottom of the pile; he scratches a match on bis trousers and applies the tiny torch to the shavings, aud Gracious! Did you ever see anything like it? Instantly there is a flash as the oiled kindlmgs catch the ñame; a great volume of dense black smoke belches ud: then a nificent Kush of fire that reddeus the wholo hillside and the faces of the excited compauy wells up the tall column, and the conflaffratiou is off. The combustión is f urious, and the pillar of roaring flames, sparks and whirling smoko is a miniatura cyclone on fire. Th ■ barrels writho and twist, the staves gape asuuder, and the bureting hoops leap out from the pile, and, as they come down, ' scatter sparks and glowing einders on every side. The conüagration is too rapid to last long, and it is l hardly two minutes after the match has been applied be'ore the splendid pyre sinks from its soaring Ueight a mass of sfcattered black embers, and the lurid brightness of the hillside gives place inBtantly to impenetrable dai-kness. Barrel burnine, though it is short lived, is the undiluted essence of intoxicating sport. The Norwich girls have a similar though tamer kind of sport with vrhich to taper off the day's pleasures. As fashion f orbids them to roll barrels and buru stacks, they collect spools instead, whieh they string on wires, arranging thein iu fur.ciful designs, squares, circles, pyraruids and ñames, satúrate the creations with oil or turpentine, and meet at the house of the leader ot' the band and burn them. Some of devices are very ingenious or beautiful, and they inake a brilliant though unprctentious buufire. It's great, isa'c it!