The Arkansaw traveler., 1885-07-04
KNITTING FOR THE FUTURE.

KNITTING FOR THE FUTURE. lBrick Pomeroy, in United States Democrat.l
 Two men met on the street tonight since the sun went down. They had known each other for years. They started from the door of country school hou se the same day of the same year, more than quarter of 8 century ago, each to enter upon the route he should consider as leading te the best degree of future ex- istence and standing among men. Oae gave his head to information and its &C., qairement. He was not a genius, but a steady plodder. His great object was a strong, even, useful future. Labor did not weary him because his heart was in his work. He let no day pass that he did not add to his stock of useful knowl- edge. He did not seek to take on freight to be dropped tomorrow, but to acquire for keep.
 The other took the high road to happi- ness. He sought the hall of revelry, not for recreation, but as steady business. His patrimony was soon spent, and then he began on the lees. His life was a very easy one all the way down hill.
 The two men met tonight. One was stout, well dressed, strong and hopeful. The other had vacant stare, a worn out wardrobe bestowed at odd times by char. ity. He had that wild, haggard, hungry, restless, timid, wistful look that is worn by homeless cats and houseless dogs. He had blasphemed the holy spirit by neglect to be geod to himself within and was near the place where the once fresh, living mountain stream loses itself in the sands and disappears in the dregs of dis integration.
 The two men looked at each other, nodded and passed on. One to his home the other to his haunts. Between home and haunt there is wide distance. From home te haunt it is all the way down hill, and the longer the road the harder to walk it back.
 
 Sitting in the parlor, which is also the family room of the man with hope, a home and happiness. The parlor is not silk lined coffin without life. It is not a dark place opened only for those who are better than the family. It is a place where works of art, where books, music, cards, playthings and objects of other than awe-inspiring interest are found. Where mirth, jollity, comfort, rest, hap piness, confidence, esteem, friendship and Gods great gift-good common sense, arc found. Where words are rarely to wound. Where disposition to fret, worry, to torment and tantalize has no footing. Just well furnished, well or dered home into which angels from the spirit world make daily and nightly visits as they teach the children of men deep CT. wider, purer, broader religion than comes on spools of creed.
 By little work table, on which is a kitten sleeping in comfort sits a woman. In her lap is ball of worsted in her hands are crochet needles. On her face a look of serene contentment. The few lines on her face arc the works of years, not of fret, care, scola or worry. She has learned that all of life Is good and useful {; that each disappointment has flowers as well as thornS and that no road yet trav- eled or sea yet sailed is ever smooth, clear and without obstruction.
 As she talked and laughed she kept on with her knitting. From a thought came tho first stitch, the foundation. lust as the first idea, the first thought comes to babe. To this stitch, she added others, following pattern in her mind. Thus the work grew apace as stitch upon stitch was added.
 On the floor, at her feet, played child. It had set of blocks with pictures and letters thereon, and was learning that they could be placed to bring light pictures or dark to tho trent. That the same blocks could be so arranged as to form different words to shsw different meanings ac- cording as they were placed. The mother knit with her needles and the work grew. She answered every question of the child pleasantly, and thus its ideas grow.
 That which child gains in weight is seen with the eye, felt with the hands, ap- pears material. That which Is added to the mind is not seen, yet it lasts forever Long after the body has gone back to earth the mind, the spirit to us here in- visible, bat soon to become tangible, never dies, but carries its accumulations on to the future.
 In that future it is not the child but the that will be censured for what ever there Is of leading astray. The pen with which we write this homely chapter is as it was fashioned. The holder is as tho material was selected and shaped by the artisan who made it. The flow of ink therefrom is even and steady because it was thus planned and made to flow. Ac- cording as the holder, the pen, the ink, so is the writing. According a. the thoug hts, the ideas, the good intentions, the desire to be useful. SO is the wording sha. comes, not by the fingers, but from the brain and the spirit power back of that con- trolling the fingers which guide, control the pen.
 The furniture in the room is all as it was made. The glass goblet filled with lemonade is but refined sand, purified by experience. The water in the pitcher is rle ar and cold hA~ausA s& ~av,a f~n-, n