The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1900-05-30
LIGHT At EVENTIDE.
A Beautiful Prose Poem That is Worth
Reading.

Below We publish one Of the beauti-
full prose poems that has made A. B.
Williams, Editor Of The Greenville
News, famous. Read it, and then cut
it out and put it in your scrap book.
Here it is:
When We grow beyond the freshness
of youth and have not yet begun to know
the decay of old age We are in the land
and time Of prose. No poet sings of US,
no painter paints us-except portraits
for which we are required to pay-no
novelist puts US in his stories except as
filing and background. They do not
make heroes or heroines Of Us, and our
trials aud sorrows and triumphs and
adventures seem to be Of interest to 40
body. 1t is just at that time when we
are old to the very young and young to
the very old that is called middle life.
where We begin to know and be part of
real life that all those whose business Is
with fancy and poetry neglect US:
Youth and age have each their special
graces and beauties, but we between
them are allowed neither. Oae is loved
and the other venerated, but we are
merely useful. It is the privilege Of
youth to dream beautiful dreams and
look forward longing to rainbows broad
as the armament and distant, stately
aIabsster temples, towering auid purple
hill tops aud tinged with the hues Of
the sunrise clouds, glowing in the
glory Of the dew risen sun. 1t is the
happiness Of age to dream yet more
beautiful dreams Of a past softencd and
glorifed by the silver mist Of the gather
Ing years, tho far receding temples
shining with the light Of tender memo
ries, the fragrance Of old joys stealing
across the shadowed hill tops in the
deepening silence and the subdued
radiance of the sunset time. l. is the
part of middle age to be, to do aud to
sufer-to be the verbs of life, giving it
meaning, to bear the burden and the
strain.
1t is the time Of strength and ripe
ness and production and value, for mid
die age must be the help for the young
and the prop for the old. 1t is the
time, too, Of struggle and WEAKNESS and
disbursement when the first impulse
and eager, sanguine hope Of youth have
gone and the restfulness and resigna-
tion of age have not yet come. 1t is
the time when men and women are said
to be in their prime, and they need to
be, for all their power and strength are
demanded by the ever gathering weight
of responsibilities. Yetit is the time
when the least help aud sympathy IS
given. Everybody is kindly and toier-
ant to youth, its follies and faults are
readily forgiven and sympathetic hards
AID hearts are ready to raise II from ITS
falls and aid it in its progress. Old
age appeals to every instinct OF benevo-
lence and its foibles and e1sctions and
s;cs are coodoued with prompt COM
p!aissnce. For the middle aged there
is no allowance. The man who goes
down at that time of life is in evil case
and must recover By his c8n strength
and courage for the world IS busy help
ing and plying the old and the young.
1t is all right. 1t is just that in the
time when our strength is greatest the
burdens should be heaviest and that We
should be the helpers of those who are
coming after US and the props of those
who have gone before US, and some OF
whom bore burdens for US in their day.
But somebody ought to write some
poetry OF paint some pictures about US
or make US heroes aad heroines of some
novels. We are aot yet ready to be
venerated nor do We want anybody to
pat US on the head and feed US sugar
plums or make love to US, but VIC tire
now and then-all Of us-of being SO
entirely prosaic. We want to be con-
sidered somehow as something more
than the worlds working people and
draugh5 animals and genera: burden
bearers-tbiDgs to be made use Of with.
out being admired. Yet brethren and
sisters-we who are living in the late
spring and the full summer and ripe
autumn-let US not repine because We
must be the prose part of the story
of life and looked on as the general
bearers and carriers and helpers. Sure
ly there is no place more honorable.
Let US do our work staunchly and
sturdily and with cheerful and hopeful
and clean and wholesome hearts.
For the summer will begin to wane
presently and glide gently but swiftly
into autumn and from autumn to win
ter. Little by little the light Of the
sun and the moon and the stars shall
be darkened and the clouds gather after
the rain aud those that look out OF the
windows shall see dlmly sua the strong
men bow themselves and the keepers OF
the house shall ,rem5le and fall more
and more and the grasshopper be bur,
den intoierable on the backs now broad
and stroog. LIE. those CT Us who must
bear and caa, rejoice that We can, look,
inc to that sure time, if We be spared
to it. when We can not-that time when
the golden bowl OF life shall be wearing
thin 20 its inevitable breaking and the
silver cord shall vibrate bat feebly to
the faint and failing melodies Of the
daughters of music because it is about
to be loosened.
Il will be good in that time to know
that the knees bending beneath our
own weight have been stroDg and will,
ing to bear the burdens of many and
swift to answer where there was need.
1t will be comforting to know that the
hands trembling impo1ently have IN
their time done much work and buiIdcd
we'll and been powerful to lift and raise
and hold and prop. When the eyes see
but dimly what is ABOUT them 1t will
be peace and glory to look back through
-bo vail Of silver mist OF the gathering