Birmingham state herald. (Birmingham, Ala.) 1895-1897, 1896-03-08
OUR SOCIAL WORLD

(All Items of social interest will be gladly
noted in these columns If sent TO MIS- MIS-;
George c. Ball, Nineteenth street, between
Tenth and Eleventh avenues, South High
lands. Telephone 9SS)
The wise men said, way back in the
centuries, when this world of ours was
young. that ITO everything there is a
season and a time to every purpose I'M
der the heaVen-a time to be born and
time to die; time to plant and time
10 pluck up that which is planted And
now. in the changing of the seasons, has
come to us the time to plant! To sow
in the sleeping dormant earth the seed
that shall burst into beauty beneath the
influence of gentle rains and the glorious
sunshine of spring. Into the moist, dark
burrows we drop the seeds we cover
gently them with the warm dirt and leave
our work in in the hands of nature and
natures God. with faith in the final out
come This every season habit OF SOW
ing and planting is IN unconscious, but
beautiful evidence of trust in God and
His provdences, and is in exquisite ac-
cord with the awakening lie OF the
spring time.
EVERYWHERE the trees are beginning to
to bud and blossom; over in the orchards
the bees are humming about the pink
blooms of the peach and the white Gus
ters of the pear and plum trees. The air
is laden with the fragrance of spring and
all things proclaim that winter is past.
The hilsdes are covered wTh soft,
green carpet. and the hyacinths and Gro
cusses are timdly peeping out of the
ground to see If the ice and cold are
gone; the Towering ounce, like burn
ing bush is making the gardens rudy
with crimson beauty, and the birds are
caroling and bringing messages from
warmer climes. These brethren OF the
air" have come to stay with us until the
frosts of another winter whiten the land
scape. But sunshine, birds, blossoming
trees and shrubs may yet be chilled by an
icy breath from the north pole; the tiny
blades of grass may yet be nipped by the
cruel cold and the seed we have planted
only spring into life and leaf to be buried
beneath heaps of snow. But what mat
tiers it? There are other seeds, the birds
can hush their songs for season, the
grass Will come again, and there is in
every year q beautiful spring, to be fol-
lowed by a glorious summer, and an au-
tumn, when we shall surely reap what
we have sown.
This gathering of the harvest that
comes from seed of our own planting APP
plies equally to moral as we'll as physical
life. The analogy that exists between the
two is ever new and startling to the most
careless observer. There is a time to
plant in every life and time when we
reap the fruit of our planting. You and l,
my lIltIuS, may SIOW WEARY anu dlSipui-
aged many a time because the frosts de-
stroy our hopes and the tares spring in
all our fields of wheat. We may oftimes
grow tired and disheartened because our
years are spent in acres hard to till,
where rocks choke the tender plants that
we tend with daily care and the rust
will creep into our fields and blight the
grain. But surely our labors and strug-
giles Will not be In vain. We can dig up
the stones, replant, you know, and have
faith that the latter rain will come, even
If the early rain is gone forever, 1t may
be that you and | shall always dig and
struggle, while perhaps just across the
fence other gardens may blossom and
flourish with only half the toll and en-
ergy that we have expended. But We
can afford to leave these things for
final adjustment remembering that no
man or woman yet has labored in vain
We can still strive and wait,
AT least not rotting like a weed,
But having sown some generous seed
Fruitful of further thought and deed"
And while you are planting be careful
about the quality of your seed. Don't
sow a poor variety either in your fields
or in the garden of your life! See to 1T
that you get the very best within your
reach and then you can rely with hope
upon the harvest. You remember the
old story of the sowing of bayonets in
broad acres, and 10! an army springs
from the burrows. Don't SOW any bay
onets my friends; don't plant any worm
eaten seed. Just take the best within
your reach, honest, good-to-the-core seed,
planting in well-tilled fields and there
must come time when we shall appear,
bringing our sheaves with u.s."
You know that in many garden where
the flowers bloom in riotous beauty there
crawl serpents and other venomous
thinpG hI1 ma ri 40 1noy Of =, \
luxurious foliage-perhaps if you stoop
to pluck a pure-looking blossom-there
may come the hiss of the snake or the
glistening of the lizards eyes. There
may be poisonous shrubs, the touch of
which bring pain and sometimes DEATH
or there may be deceitful pitfalls that are
covered with trailing vines. But you and
] need not worry about these complica-
tons, these lurking evils, in other gar
dens, for there are fields for us to cult
Vate, good seed to be sown, and now is
the time to plant"
Birmingham has had two unusual il
Illustrations during the past week of the
gathering of harvests In human expert
ence,-the reaping of sheaves that are for
ever garnered. One was when that no.
BILE, true woman Mrs. Samuel Ullman,
fell asleep. while a whole city mourned
that slumber had come so early, even
while 1t was yet day. Every good cause,
sistance and encouragement of this gen.
uine Christian since she came among us.
Active, untiring. never faltering In her
love and sympathy, Mrs. Ullman quietly
went about doing good, cheering the faint
and weary and uplifting the weak and
fallen. No charity ever appealed to her
in vain, and no cause which had for it's
object the good of our city and the ad-
vancement of our people was ever re-
fused her aid and encouragement. Com
plete in her life towards her fellow
and women, she was none the less beau
tiful in the closer ties of a happy home.
AS wife. mother, friend and citizen she
realized an elevated ideal. She was ever
planting good seed In all the relations of
life, and she had the satisfaction of gath
ering many sheaves before the sun set.
The magnificent floral offerings at her
funeral were, after ALL but a feeble ex-
preston of city's love and esteem,
though perhaps they were the most elab-
crate and numerous ever seen in Bir-
mingham. They were fragrant remind
ers of the countless good deeds of this
Christian woman.
The great outpouring of our citizens at
her funeral, all anxious to attest their