The Birmingham age-herald., 1904-12-04

tives for activity among our fellow men. When this intimate life loses in intensity, when man neglects It for 1 what Is superficial, be forfeits in worth all that he gains in appearance. By a sad fatality 1t happens that In this way we often become less admirable in proportion as we are more admired And we remain convinced that what Is best in the world is unknown there, for only those know it who possess it, and if they speak of it in 70 doing they destroy its charm.
 There are passionate lovers of nature whom she fascinates most in byplaces, in the cool of forests, in the clefts of canyons, everywhere that the careless ton. Forgetting time and the life of the world they pass days In these in- violate stillnesses, watching a bird build It's nest or brood over it's young or some little grounding at it's gra- cious play. So to seek the good within himself one must go where he no lon ger finds constraint or pose or gallery of any sort but the simple fact of life made up of wishing to be what it is good for 1t to be, without troubling about anything else.
 May we be permitted to record here some observations made from life? As no names are given they cannot be considered indiscreet.
 In my country of Asace, on the soli- tary route whose interminable ribbon stretches on and on under the forests of the Vosges, there is a stonebreaker whom I have seen at his work for thirty years. The first time I came upon him was young student set ting out with swelling heart for the great city. The sight of this man did me good, for he was humming q song as he broke his stones. We exchanged a few words, and he said at the end: "Well, goodby, my boyl Good courage and good luckp Since then I have passed and repassed along that same route, under circumstances the most diverse, painful and joyful. The stu. CT of stones remains what he was. He has taken a few more precautions against the seasons storms, a rush mat protects his back, and his felt hat is drawn farther down to shield his face. But the forest is always send ing back the echo of his valiant ham, mer. How many sudden tempests have broken over his bent back, how much adverse fate has fallen on his head, on his house, on his countryl He con tinues to break his stones, and coming and going find him by the roadside smiling in spite of his age and his wrinkles benevolent, speaking-above all in dark days-those simple words of brave men, which have so much eff feet when they are scanned to the breaking of stones.
 It would be quite impossible to ex- press the emotion the sight of this sim pie man gives me, and certainly he has no suspicion of it. I know of noth- ing more reassuring and at the same time more searching for the vanity which ferments in our hearts than this coming face to face with an obscure worker who does his task as the oak grows and as the good God makes his sun to rise, without asking who is looking on.
 I have known, too, number of old teachers, men and women who have passed their whole life at the same oc- cupation, making the rudiments of hu- man knowledge and a few principles of conduct penetrate heads sometimes harder than the rocks. They have done it with their whole soul throughout the length of hard life in which the at tention of men had little place. When they lie in their unknown graves no one remembers them but few humble people like themselves, but their rec ompense is in their love. No one is greater than these unknown.
 How many hidden virtues may one not discover-if he know how to search among people of class he often rid icules without perceiving that in so do- ing he is guilty of cruelty, ingratitude and stupidityl I mean old maids Peo- pie amuse themselves with remarking the surprising dress and ways of some of them-things of no consequence, for that matter. They persist also in re- minding us that others, very selfish, take interest in nothing but their own comfort and that of some cat or canary upon which their powers of affection center, and certainly these are not out done in egoism by the most hardened celibates of the stronger sex. But what we oftenest forget Is the amount of self sacrifice hidden modestly away in so many of these truly admirable lives. Is it nothing to be without home and it's love, without future, without per sonal ambition? to take upon oneself that cross of solitary life so hard to bear, especially when there is added the solitude of the heart? to forget oneself and have no other interests than the care of the old, of orphans, the poor, the inflrm-those whom the brutal mechanism of life casts out among its wastef Seen from without these apparently tame and lusteriess lives rouse pity rather than envy. Those who approach gently sometimes divine sad secrets, great trials under gone, heavy burdens beneath which too fragile shoulders bend; but this is only the side of shadow.
 We should learn to know and value this richness of heart, this pure good ness, this power to love, to console, to hope, this joyful giving up of self this persistence in sweetness and forgive ness even toward the unworthy. Poor ~fa x,,atdaf How rnopv xurochad Ifvoc