The commonwealth. (Scotland Neck, N.C.) 1896-1929, 1897-10-07
UNFEATHERED
OSTRICHES
4oNEY-LOVERS ARE THEY.
FASHION WORSHIPERS TOO.
Some Rambling Thoughts.
BY "NEMo."
FASHION woRSH1PERs TOO.
Some Rambling Thoughts.
copyrighted by Dave & Tabor.)
BY "NEMo."

| BY "NEMo."
Copyrighted by Dave & Tabor.)
MORE OSTRICH THOUGHTS The
long-legged friend of needy milliners
with his downy thighs and tufted tail
Is called In again to point moral by
means of that silly head which he bobs
into the sand to shut out all sight ,oi
the world. Unlike him, his human
counterpart ranges through every eli
mate, unfeathered and unhonored.
Some even are in your community.
Let us at them and be done with our
bird pointer for a while.
*x*
Thou money-lover, with not only
head but heart bent down behind a
few ringing coins; through a world
whose beauties and noblest joys are to
thee invisible, the avenger is stealthily
approaching. A little twinge of pain
somewhere, little numbness in your
brain, great deal of turning hither
and thither to famed phYsicians-what
are these but warnings of your fate
Your tiny heap seems 60 important to
you that you thrust away the very
thought OF death and feverishly desire
to feel forever the magic thrill of wealth
within your grasp. You long to get
more you build it up around you like
wall. Fool Helped by wealth you
may fly on the wings of the morning
to the uttermost parts of the earth, but
swlfter than the shadow of an eclipse
the arrow of death will reach you-and
then what have you? The heap that
you trusted In, as fortress with trou-
ble-proof bastions, will not save you
from the glazing eye and the rattling
throat, the clammy sweat and the vague
picking at the bed-clothes. These are
yours by common humanity and
when they come to you, nothing
material can be taken away into the
darkness. Something cannot be taken
away from nothing your life is nothing
as you have lived it. You Will close
your eyes and lie lifeless beside the be-
loved wealth that has already closed
your eyes to the needs of the palpitat-
Ing world of misery.
But do intimate that only ordinary
death experiences will como to you?
Nay, if I do, lie; for there will be an
outstretching of other eager hands to-
ward your golden heap-they are even
now waiting for your death In order to
scramble for your possessions, and, as
likely as not, behind fragments of your
eoul's-all will crouch another generation
of fools. Is that all? No: for if you
love wealth more than kindness If you
gather from expressions If you wrong
and cheat in order to rake more and
more around you, your memory will be
crusted oyer with gangrenous hatreds.
Pleasant and wonderfully useful though
money may be, have you indeed chosen
the better part of it in contentlng your
self with acquisition? Under the ef-
fort your head, with its noble powers, is
bowed lower even than the animals
who by getting give and, having done
all, stand to serve humanity. But you
get and give not, and the service of
humanity in any form is out OF your
range of vision your head is too low.
Thou fashionable woman, hiding, thy
nakedness behind frumperles that
change with the changing day; cou-
tenting thyself with world limited by
patterns and rounded out by founces !;
thou art also among the ostrlches.
Prlnking and pruning and phllander-
ing, covered with the products of Great
ures moro gentle, and with flowers
more fair than yourself, you go your
way as though the body wero more
important than the mind, neglectful Of
the fact that the mind adorned and the
spirit sweetly and gently cultivated will
last long after the skin has wrinkled
and the eyes haye lost their sparkle.
Compared with the fabric of your
mind, your body is but a basting
thread. Yet behind a contemplate
hilIock of clothes you bow your beauti-
full head until you no more see the
wide world of noble womanhood to
which you are surely called. How sell
fish you are! Your father needs must
deck you though his aged bead calls
for rest; you cry. "Glve, give ;" to both