Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1898-06-16
THE DOOR OF THE PINES.
A Magic Touch Given 60 the SqualId
NeIRhbOrhOod by q Pile OF
New Boards.

powered TO charm and conjure quite ir-
respective of place and circumstances.
You think this when in passing board
sellers doorway, in an ill-starred, un-
savory neighboFhood, a Whit of resin
Gus pine wood air comes from the new
split boards The boards are all
gummy and coarse grained, with great,
fame-colored knots and diverging veins
showing out plainly on the light sur
face. They viii never make good build
ing material The knowing carpenter
will discountenance them on account
of these very knots and the warped. un-
even grain that hints of an unlimited
capacity to shrink and disappoint, max
ing misfit jennings. They are thick in
spots, unevenly pianed, and will only
be bought by the makeshift people who
live in that changeling ne:ghborhood.
to be used for partitions and make-dc
bureaus, cupboards and fimsy yard
properties. With all their shortcom-
ings, notwithstanding. these fresh
hearted boards, yet raw from the saws
gnawing. have brought a priceless
something to the stuffy street.-the
strengthful tonic of the woods, pure
undefiled, primeval. stealing out on the
muck and faint Of the overburdeneG
air.
Just next door contractor for suits
and coats makes his headquarters in
the almost underground basement
Men and women pass up and down the
wooden steps leading to the workroom
with the murrain of dirt and indiffer-
ence clinging to their clothing and &c
the piles of heavy garments that they
carry in and out. They pass by the
open door of the passageway where the
boards are piled and they get a Whit
of the health-givirg, revivifying rosin,
In the building above the contractors
shop and in that over the board seller:
premises, people hang aimlessly out OF
the windows, looking down into the
street below; these also get breath OF
the regenerating pine essence
On the other side OF the board sellers
the basement store is shared by a rag
broker and a dealer in glass, old bot
ties, nails and tin cans. In one of the
frst-foor windows above a dress
makers yellow-gowned paper model
shows out, and blue boot. outlined or
the other, tells that a shoemaker like
wise may be found within. These
working folk are all too busy to look
out much, but they go and come &c
their living places, and everyone, con
sciously or unconsciously. assimilates
z breath of the wholesome life essence
of the new boards, boards condemned
for thorough-going building purposes,
but fulfilling no unimportant mission
in thus providing a little leaven OF
woods fragrance 10 the fetid atmos-
phere.
Look in any direction you will from
the board sellers door. and swayine
lines of shabby garments put out &c
dry. be<mudged easements. and clut-
tered-up fire escapes and window stills
meet the eye. Everywhere are signs OF
cramped. unlovely conditions, and ext
gencies that must needs make life far
from peaceful and from holy. Then
the sweet. insistent resin OF the new
split boards steals on the senses, and
reminds of restful forest spaces, and
absence of greed and crowding. or OF
the heaped-up sawdust piles and wait
ing, rough barked logs at a country
sawmiIl
The mind answers to the faintest in
timation from the nostrils with a won
drous 1narshalling of associations. each
one crowding to get ahead of the other.
just as though an instant before the
whole pack of them had not been at
utmost distance You get TO thinking
Of the country s3wmill in the very
midst of astonished concern at the
smirchiness and overcrowding of the
SUM jewellers. Surely the especial
brain function or nerve or cell or what
ever it is that answers to the tap OF
oGor. particularly if it be a grateful.
scentfGl odor. must have on hand a
carefully kept memorandum book with
the jotted down items all ready to bring
into being the very instant that the
summons is made Iou go on up the
street to where it looks narrowest and
dingiest. and most likely to smell IN
holy. for the express purpose Of Whit
ing this blessed odor OF the pine boards
on your return journey and appreciat-
ing it the more. If possible, because of
the contrast. In all the length and
breadth of a street that makes the
crossways journey of lower New York
only two places of traffic invite the
smell sense. One is the dingy stable
where they feed freshly opened hay tc
the horses. and the other the board
sellers tunnel way, whre the inferior.
condemned boards give out the resin
in their hearts that he who walks may
breathe it in and be the better for IL
The place seems a veritable bit of Eas-
ter in the midst of insatiate squalor and
decay. Y. Sun.