Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1899-11-15

pieces and each receptacle contained a
half. The thoughtless one present
laughed, but when the flushed little
face looked up to ask if he had not
been fair and just she stopped, for she
knew 1t is very hard to be laughed at
when one has done his best, even If he
has done it in a very funny way.
The violet, the rose, the lilac, the daft
fodil have each been the subject of
verse and song, and Oscar Wilde did
not allow to go down to oblivion the
regal sunhower. But who has sung
the praises of the chrysanthemum?
For it's seeming neglect there may be
the best of all reasons-the one which
must have prevented so many patriotic
verses, if the Massachusetts had been
destroyed instead of the Maine. For
the ingenuity of a poet and an already
overtaxed poetic license can not over
come all obstacles. But that the gor-
geous flower of the oriental is fast be-
coming fall favorite can not be de-
MED. Flowers, like people, have per-
sonality all their own. and one who
cares for the beautiful blossoms does
not care for them all alike, just as he
does not care for all his friends in the
same way. If we call the violet pretty,
the rose beautiful and the lily lovely,
we must call the chrysanthemum
handsome, and the sentiment we feel
for it is admiration, always the tribute
| to the handsome. One could never have
| the friendly feeling for the chrysanthe-
mum which he may have for other
| flowers, but If it allows no such famil-
liarity, it is yet welcome, for that which
we admire may hold as much pleasure
| for US as that OF which we are fond.
| One of those original personages, who
are always hunting out curious things
for others to wonder at, recently UNDER
took to discover how soon the world
would be depopulated if the novel writ
ers had their way and he proved it
would not be long. Just count ior your
self during the next months reading
land see how the number of deaths ex-
Iceed the births and you will not disa-
| gree with him when he says that by
such tests one would think every one
| was dead. We are fast growing away
4 from the idea that the most important
Lining a man can do is to die and it is
not The realist alone who may think ii
4 lived than how and when and where he
died. But as life is an unsolved Inys-
terry, SO death is To the living and from
lit one turns away in wonder, lacking
sieven the little experience which the
years of life have given And the un-
solvable has always abounded with
lfasciIation. A critic once said that 70
write one must first experience. 10
write Of passion one must have loved,
Ito write of malice, one must have
mated, 10 write of death, one must have
ldied, But his words show the critic
rather than the one of sympathy. Tht
) reading world is passing BY as olG-
FASHIONED and even tedious those beau
tiful stories of Dickens and thsre ar
those who in ruthless criticism woulc
despoil them of their beauties and al
low technicalities TO outweigh their viz
tues Of thought and expression. Blu
4 one who has read the simple passage
In Which he tells of death can not laugh
Land jeer, for the big heart of a loya
nature is portrayed by his treatment o
the ending Of hopes and sorrows. Pau
81 Dumbey. who learned what the wilt
waves We're saying, sydney Carton
lwho atoned for wasted life by ne
roic death, Dora. the child wife VII
attained nobility in death she lla
not known in life--what moro beautift
. words We're ever written than tnese
! Vet the most touching Of all is that 9
: James ssteerforth, washed ashore b
the raging storm and lying near tn
home ne had 50 wrenged yet Dumb
pleading for forgiveness as he lay ther
before his old friend. as he had lai'
many times asleep when he was
school boy before the dark days Q
! wrong had come. Let us not condem'
such descriptions of death. for the
breathe not bitterness but sweetness
Enot misery but hope.