The Grenada gazette., 1888-07-05
AXE AND WOOD-PilE.
a Healthy Exercise Which Dcprives Man OF
All the Fury of His Nature.

All Ine 4 urS OF his Nhture'
Every human male man, who pos.
sesses even lingering taint of temper,
should keep an axe and a woodpile
somewhere handy, that he may rush
out and work off his wrath when il
wakes fierce. There is nothing in this
vain old world that will send man
back to his appointed work with 6
more wilted collar and truer com
prehension of himself, than thirty
minutes wrestling with a full-favored
axe. He can use it so tiercely on the
wood. All the fury of his nature, all
the hate he feels for his enemy, he can
infuse into that aXe-handle, and how
the chips will fly. Not very artistical-
ly, probably, but they will fly. And
presently it begins to dawn upon the
man that he is feeling more
calm. Evidently he is experience
ing a change of heart. He does
not hate his enemy so bitterly. after
all. The axe weighs about eighty-one
pounds on the up stroke. He does not
hate his enemy at all. He changes his
stroke, and begins to chop on the sys-
TEN of Italian penmanship, the up
strokes heavy, and the down ones
light. He rather loves his enemy nov.
At last he puts all his failing strength
into one terrific blow He misses his
tip with the axe and smites the chop
ping block with the handle. A tingle
as though he had swallowed an alarm
clock goes from elbow to hip and
back again, the axe drops from his
powerless hands, and weak, limp,
nerveless, perspiring trembling gasp
ing thing, he staggers into the house,
lies down on the first thing that looks
like q lounge, and is ready to die.
There isn't fear or fault in his
heart. Death has no terrors, and life
has no temptations for him. He has
chopped out all his baser nature, and
is just as ethereal and spiritual as he
can be on this side of the Jordan. 1t
is great medicine.
People with whom have been quar-
reling all spring would be amazed to
see me now. l foolishly contracted,
last year, to keep campfire going. !
didn't know then that it took all the
forests in the Adirondack spurs to keep
up one little campfire. | am not a
lr,nl foil stnAN-,, aud III
axe they gave me might have beaten
down the brazen gates of what you
may-call-it that what s-his-name be-
sieged, if he ever did besiege it. | have
fallen trees with that axe that would
have made Gladstone shudder. They
tell me ! must say felled, not fallen,
but l know better, because only cut
down fallen trees. My wrists were
larger than my knees, which goes
to show that / didn't pray as hard
as chopped, but didn't have
strength enough to hate any body; |
l was too limp to commit the
lightest sin, SO didn't have much need
OF prayer. ! didn't write any the fol
lowing week, because couldn't close
my fingers over any thing smaller than
an axe-helve. We tried tying the pen.
holder to my elbows, but they wouldn't
bend with that kind of an implement.
My hands were little better the next
week, but l was as badly axe-ridden as
ever. heard voices calling even now
for more wood" though l assure you
| cut a cord between every paragraph.
At least, think | did. But went out
and chopped until the axe flew off the
handle, which was dropped every five
minutes, and then ] heaped high the
fagots, and crawled into the campfire,
and showed the old martyrs how
sweetly and joyously man coul, roast
himself rather than cut one So! tary.
single other stick of WOOD mcre..-BiV
dctte, sn Chicago J0urna!