Deseret evening news. [volume] (Great Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1867-1920, 1897-10-02

| Gid In Inc autumn 1kdfk lAttE l
| was surprised to learn that this Corn"
was n kind Of wheat or barley. and
| that all the wealth OF Jerusalem could
not In those days have bought an ear
| of our common corn.
There is % story told of a selfish far
! mer who had got n new variety of
| Indian corn. and to n neighbor who
wanted to buy a little of 1t. he replied:
| mot II grain" In his Ignorance he
thought he could keep II all on his
own farm. He did not know of sta
men and plstil. pollen and ovary---
| perhaps only of horses and hogs and
| dollars; knowledge very good to have
| N small fraction of a large unit. but
| II IL be all a man has, then OF little
value In the great account His neigh
Dor, more knowing than he, taught him
| n lesson in botany, and had the corn
both without buying 1t, without his
conscnt,and without risk Of n lawsuit.
/ The new corn happened TO be planted
along the line fence between the
! farms. The neighbor. seeing this,
/ selected the best grains from the mid
die of some of his hest ears for seed.
and planted them on the other side of
| the fence. The land was equally good
the rains fell and the sun shone alike
| on each field. The corn grew and -four
lshed and neared the time when the
| staminate blossoms of the tassel would
shed their pollen upon the silken bloom
and then cut the plume (the tasel,
| Gray calls ~ from every stalk of his
own corn. so that no pollen from his
own field should fertialise his corn-it
must all come from the other side of
| the fence. The new corn was rich in
pollen which noated on the air and fell
here and there with little regard to
| line fences. The life forces went on
working out their results in the labOra-
tory of nature. and when the husking
time came, both hauled to their barns
| nearly the same kind of corn-much to
the chagrin and somewhat to the edi-
flcation of the stlngy farmer.
The lesson of the pollen Is in this
story, and deeper lesson yet for the
growing boy and girl. 1t Is good teach
ing. If you can give many lessons like
| this, You are n teacher good to live
with. went to school on the Duke
Street hill, nearly fifty years ago, to Il
man who taught many such lessons.
Was he good to live with in those far
OF days?
But we want to look at the corn. A
green stalk may he brought to the
school, roots and ALL Take the circuit
| from the seed dropped into the ground
In the late spring to the seed from the
ear in tn fall The green shoot comes
up; the leaves of the beautiful. vigor-
Gus thing are rapidly developed-in the
warm June days after rain how they
sword-b blades of July; the light yellow
plume of stamlnate blossoms, whose
pollen is grains of pearl under the
microscopes; and the floss silk of the
plstillate flower, Cthe earl pink In color.
soft in texture, with its broad, close
fitting sheath (the husk) for protec-
tion to the ovary.
This long silken tassel is for use
much more than for beauty. though it
is very beautiful. We go to market
and buy our dozen ears OF corn, husk
them and strip down their soft and
glossy threads of silk, without Il
thought Of Almighty design. Look
coserl Remove your husk carefully,
so that no thread of silk is disturbed
Start with the grain farthest from the
silken tassel, take the next, the next,
the next, each has its own thread in
orderly succession, and It stands at
one end of that thread-where is the
other end? outside of the sheath, each
thread ending In its stigma, wonder
full structure. hundreds Of them to-
gether making up the soft. rich silkeu
tassel, swaying In the breeze and
touch of the new life and energy that
must come from above. The pollen
boxes burst, and spread abroad their
treasure of pearls-for the shape Is
PEARL have never seen any pollens
truer pearls than these of some variet-
falls through this warm summer air,
these waiting stigmas grasp 1t eager
ly. gather of 1t abundantly, and
through the long style Uhe thread of
Sikh connecting the light and life
without with the embryo seed within,
the vitalizing influence passes-how no
man can tell-until every ovule is fer
tilted, and develops In Gods good
way into seed that can be sown the
next season to repeat the old tale of
marvel as from the beginning, anoth-
err link in a chain of apparently end
less succession.
And you and I and the farmer may
be as little interested in this marvel,
as ignorant of II and as blind to IL, as
are the horses and the cattle or the
trees and the stones. Let us get this
thought clearly into our own minds
and then preach this great Gospel of
Wonder to our children. But II you
cannot feel 1t you will not do much
with 1t. Go away and pray God to
give you the seeing eye. the hearing
ear the feeling heart. Alas, for our
children when the only things we can
teach them are little cIphering,
which we call arithmetic; the cast
| iron orders of letters in words,
which we call spelling; some sounding
Of words from the printed page,
which we call reading: u little geog-
| raphy and history, most of which Is
mar that we ourselves too often vio-
late almost without thought or silent
protest.
Let US '-now and try to teach
things that may startle and AWAKEN
and bless, things that have In them
the enduring quality. The world
about us is full of marvels. suggest
ing the Divine. have taken but one.
Look at the cherry tree or any
other tree in fruit. How differ
ent from the corn, but 10 less
| wonderful. Look at the straw
berry or any other berry-at any
thing that has life and law behind it.
or law without life. BE n poet when
you talk OF these things. that is, fun
| of the spirit of wonder and reverence
-fecelng somewhat as Moses felt
when from out the burning bush the
| Almighty spake to him. From out
field and bush and tree the same God
speaks to us as to him. Can we too
| see and hear? If we cannot, then let
is pray that some Healer may come to
touch our blind eyes, and unstop our
deaf ears, II not for ourselves at least
for our children, that their finer SEN
| sibllities may be awakened and their