The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1892-05-26

1t is a good thing, isn't it?-that
there is a strip of the world outside
of society which is still respectable;
inhabited by a vast multitude; not
without pleasures of it's own; and no
doubt people go from it into q state OF
happiness Into the world beyond, just
as from the inner circle of the
Four Hundred. Not that this Home
Corner would under-rate any of the
privileges or benefits of society. Many
courtesies and graces are in it, and
much kindness of heart and purity OF
life. But when one considers some of
the people who are not in society at
all, one is moved to feel grateful for
the outside strip of territory, and for
the fact that IL is not crime to dwell
there. What delightful people one
meets, sometimes, who have never
once stepped across the boundary
line; and who could not
do so without discomfort to
themselves, and possibly to the people
on the other side. The Home Corner
knew one of these, once upon a time
a man who had seen most things
worth seeing in all the world; man
of wonderful elfculture, with shrewd,
observant eyes which nothing es-
capped, and with a gift of talking, on
occasion, that made him q most de-
lightful companion. And yet, when
an effort was made to induce him to
step across into the charmed circle of
society he refused with something
like dismay. "No, no; Pm not fit for
such Places" he exclaimed. 81 should
not know what to do with my hands
and feetW And the question was not
pressed, for in society while everyone
may not be able to talk we'll, or even
intelligently, everyone knows what
to do with his hands and feet.
Nv
1t is not that all the genuine peo-
pie live in Bohemia, but oh,
the Bohemians who are genuine are
the finest people in the world. The
Home Corner thinks often, and with
ever fresh pleasure, of a certain
Scotchman with a rugged Scotch
face and a thorny Scotch accent; a
mere shoemaker, if it please you,
with hard work to do all his life. A
queer figure he would have made at
balls or receptions, and as for an
evening coat and kid gloves, he would
probably have preferred the rack and
thumb screws to either. A working
man, you understand, quite hopeless
ly beyond the pale of society; yet the
most learned men of the country came,
day by day, to sit in his little shoe
shop and listen while he, more
learned man than they, talked of the
books he had read, the history,
literature, poetry and
philosophy with which he was so ia
miliar that they had become part
of his life. And he had learned it !
all while be labored, from the open
book ever present on his shoebench!
A philosopher and scholar, gifted
with eloquence and enthusiasm, but
not in society! 1t was of him the
Home Corner wrote:
Stand up thou gray haired laborer,
The noblest of thy line!
Earth's ermne clad have poorer crowns
And meaner bays than thine.
Thy form is bowed thine eyes are dimmed
With years and Borrowings:
Thy hands are hard with life long toll
Thy soul has walked with kings!
Where er the steps of science tread,
Where learning spreads her wings.
And traverses the regions far
Mid wisdom's mystic springs
10. thou hast caught the distant CLEAN,
Hast reached the fartbest shore
Thy work day life TRANSPORTED STANDS
thing of earth no more.
Away, We narrow workshop wallis
Away, unmeaning throng!
10, sounding down these mystic halls
Comes Shakespeare's morning song
There walks Carlyle, the lion-eyed,
And speaks with lion breath;
There wildly wailing, far and wide,
Goes Dante's Dream of Death.
A lowly life? Yes, hardened hands,
And form with labor bowed,
But eyes that look into world
Beyond this yelling cloud.
There great philosopher and sage
Quaff wisdOm's hidden springs
INV hands are hard with lifelong toll