Childish Patriotism

Eight-Year-Old Imagines a Crippled Fly to Be President McKinley.

     The innate patriotism of America’s children was illustrated in an incident which transpired in one of the homes of Waterloo yesterday. A little eight-year-old of the family was discovered tending, with much solicitude, a fly she had rescued from an early entanglement with a sheet of tangle foot paper. When asked what she was doing, she replied, “This is President McKinley and I am doctoring him. I think he will recover.”
     For the greater part of the evening Mr. Fly received all the attention the childish brain could devise, being frequently encouraged to “try to fly just a little” by the young doctor, the family being repeatedly assured that ‘the president would surely live.[’] When, finally, after a couple of hours of anxious waiting the insect successfully tried its wings and flew away, a bulletin was issued announcing the fact and with as much joyfulness as would characterize a cabinet member, the family were assured that the president had passed the danger line and would recover. If Mr. Fly had been unable to regain the use of his wings, it is doubtful if any amount of persuasion could have convinced the childish heart that the president would ultimately recover, but now she has no further fears on the subject.