The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1903-09-20


Nor doth he know the vernal splendor
OF trees that soar in aspiration, nor Of flowers.
Nor sweets of springing garden beds. nor JOY
OF dwelling meath his vine and fgtree.
Thus love of freedom and of nature makes us
pause
And thus the native hue Of resolution
Is sickied Ger with the pale cast Of thought,
And moving plans of greatest pth and moment
With this regard, their currents turn awry,
And land where still slaves to coal
stoves.
The sweet GOODNESS Of evening had fallen
after a sultry day, the solemn stars were
coming out in the sky, the birds and flow
ers going to sleep,
True or when suddenly a
False ReIigion3 burst of music filled
the air with Choir
Of womens voices. clear and sweet; one
great, superb. golden voice coming in on the
second measure with the thrilling power
that might sway a great audience in opera
or oratorio. The song went on, clearer and
richer, a cry of impassioned aspiration, of
desperate pleading, Of imploring pathos, the
cry of the human to the divine-the women
at the Female Reformatory singing Near
er, my God, to Thee!'
''That is religion" said of the listen
ers walking along the street, lone feels its
reality when one hears something like that"
"But those women are Sinners" said her
shocked companion.
WELL but what are we all? And whom did
the Son of Man come to seek and to saver
But they are good for nothing hypocrites
they'll be just as bad as ever the minute
they get the chance"
Perhaps they will They weak, and
the world is mighty hard place for an ex-
convict to be good in. What can you and I,
with generations of law-abiding, duty-keep
ing ancestors behind us, with all the ad-
vantages of good homes and good training,
with all the restraints and protection of re-
spectability know of their temptations?
And yet
Looking within myself, note how thin
A plank of station. chance prosperous fate
Doth fence from the clutching waves of SIM
THAT doesn't prove that / don't want to
be good, that have no religious feeling. no
aspiration toward the divine-and I don't
believe the fact of those poor women's past
sins and probable future ones, proves that
their religious emotion of the present is not
genuine
'I haven't one bit of faith in their religion;
it is the only excitement they can get now,
that's the only reason they take any inter-
est in it,
THAT may be one reason. but 1t is not the
only one. 1 believe the Lord feels just as
much interest in them and compassion for
them as He felt toward the sinful women
who followed Him when He was earth,
and that their religious feeling is real, even
when not lasting. You remember that while
it is sins of weakness and passion that men
condemn and punish most severely, 1t is sins
of strength and hardness and selfshness
that He denounced"
1t never seems to occur to the authorities
that medieval fellow-citizen, who last
spring applied to the police and this fall to
the mayor for protection
Witches and against witches and due
Others. punishment of witchcraft,
is person to be watched.
He has appealed again and again to lawful
authority, and when he becomes convinced
that the magistracy will do nothing to
lieve him from the awful dangers that men,
him, he will be likely to take the law
into his own hands, and with perfect conf
dence In the innocence and justice of his
cause and the reality of his peril, start out
and protect himself by attacking some
unoffending neighbor.
Superstition is hard to Kill, and one comes
across most unexpected survivals at any
time. A servant girl of my own-a Luxem-
burger-assured me that while there might
be no were-wolves In this country Ga were
wolf is man who can, at will turn into a
wolf, for murderous purposes) she knew
there were in the old country, for her
mother had seen them and had known of
their ravages
And the enlightened are not altogether
free. A family out for an evening walk
were followed home by a beautiful white
kitten, which begged so piteously and with
so many winning wies, for home, that she
was finally adopted. She had evidently been
a pet, and observed so scrupulously all cat
proprieties, politely abstaining from
mewing, except in great emergencies, that
her new owners often wondered why she
had been abandoned. Soon after her coming.
the family moved. Kitty showed distress
and terror at the proceedings; finally des-
perately taking UP a position on a piece of
paper in an otherwise empty ROOM as If to
say, this, at least, / will defend with nv
life.' When the last load of furniture had
gone a young lady of the family car
ried kitty I'm her arms to the new
home, by way of the street car. She
naturally attracted an embarrassing
amount of attention, and at last laughingly
explained what she was doing to her neigh
bors in the car general murmur of sur
prise and dismay followed, and one moth
erly woman said: But, my dear don't YOU
know you mustn't do that? It's the worst
luck in the world to move the cat when
you move.
II suppose" said the young lady, indig-
nantly. that it brings good luck to leave her
to starve"
"It does seem hard" said the motherly
woman, lit just broke my heart to leave our
cat when we moved, and she was such
nice pussy, too. but didn't dare take her."
The next day the same young lady saw
two friends across the street She smiled
but neither Of them recognized her in her
new hat and gown. Then she waved her
hand, apd they rushed across to her In great
excitement. why. it's the strangest thing
we didn't know you, neither of us knew
you at ALL. with such obvious occult mean
ing that the girl finally inquired: what
| do you mean? Is IL a sign?'
"Of course it's a sign-the one infaIlible