The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1902-07-31
BY
CHAs. A. WOLF.
WOLF HOWLS.

hair over relatives lost and homes de-
stroyed. Ants that had no hair to tear
tore their shifts. The fool considered
the creatures he had destroyed with the
weapon at his side and the fire that he
had called down on the ant city and he
thought-"What lord of creation is
mani" What noble animal! What a
power he has! Yet how like the ant is
man. How helpless in the presence of
the power that moves the world. How
like the ant he scurries away when
mountains are rent and their fires
turned upon him. How insignificant
thing after all is man. He goes forth
in tine morning glorying in the pinkness
of his shirt and the polish of his shoes
and he never comes back. Three thous-
and years later science saws his cold and
somewhat flattened remains from
block of solidihed volcanic mud.
~
Wherein is man greater than the ant?
Philosophers have said that man is
great because he is the only animal that
talks How does he know he is the on
lv animal that talks? Ants put their
heads together and scurry away to carry
a heavy burden between them and we
charge them with lack of wisdom.
Man yells across the street-"Come on
Mike and help me carry a keg OF beer
up from the breweryn. and we laud him
to the skies for his intelligence. Is not
the screech of tree toad at sight OF a
snake as intelligent as woman's at sight
of mouse? Does the bird not sing as
beautifully as man? Who says talking
is the greatest accomplishment anyhow?
Birds fly. lis it greater feat to talk
than to fly? frequently we wish our
friends could fly instead of talk. The
monkey, can hang by his tail. He.
doubtless thinks that greater accom-
plishment than talking. Mans super
iority lies in the fact that he can create
appetites and invent necessities and
make himself miserable and his life
shorter.
AS the ant scrambles upon the wreck
age Of his little world even so does man
scramble over the earth. Once in 10000
years a new skin grows on the face Of
the earth. Earthquakes and volcanoes
and glaciers and landslides and tidal
waves and submarine upheavals aud
sinking of lands and defections and ov.
erfiows Of rivers and draining of lakes
and flooding of deserts and destruction
Of forests-and myriad of lesser in.
tluences working night and day unseen
and unheard-bring this about. The
mace and rushing train, the cosmic dust
from other worlds, the falling leaf, the
whitening blade Of grass, the intinitesmal
bits of life that endure for an hour, the
carcass of man himself and his horse
and his dog-everything-goes to create
this new surface, And always and un.
ceasingly man struggles out upon the
surface and lives OH and on. Today we
| live on we know not how many bur.
led worlds. We walk upon the bones of
our ancestry. Beneath us everywhere
is the world of the past-gone and de-
cayed and forgotten and ground to
Idust. Dig! What do you find? The
cities and temples and palaces and
thrones and sarcophagi-the fame and
frivolity and joy and sorrow and splen-
dor and poverty of 10000 years ago are
a leap of dust and rubbish with here
and there crumbling bone or wisp
of hair
Where are we ants and people at?
4 Will we 60 on thus forever or will we
stop some day with a mighty jolt? Will
we plunge into the sun or will the sun
die out and leave the last mans trous.
ers frozen to the equator. The fool
smiled. He recalled the days of child.
hood when the coming of the end Of the
world was his greatest fear. Night after
night he dreamed of it and awoke in
terror. Once he dreamed the earth was
sinking and the waters of the oceans
creeping over it. He was in the edge of
4 the water scramb,lng to crawl out upon
the land. The land sank beneath him
faster than he could crawl upon it. He
twined his fingers in the grass ut the
waters edge in last frantic effort.
sSave me! save me!'' he shrieked-and
then something hit him in the face and
a voice shrieked back-"Get your
darned fingers out of my hair or I'll
save you!" He walked up sufficiently to
/ let 60 his brothers. hair and went to