The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1892-05-05
THE HOME CORNER.

Sometimes we forget that every
thing has not stood just as it is now,
ever since the beginning of the world;
that people have not always talked
the same way, with the same articu-
lation and emphasis. 1t gives one
shock of surprise to find that the
maiden who knelt down beside her
bed to say her morning prayer, away
back in the year 1858, said it in this
way: "Faderure in heune, halee-
weide booth thi neune, cumen thi
kuneriche, thi willie booth idon in
heune an in the euerych, daw Dried
gif us thilk dave. And worzif ure
dettes as vi varzifen ure dettoures;
and lene us nought in temptation, but
delyvor of uvel. Amen"
wv
"Oh, am just tired to DEATH" ex-
claimed a bright little lady, once
upon time, to this Home Corner. 81
have practiced for that concert until
my throat is sore. The concert? Oh,
yes! It's to raise money for those poor
people in Southwest Texas. That's
Friday night, you know. And Mon
day night comes that awful kirmess-
we're going to help out the starving
poor in Russia with that. And
Thursday night comes the charity
ball. that's to relieve some poor peo-
pie here in the city. They're in a
perfectly shocking condition, you
know. / don't suppose any of them
have bite to eat in the house. And
then Saturday night we're going to
give a dinner in an empty store down
town, and raise money to fix up the
cemetery. Fancy how tired I'll be
when | get through with all these
things! But never mind, it shows our
people are charitable, and Pm so glad
of it," And the little lady walked
away, perfectly satisfied with her
work, and with its objects.
Nv
At this season of the year the latent
Bohemian that is in every nature be-
gins to stir and asserts itself in most
unexpected ways. However deep may
be the grooves in which ones life has
been running, it all at once shows a
disposition to leave tho grooves and
career across the open country. These
are the times when the office becomes
wholly insupportable, when one is
tempted to throw the ledgers out of
the window, toss the pens and ink
into the stove and have done with
work at once and forever. 1t takes a
very slight thing to stir this rebelliOus
spirit. You look out into the street
and see a barefoot boy skurrying along
with q fishpole over his shoulder and
tin can filed with "baitn dangling
from his hand, and presto! the deed is
done. You want to go away into the
woods and climb over rocky banks
and stretch yourself on beds of fern
and forget that you ever had a respon-
sibility. You want to find a
place where all of life is not "end-
beginning again at one.n Just to start
out to Bohemia, and enter the border
land-what charm lies in that en-
chanted country Away with con-
ventiona' tiles How idle and trivial
they seem! How is it that we have
given upso much of our lives to them?
This lovely land where we are our
own true selves for once, and can look
our friends in the face, with perfect
understanding; where it doesn't mat
ter in the least whether we belong to
the Four Hundred, or to the Twenty
five Million; where the birds sing for
us as birds never sang before-it is
easy to see that this is the real life,
and that this other, with its ledgers
and account books, its grooves and
conventionalities, is merely a make
believe.
The value of these days in the woods
cannot be over-estimated. They are
the only true preventive of
wrinkles and gray hairs, and
to them belong length of days
and peaceful old age. 1t is noe work
that kills people in this country; it is
that some of them do not take time to
lay aside the work for a little while
and rest mind and body. There is no
tonic so beneficial as getting rid of the
grind. Blessed is the city that has
little hooks here and there to which
it's tired people can go, where the
leaves rustic and the birds sing; where
the children can gather flowers and
listen to the music of falling water
Every city needs such breathing
places. We know of our need of them
all the year, but just at this season
there is ''the feel of the spring in the
bones," and when that comes there is
no chance to do anything but gather
our own individual fishing pole and
can of bait and post away for the for
est.
Did you ever notice how easy it is
for man who has a good position
and comfortable income to decide
that other men who have no position
and no income are simply lazy, and
don't want to work? Start down the
avenue on any charitable mission, and