The Mason County journal. [volume] (Shelton, W.T.) 1886-1927, 1889-05-17
BLESSED GREENHORNS.
so SAYS AMBER" AND ALL WHO
READ ECHO THE SENTIMENT.

Become OsStued-Ine Freseh1o u zinc
Who Is Not Quite Perfect Is Welcome in
This Shrewd and Practical World.
81 may not be quite so wise as Solo
mon," remarked a man in my hearing
the other day. "but anybody who ex-
poets to get the best of me will get badly
leftr | looked at the speaker, at his
shrewd eyes. with their ai-ways-at-
once manner of looking at things; his
mouth. pursed and puckered like a dried
up pepper pod; his smile. as sharp and
wintry as a frost sparkle; and said in
my heart. well, sir, would rather be
the biggest greenhorn that ever trod the
sod than be you'll"
PEOPLE WE DO NOT NEED.
When man gets SO wise that he has
nothing left to learn. the best place for
him is bookshelf When he gets so
cunning that you can never catch him
mapping, the best place for him is among
the stuffed owls in the National museum.
The world'has no need of fossils outside
of caves and archaeological collections.
What dried up channel is to land
scape, such. to the world he lives in. is a
worldly wise nature which has become
invulnerable to a sensation and incapable
of a mistake or an enthusiasm. He has
outgrOwn his chief charm who has out
grown his freshness. He has become
mere petrifaction, who has attained unto
state wherein he is unassailable by the
plumbers to which other men succumb.
We do not need such people any more
than full mooned August night needs
signal lights Better fall down once in
awhile than get to be SO ossifed you can't
bend out of the perpendicular. Per-
lection is all right in butter and eggs.
but man, to be good comrade. wants
enough of the imperfection of human
nature left in him to render him capable
of an occasional blunder. | would rather
live with the statue of Liberty on Bed
lOe's Island than attempt to dwell with
person who has outlived the possibility
of ever being taken in or has scared
above the weakness of once in awhile
taking leap without knowing exactly
where he is going to land.
Why, bless your heart, my dear, the
man who always looks before he jumps
misses fine tumble in the clover! Chill
dren playing together in the haymow
would miss the best elixir of their sport
if they measured every distance and
computed the safety of every risk. And
life, good part of it, anyway, is nothing
more than the venture of children romp-
ing in the dark. A preternaturally wise
child and sharp man make poor COM
rades in either play or work. What
gives to childhood it's first and greatest
charm? What more than it's freshness
and its capacity to enjoy delusion?
When the child outgrows its belief in
Santa Claus and fairies it ceases to have
the nature of child, and the wiser it
gets and the further from the humbug-
geries of youth the more of that first
divine freshness and innocence it loses,
until it becomes. like too many of us
older ones, withered stalk, with neither
dew nor blossom left upon it.
KEEP US FROM TOO MUCH CoNcErT
When we pray for pure hearts let us
add to our petition that, in the grind
and turmoil of sordid living, we may
preserve little of the ''greenness" of
ife's springtime in our nature. Keep
us, good Lord. from too much conceit in
our own cunning. Help us now and
then to take the attitude of little chill
dren who have something to learn
Make singing birds of us rather than sly
old foxes: shrubs of living verdure rather
than dusty specimens mucilaged inside
of herbarium. Half the people one
meets are only specimens They are
types, samples in stock. anything but
individuals. They have been brought up
to be conformists, and they are perfectly
content with their labelling in the COM
pany of the Great Alike Usage plucks
them early. AZ botanist picks rose to
classify it rather than to enjoy it's beauty,
and conformity is the musty old herb
arium wherein they are pasted and let
tered "or all time. Give me the weed
blowing in the meadow, wet by showers
and shaken hv storms. trodden under
foot by happy children and br0wsed by
contented herds, rather than the finest
specimen of flora that any scientist has
in his withered and dried collection A
green leaf with sap in it is better for re-
freshment than forest of dead cedars
Bless God. then, all you who retain
enough May time in your hearts to keep
you green late into the season. Blessed
be the young man or maiden, the elder
ly man or matron who, in this age of
precocity and progress. policy and nerve,
retains enough of the primal innocence
to blush and be a5ashed on suitable oc-
casion, and are not SO wise in their own
conceit but what they may sometimes
get the worst of a bargain. The presence
OF such person in this shrewd and prac-
teal old world is as welcome rs the
sight of buttercup in the alkali desert.
April is never behind with her willows
and catkins, May never forgets her con-
tract with the apple orchards. and June
is never late with her roses. The robin
always arrives promptly, although he
comes in snow storm, and the bluebird
tarries not in uncertainty, but flashes
his azure wing on time along the misty
hedgerows. If human friends were half
as constant to the tryst of love as birds
and blossoms are to their season this
world would never need be exchanged
for heayen.-Amber in Chicago Tribune.
Curious Book.
A well known Partisan bibliophile,
Baron Double, has Just discovered the