The Banner-Democrat. [volume] (Lake Providence, East Carroll Parish, La.) 1892-current, 1897-01-09

The clouds have lifted somewhat.
All day long they have hung, black
and heavy over the sickly. yellow stub
bic of the commons, and dark and
swollen the lake looked beneath them.
Rain, rain, rain! How it has poured
down this day. First, in great, angry
streams. then in tormenting little pat
tiers. and then with quiet decision. as
much as to say, II can keep up at this
rate for a year or two and never as
much as feel the least bit tired"
Without haste, without rest
Goethe's Mattre put into practice. and
all day, off aud on, have watched the
old yellow cow trndging over the
ploughed earth. and the some time
gorgeous rooster. contemplating his
tattered plumage in the muddy water
of a ditch. Poor COW! Poor rooster!
l feel sorry for them. MOI because
they won't get under the shed and
keep warm this clustering weather,
but because they can't read, and so the
rainy days must seem to them to last
for ages and ages, and ages.
On rainy day there is no sense 10
taking some one book and going right
through with it. That requires eoncen-
! tration, and resembles work. Then
too. you might thereby forget, once or
twice out of every ten minutes, to GO
| to the window and see how things
..look" outside. You might also. miss
ing the contrast. fail to appreciate the
bright, wood fire before you. thus
prove ungrateful for the fact, that in
the great Deluge of want that to-day
covers the earth like food of gray
water you might prove ungrateful. l
say, for the little ark-the little home
God has given you to protect you from
| the storm.
On rainy days, the best enjoyment
is gotten from whole crowd of books
scattered around you, and to read
snatches from them.
Open George Elliott's "Romolan
and see the old, dim. scholarly Flor
ence during thine 14th century, when
its populace are fired with the elo-
quenee of Savonorola, and the Medici
family have just been expelled from
their native city-that city which also
closed its iron gates against Dante, and
caused him to wander in implacable
misery-an exile over all the rest of
Italy.
Then right by the side OF the green
bound ..Romolan are Tennyson's
.Idyls." How poetic is that picture Of
the my site hand lifted from the crest
of the water. holding the mystic sword!
Sometimes, on very clear moonlight
/ nights, when the lake is all silent and
the waves are in silver and shadows. it
is not hard to imagine one sees that
hand and the fair, wrought sword of
ancient chiyalry.
Then, too, most potent fascinating
scene to get glimpse of. is the first
scene of Faust. One watches. curious
lly the German student, there in his
musty old laboratory, dressed in his
| long, fur robe, the volumes of forgot
ten lore, lying covered with dnst, on
the qnecr shelves of the quaint Gothic
room-testing by first dim blue, then
La red light, all sorts OF spirits and
stones. The yellow moonlight streams
through the narrow slit of a window,
and falls npon the long. narrow hands
of the alchemist.
] The brain wearied student, the
bsffied explorer of natures secrets,
the worn out sceptic. ready, SO ready.
to doubt his God aud goodness in wo-
man and nobility in man. What Ene
subject be is for Mephistopheies to
cope d with! Aud doesn't the Evil
One show his cunning when be enters
in the form of black gowned rrefess.
or, master OF alchemy And right
underneath the volume OF Faust is the
paper covered copy Of Richard Louis
Stevenson's .sKidnspped.' story O
adventure and sailors cruelty ant
rough seainen's Rindnesses To Httl'
Scotch lad, that leaves his pative hill'