The Billings gazette. [volume] (Billings, Mont.) 1896-1919, 1902-12-16
and the happiness of the two was still
further increased when they secured
quarters adjoining each other.
The Beneficence Of Grass.

The B~eneficence Of Grass,
The erection of a monument to
mark the burial place of the late SEN
ator j. J. Ingalls, of Kansas recalls
some of the unique specimens of the
work of that remarkable word pain
ter. He expressed the wish that his
grave should be identified by a huge
red boulder in it's natural state. with
a small surface smoot.led down and
carved with the name ingalls," and
his instructions have been followed.
Among the many good things said
and written by the eloquent Kansan
was a tribute to grass, which was to
this effect: .
Next in Importance to the divine
profusion of water, light and air,
those three great physical facts which
render existence possible, may be
reckoned the universal beneficence of
grass. Exaggerated by tropical heats
and vapors to the gigantic cane con-
gested with it's saccharine secretion,
or dwarfed by polar rigors to the
fibrous hair of northern regions, en-
bracing between these extremes the
maize with it's resolute pennons, the
rice plant Of southern swamps, the
wheat, rye, barley, oats and other
cereals, no less than the humber ver-
1,,ro of b;11ci1o rocf,,ro o~1 n,oir;o
in the temperate zone-grass is the
most widely distributed of all vegeta-
BILE beings, and is at once the type of
our life and the emblem of our NOR
tally.
Lying in the sunshine among the
buttercups and %dandelions of May,
scarcely higher in intelligence than
the minute tenants of that mimic
Wilderness, our earliest r~ecollections
are of grass; and when the fitful fever
is ended, and the foolish wrangle of
the market and the forum is closed,
grass heals over the seal which our
descent into the bottom of the earth
has made, and the carpet of infancy
becomes the blanket of the dead.
"Grass is the forgiveness of nature
her constant benediction. Fields
t1ampled with battle, saturated with
blood, torn with the ruts of cannon,
grow green again with grass, and
carnage is forgotten.
Streets abandoned by traffic be-
come grass grown, like rural lanes,
and are forgotten. Forests decay,
harvests perish, flowers vanish, but
grass is immortal.
"Beleaguered by the sullen hosts
OF winter, it withdraws into the inn
pregnable fortress of it's subterran-
can vitality and energies upon the
first solicitation of spring.
"Sown by the winds and wandering
birds, propagated by the Subtle horti-
culture Of the elements which are it's
ministers and servants, it softens the
rude outline of the world. It's tena-
cious fibers holo the earth in it's place,
and prevent it's soluble .~cohponents
from washing into wasting seas.
ut invades the solitudes of desserts,
climbs the inaccessible slopes and
forbidding pinnacles of mountains,
modiies climates and determines
the history, character and destiny of
nations. Unobtrusive and patient, it
has immortal vigor and aggression.
"Banished from the t~horoughfare
and field, it bides it's time to return,
and when vigilance is relaxed, or the
dynasty has perishea, it silently re-
sumes the throne from which it has
been expelled, but which it never alb
dicates. 1t bears no blazonry of
bloom to charm the senses with fra
GRANGE or %splendor, but it's homely hue
is more enchanting than the lily or
the rose. It yields no fruit in earth
or air, and yet should it's harvest fail
for a single year, famine would de-
populate the world"