The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-07-23


and thereafter the arrows of light had
warmed the growing grain and it had
growing grain and 1t had and Il had
become yellow and he harvested ii in
the autumn: and there had been a
man sitting on the fence all the time
who never struck a lick of work, who
never plowed furrow, and yet who
suddenly got off the fence and said.
This is my corn This question was
left to the supreme court of the United
States, and the supreme court pushed
fits spectacles back on it's massive head
and solemnly decided that the man
who sat on the fence should have the
corn. We know better now, but the
lesson cost rivers of precious blood.
Now we say II man earns anything
1t belongs to him and whoever has the
opportunity to earn bread shall eat,
Every man who speaks on Liberty
has a hobby. My hobby is that we
should so frame the laws of this coun-
try that every honest. industrious man
can have a home, house, rooftree
that shall be absolutely free, including
freedom from taxes due the state or
nation. Why? Because the more
homes we have the more patriots we
have. 1t is by the firesde that patriots
burst into blossom, and the more homes
we have the better it will be for Ameri-
cans. One can hardly conceive of a
man with patriotism enough to Shout
der a pusket to defend a boarding
house. I don't want the country to
be owned by a few men and the rest
all tenants.
Il want to five until no person is
parfectly happy so long as somebody
else is toiling, until it will net be
enough to live in palace if a woman
a few blocks away is working and
stitching and praying that he angel of
death may with cold fingers touch her
weary heart. l hope the time will
come when men will say if others are
unhappy l cannot b. quite happy my
SELF
One of the most beautiful pieces of
word painting that Colonel Ingersoll
gave to literature was the foil owing
panorama of a human life, a fugitive
piece that, so far as is known, does
not appear in his published works, and
which went the rounds Of the press
some 20 years ago:
Born of love and hope, Of ecstasy
and pain, of agony and fear, of tears
and joy-dowered with the wealth of
two united hearts-held in happy arms,
with lips upon lifes drifted foat, blue
veined and fair, where perfect peace
finds perfect form-roCked by willing
feet and wooed to shadowy shores of
sleep by siren mother singing soft and
low-looking with wonders wide and
startled eyes at common things of life
and day-taught by want and wish and
contact with the things that touch the
dimpled flesh of babes-lured by light
and flame and charmed by color's Won
drous. robes-learning the use of hands
and feet, and by the life of mimicry
beguiled to utter Speech-relea sing
prisoned thoughts from Grabbed and
curious marks on sOiled and tatte1ed
leaves-puZzling the brain with crooked
numbers and their changing, tangled
wortn-and so through years of alter
mating day and night, until the captive
grows familiar with the chains and
walls and limitations of a life.
And time runs on in sun and shade
until one of all the world is wooed and
won, and all the lore of love is taught
and learned again. Again, a home Is
built with the fair chamber wherein
faint dreams, like cool and shadowy
wales, divide the beloved hours of love
Again the miracle of brth-the pain
and joy, the kiss of welcome and the
cradle song, drowning the drowsy pratt
tie of a babe.
And then the sense of obligation and
of wrong-pity for those who toll and
weep-tears for the imprisoned and
despised-love for the generous dead,
and in the heart the rapture of a high
resolve.
And then ambition, with its lust of
pelf and place and power, longing to
put upon its breast distinctions worth
less badge. Then keener thoughts of
men, and eyes that see behind the
smiling mask Of craft-fattered no
more by the obsequious cringe of gain
and greed-knowing the uselessness of
boarded god-of honor bought from
those who charge the usury of self
respect-of power that only bends a
towards knee and forces from the lips
Of fear the lies of praise. Knowing at
last the unstudicd gesture of esteem,
the reverend eyes made rich with hon
est thought and holding high above
all other things-high as hopes great
throbbtng star above the darkness of
the dead-the love of wife and child
and friend.
Then locks Of gray, and growing
love of other days and aforementioned
things-then holding withered hands
of those who first held his while over
pressed down the lids of rest.
And so, locking in marriage vows
his chfldren's hands. and crossing 9TH
ers on the breasts of peace, with
daughters babes upon his knees, the
white hair mingling with the gold, he
journeys on from day to day to that
horizon where the dusk is waiting for
the night-sittng by the holy hearth
of home, as the last embers change
from red to gray, he falls asleep within
the arms of her he worshipped and
adored, feeling upon his pallid lips
loves last and hottest kiss"
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