The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1904-11-24

| which she tells the dun-colored story
| Of her life in the peculiar yet dramatic
1 simplicity of her own tongue. AT the
| age of twelve. she says, she could milk
| and bake and spin and weave, and do
lall heavy work, but it was then that
her school days ended, and if she lives
| ia be a hundred she will never cease to
| regret that she did not apply herself
| like sister Martha, who learned the
| fine writing and drove a brilliant style"
| And from her poets height, which is
| genuine, she goes on declaring herself
a little nothing beside sister Mar
| tha
| But, of herself, she says:
II could not the knowledge hunger
silence My fancy made small things
| great. I had seen then no ocean, no
| SHORE, no works of art but ] saw in
Imy dreams all things much more beau
| tlful than the reality showed me when
| | learned the world.
''At this time already loved 7 the
country passionately."
She tells of the famine 1.-The UNI
| forgetable sorrow" when the number
Of her sisters had climbed to seven
| and she rocked the cradle of the new
| est born while the parents and sisters
| she enlivened with tales, for she could
| never herself ''in the bondage Of Sor-
| row, stay put
Before one incident of her life she
| stands with no assuaging or condoning
| heart song. There is a certain truth
| Il the fresh Yividness of first impress
slons that is worthy Of consideration
| although, and however much, later
! judgment may be wiser and more ac-
! eurate. Johanna AmbrosuS went upoi
L time little journey in the World:
| According u the tradition of her klnd
| she took service" Her sky line was
| widened as though the hills had been
| taken down from the circle of the val
ey of her life. The big Thing that
! she remembered from the change
| points clearly The way to the unspolied
| impiCity of her naive soul:
| There saw / much more than /
| wished to see First learned | that
| huge monster the social l-e 10 know!
| The bucolic poetess, her dreams sat
urated with the sense of the beautiful
shuddcring at the consuming wicked
ness Of world that could lounge in its
| boudOir and send d message by gen
| ius disguised as a scullion that it was
| not at hcme!" Evil-Wise Johanna!
| The picture is a charming one! How
| ;hc soaring muse of the maid SER
want must have trembled at the depth
of that insincerity.
Sister Martha was doubtless sun
| driving the same brilliant style when
| ried q peasant neighbor, with the sole
capital of faith and hope and instinct.
The husband we are told, earned scr
/ row gold" with his axe. "All mental
| food was lacking" They had one
| book-a song book She learned the
schools of physical and mental grief
to know, and one . she says, who can
distinguish soul from soul knows that
, both press alike
But in the rest-pauses of the day
she sought the nature beauty and she
could sit for the whole of Sunday
| afternoon and watch from her seat be-
| side furrow a little worm Chamber
untiringly over a blade of grass
And after a while a much merited
good fortune came to Johanna Ann
brosius She fell heir to n little
"speck" which bought little farm,
on which. with her husband ard chill
dren. she worked as untiringly Is be-
fore But the joy of eatirg ones own
black bread on ones own doorstep!
| No wonder she broke into song with
,ht bigness of it,
she explains: 1T had never oc-
Cured to me to write verses before
though my heart had always made
poetry
After the rain-song first found it9
manner of expression there was ne
stepping it. There was no Waitins
then for rest pauses. 1t dubbed out
| ever dish-pan and scrubbing broom
ard spinning wheel indiscriminateiy.
THE poem called Weihnachtzeit -
Christmas tide--wrote itself, in the
| kitchen. where there was neither pa
per nor pen, nor the leisure hand to
Iuse them she composed it knradiug
! dough to its rhythm II seems TO me
| to b., Il wonderful picture OF the
! triumph Of heart over poverty
AS / have set the words over into
| English they have Kept the metre OF
the poem almost without the necessity
| for the twisting of phrase
'Weihnachtzeit'
| Nv eart.why weep'st thou, pray
| ris Christmas Day
! Vet all is spent for living
and nothing loft for giving;
| No tree alight
With candles bright,
There comes no Christmas saint to-
night
And / must see my Little Thing
With frightened eyes and feelings
sore
Mother, is there no Christmas more I?
| Ne sugar bread?
| No apple red?
| | think the Christmas saint is dead"
| 8
| [ lifted high my little child
| With weeping Wild:
r'See. Dingelchcn the star-ht SKY.
| The poor have Christmas-tree on hlgh;
The Cod doth light
| Each candle bright.
Ny tears fell on my childs delight.