The Banner-Democrat. [volume] (Lake Providence, East Carroll Parish, La.) 1892-current, 1897-08-21
THE GEORGIA HUM0RIST
BILL ARP GIVES A SKETCH OF HIS PAST
LIFE THIS WEEK.
Another Birthday Awakens Him to Remin-
iscences---Sage of Barlow is Thankfui
That His Life Has Been Allotted TO
Progressive and Enlightened Age.

Another paternal birthday in my
family. They seem to come about
twice year to me now. How every
I thing shrinks as we near the goal
The trees are not so tall nor the hills
as high as they used to be. That is
very natural, and is nothing new, but
how is it that even time should shrink
time that is so exact, so unchanged
BILE and that is measured by the same
ticking of the clock, and that is meas
ured by the rising and setting of the
sun and that by the revolving earth
and that by its annual course around
the sun? I can't see why time should
seem to shrink at all, or if any change,
it should expand, for we can do more,
think more, learn more in day than
when we were children. Seventy
two years ago today I came
into this sublunary world and
have had my share of JOY and
sorrow, and am content with my lot
in life. AS David said, ''The lines
have fallen to me in pleasant places.
Yea, I have good heritage" But
poor old Job took it hard when Satan
, despoiled him, and he cursed his day
and said in the anguish of his soul:
sLet the day perish wherein I was
born. Why died 1 not from the womb,
for then L should have lain still and
/, been at rest, for there the wicked
cease from troubling and the weary
are at rest?" Poor old man; his sad
story always excites my sympathy.
+ Then there was Jeremiah, who ex-
claimed: sob, that my head We're wa
/ tiers and mine eyes g river OF tears.
!. | Cursed be the day wherein I was born;
n cursed be the man who brought tidings
9 to my father saying man child is
born unto thee"
] don't like these sad people nor sad
stories nor tales of misery. never
8 read romance that ends sadly.
9 don't like the company of people who
S wear sad faces and are never happy
e unless they are miserable. 1 wish
l. that Robert Burns had never written
IS "Man Was Made to Mourn" for
Q don't believe it, OF all Gods Great
q ures, man is the only one that can
e smile, and he should smile as often as
Il he can. Cowper was sad poet, but
Is he does say:
u 'Behind frowning Providence
g He wears a smiling face"
l. That is better The Creator WHIT
IL beautifed and adorned the earth witt
g fruits and flowers and gave US birds II
a. sing and music to charm, and studded
IL the heavens with stars, did not max,
ID man to mourn. If He had given III
n, only buzzards for birds and dog femme
81 for flowers and the bowling Of tn,
+ winds for music, We might hav,
n, mourned; but / rather like that poe
Oh who, in the gush of his gratitude
said:
''This world is very lovely. Oh my God
, thank Thee that live"
a Young was another sad and solemn
to poet, and says:
er "Man wants but little here below,
% Nor wants that little long"
er Sidney Smith was more genial AM
as says:
al "Man wants but little here below,
tv AS beef, pork, lamb and venison show"
or l wish somebody would tell m
n. where 1 can find parody on the
in same text that was written by job
to Quincy Adams about half centur
20 ago. 1t was charming poem, an
nd began:
of "Man wants but little here below,
Of Nor wants that little long,
TITS not with me exactly so,
20 Tho It's so in the song"
l'' Then he sets forth delightful cat:
logue of what he does want, and it a,
cords with our desires and excuses Z
tir for indulging them. Let man, an
n especially woman, wish as much (
he or she pleases, but no good come
on of a distressful longing for things "
ed can't get. Woman is peculiar abol
re that. She can want pretty things ev,
nd SO badly and do without them ever s
'as graciously. During the war and abol
lty its distressing close the wives al
ial mothers who had lived in luxury can
I'D down to poverty and hard times wit
az more fortitude than the men-I kne
h many men who gave up and pinned avs
and died, but their wives didn't. The
.n ~ held up their heads and struggled o.
- I remember how crushed and helple
an, I felt when 1 got my family back hon
an and found nothing but shelter-n
bed to sleep on-not a COW in II
county, no -four, no sugar nor coff
mot a chicken nor an egg, and !
lai money to buy with, if there had bet
on anything to buy-no wood to burn, !
me fence around the house, and so we hi
me to burn the stable that the yanke
built on our lot for their horses.
hd was desolation, and with me was q
1ai most despair, but my wife never sure
rq, dered, and she hasn't yet. She wan
ose as many good things and nice thin
If as anybody, but when trouble com
of she can suffer and be strong.
be 1t is good time about now for
on man of my years to look back and ia
ice kind of inventory of what l ha
~ done all this time-what has been 9
~ complished for the worlds good
anybody's good. not for my own goo
for that don't count up yonder. I
OlQ fore r no 70 fb rocaiuar,c bop6c II