Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1901-08-01
Metamorphosis.
That's a big word, but. as old Tony
Weller would say, perhaps it is "a

That's q big word, but. as old Ton,
Weller would say. perhaps it is 80
Am more tenderer wordn than
YA shorter one that might b
10 made to take its place.
Ironton was Ironton s'befor'
the war" and Ironton is Iron
ton in this year of grace 1901
These propositions, we pre-
sumo, no one will dispute; aud ye
Ironton to-day is not the Ironton, in
tegrally speaking, of1860. This one
bladed pocket-knife," said the proud
possessor, sis an heirloom. It was
brought owe in the MaYfower, anC
has, by consent of the family, descend
ed with the eldest son to the present
generation. 1t shall 60 to my first
born, and from him on down through
the centuries" Game over in the
Mayfower, did you say?" queried an
in%credulous ~bystander; sit holds its
age mighty well. has a fine edge, and
is a good knife yet. would a. thought
it would be sharpened to a shadow by
this time" ssWell, it is in a state of
fair preservation; but you must know,
since it came over, it has had three
new blades and two new handles. ="
From this chestnut, ancient and worm
eaten, may a moral be drawn. Change,
change-always changed There is no
such thing as stability. Even time,
that tears to tatters the things of earth
and apes the measurement of the uni
verse, is not. The past lies dead and
buried; the future is nothing until it
is the present; and the moment which,
a million times divided. forms the
present, is more elusive than the
globule of quicksilver that deies the
touch and disintegrates. Strange that
the integer of creation-man-assum-
ing authority ove and control of all
things earthly should be the least
stable of all! The house that he builds,
the tree that he plants, the mine that
he digs aye, even the intangible
thought that springs from his decaying
brain-often outlives him and shelters,
serves, or eniightens the generations
long after he is again the dust from
which he sprang-long after his spirit
shall have been gathered to the CEN
trail source of life or ~quenched in the
pool of oblivion and Dothingness.
1t is only alter the years have, like
the grasshopper in famine, become a
burden, that one pauses in his onward
course, and notes the absence of the old
and the newness of the new. Then
the awakened consciousness that he is
NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. and grows,
until in revenge of fate he centres all
in self; or, If by the gods more hap
PLY favored, bends his mind and ener-
gies to fifty shape the Fastening end.
A few evenings since, we sat upon
the stage in the Academy of Music and
overlooked the assemblage of youth
and life that filed the spacious hall.
and grace, and manly forms
were there; ''eyes looked love to eyes
spake again." the merry strains Of
the orchestra set tripping feet a-going,
and ever and anon the music of light
some laugh welled in happiness from
youthful heart, gave added pleasure to
the lenses. The scene was fair to
look upon, and stern the mind and hard
heart that would not call down a
blessing upon it! But of all that merry
host every face was new, every form
was strange, to him of thirty years
agoi AS the waters of the rivers flow
onward to the boundless seas and
swallowed up, so glides on and o n
stream of humanity into the gulf
Of eternity; and may it not be, as the
untasteful drops of the poisoned ocea
are taken up by the blessed sunrays
and again showered sweet and fruitful
upon the %parching land, so IRE the
souls, stained and corrupted through
the Power Of Evil, gathered to the
bosom of Him, and returned pure and
undefiled to earth, in Els infinite way
of working out the Problem of Life?
With this labored preface and a n
apology to its devoted readers for his
it, the editor Of the REG
IsTER, proposes, each succeeding week.
to go back and call up an attendant
ghost of the old town, materialize it,
and set it out before the admiring(D
populace.