Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1875-07-08
Literary DriftiRgs.

The pen in the hand that knows
how to use it, is one of the most DOW
ertul weapons known. As the tongue
of the absent how charming When
self-respect gives it a new vigor, how
pleasing When virtue guides it how
beautiful When honor directs it,
how respected? When wit sharpens
1t, how fatal. When scurrility wields
it, how contemplate IT'S the weapon
of the mind.
If there is one ofense for which
we should like to see the pillorv re-
established-with accessory ear-sl;tting
and scourging with thongs-it is the.
publication of scandals on the private
lives of public men. There is a class
of creatures who delight in inventing
the most infamous calumnies. Because
a man attains high station, he is made
the mark of the most indicative and
persistent assaults. In others, to com
pei the payment Of money by way of
black mail. Our poor human nature
rather tends t. believe much of what
Is bad of man. and base whisper Of
ten becomes an accepted and widely
circulated lie
Let me see a female possessing
the beauty of a meek and modest de-
portment-of an eye that speaks intel
ligence and purity within-of the lips
that speak no guile; let me see in her a
kind, benevolent disposition, a heart
that can sympathi2e with distress, and
| will never ask the beauty that dwells
in ruby lips, or the flowing tresses, or
the snowy hands, or the forty other Ct
ceteras upon which our poets have
harped for so many ages, These fade
when touched by the hand of time.
but those ever endearing qualities of
the heart shall outiive their reign, and
grow brighter and fresher as the ages
of eternity roll away.
Thousands of men breathe, move
and live pass off the stage Of life,
and are heard Of no more. Whv?
None were blessed by them none could
point to them as the means Of their re-
demption not line they wrote, not
word they spoke, could be recalled.
and SO they perished. Their light went
out in the darkness, and they were not
remembered more than insects of yes
terday. Will you thus live and die, O
man immortal? Live for something.
Do good, and leave behind you a me-
mento of vitue that the storms of
time can never eface. Write your
name in kindness, love and mercy on
the hearts of those you come in contact
with, and you will never be forgotten.
Good deeds will shine as brightly ON
the earth as stars Of heaven.
Away among the Alleghanies there
is spring SO small that a single OK
could drink it dr. on summer s dav.
1t steals it's unobStrusive way among
the hills, till it spreads out into the
beautiful Ohio. Thence It stretches
away a thousand miles, leaving Oh it's
banks more than hundred villages and
cities, and many thousand cultivated
farms, and bearing on its bosom more
than half a thousand steamboats,. Then,
joining the Mississippi ID stretches
away some twelve hundred miles or
more, until it falls into the great en-
blem of eternity. 1t is one of the
great tributaries Of the Ocean, which
Obedient to God. shall roll and roar
till the angel, with one foot on the sea
and the other on the land, shall lift up
his hand to Heaven and swear that
time shall be no longer. So with moral
is a rivulet, an ocean,
ooundless and unfathomless as eternity.