The new dominion. [volume] (Morgantown, W. Va.) 1876-1904, 1897-11-03

is called in again to point a moral by
means OF that silly head which he
hobs into the sand TO shut out all
sight of the world. Unlike him,
his human counterpart ranges through
every climate, unfeathered and I'M
honored. Some even are in your COM
munity. Let us at them and be done
with our bird pointer for while.
-
Thou money-lover, with not only
head but heart bent down behind a
few ringing coins; through world
whose beauties and noblest joys are
to thee invisible, the aveDger is
stealthily approaching. A little
twinge of pain somewhere, a little
numbness In your brain, a great deal
of turning hither and hither to famed
physicians-what are these but warn
ings OF your fate? Your tiny heap
seems so important to you that you
thrust away the very thought OF death
and feyerishly desire to feel forever
the magic thrill Of wealth within
your grasp. You long to get more;
you built 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
swifter than the shadow of an eclipse
the arrow of death win reach you
and then what have you9 The heap
that you trusted in, as a fortress with
trouble proof bastions, will not save
you from the glazing eye and the
rafting throat, the clammy sweat
and the vague picking at the bed
clothes, These are yours by COM
mon humanity and when they come
to you, nothing material can be taken
away into the darknesa. 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 beloved wealth
that has already closed your eyes to
the needs of the palpitating world of
misery.
But do | intimate that only ordi-
nary death experiences will come to
you? Nay, if do, lie; for there
will be an outstretching of other
eager hands toward 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 soul's-all
will crouch another generation of
fools. Is that all? No: for il you
love wealth more than kindness; IL
Won aatbar from, oppracciopo. 10 xro,,
wrong and cheat in order to rake
more and more around you, your
memory will be crusted over with
gangrenous hatreds. Pleasant and
wonderfully useful though money
may be, have you indeed chosen the
better part of it in contenting your
self with acquisition? Under the
effort 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 frumperies that
change with the changing day; cen
tenting myself with a world limited
by patterns and rounded out by
flounces; thou art also among the
ostriches. Prinking and pruning and
philandering covered with the prod
ucts of creature more gentle, and
with flowers more fair than yourself,
you go your way as though the body
were more important than the mind
adorned and the spirit sweetly and
gently cultivated will last long after
the skin has wrinkled and the eyes
have lost their sparkle. Compared
with the fabric of your mind, your
body is but basting thread. Yet
behind contemplate hillock of
clothes you bow your beautiful head |
until you no more see the wide world |
of noble womanhood to which you are |
surely called. How selfish you are.
Your father needs must deck you
though his aged head calls for rest;
you cry, 'Give, give;" to both father |
and husband not that you may make
any return either to them or to the |
world. You circle around yourself, |
you admire yourself, you get pleasure |
in humbling those less gorgeous.
Do you call that living? Can you BY |
any stretch of your perverted mind,
satisfy yourself that your powers were
given you just to fulfill the function
of dress form. If that were all,
bent wires with cilicia covering
could Ill your place in the world.
Silly ostrich, when the avenger reaches
for you, and your place knows you no
more forever, what will you leave?
Clothes. wherat even the servants will |
flout in a little while. Upon my
soul, life is rot worth the effort of
living, if that is all it caa be made to
bring forth.
Lift up your heads. Dye ostriches. |
Peep out with blinking eyes from
behind your fads and your foibles.
Raise your heads on high where they
belong and then look al life as a
whole with due sense of proportion,
before when you were so
near the ground. What do you learn?
That no one cares for you, so long as
you care only for yourself; that the
love of your fellows is bought with a
price, great price whose chief pearl
is your own self-forgetfulness; that
the soul self-centered has no part in
a civilization that is only made of
things gained by brain and Drawn
and then thrown into the common
fund of humanity.