The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1904-12-18


Az of this infinite world Of inglori-
Gus good. of quiet activities. Instantly
we are under the charm we feel in
stretches OF untrodden snow. I'm hid
ing woOd-flOwers in disappearing path
ways that seem 70 lend TO horizons
without bourn. The world is so made
that the engines of labor, the most
active agencies. are everywhere con-
cealed. Nature affects a sort of
coQuetry in masking her operations IL
costs you pains to spy her out in
genuity 10 surprise her, if you would
see anything but results and penetrate
the secrets Of ner laboratories Like
wise in human society, the forces which
move for good remain invisible, and
even in our individual lives what is
best in us is incommunicable, buried
in the depths OF US. And the more
vital are these sensibilities and intui-
tons, confOunding themselves with the
very source Of our being, the less
Ostentatious they are: they think them
selves profaned by exposure to the
light Of day. There is a secret and
ineXpressible JOY in possessing at the
heart cf ones being, an interior worlo
known only to God. whence, neverthe-
less, come impulses, enthusiasms the
daily renewal Of courage. and the most
powerful motives for activity among
our fellow men. When this intimate
life loses I'm intensity, when man
Eeglects il for what is superficial. he
fOrfeits in worth all that he gains In
appearance. By a sad fatality, 1t hap
pens that i'm this way we often become
less admirable IN proportion as we are
more admired. And we remain con-
vinced 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 50 doing they destroy Its
charm.
There are passionate lovers of nature
whom she fascin1tes most in byplaces,
i'm the cool Of forests, i'm the cleftS of
canyons. everywhere that the careless
lover is not admitted to her con-
temptation. Forgetting time and
life of the world. they pass
GAYS i'm these inviolate stillnesses,
watching a bird build it's nest or brood
over it's young, Or some little ground
ling at its. gracious play. SO to seek
the good within himself-one must go
pose. or gallery of any sort but the
simple fact Of a life made up of wish
ing to be what it is good to be, with
cut 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 Alsace, on the soli-
tary route whose intermmable ribbon
stretches on and on under the forests
Ct the Vosges, there is a stone breaker
whom l have seen at his work for
thirty years. The first time / came
upon him, / was A young student, set
ting out with swelling heart for the
great city. The sight of this man did
me good for he was humming a song
as he broke his stones. We exchanged
8 few words, and he sand at the end:
Well. good-hy. my hoy, good courage
and good luck" Since then have
PASSED and repassed along that same
route. under circumstances the most
diverse. painful and joyful. The stu
dent has finished his course. the break
or 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 further down to shield his
face But the forest is always send
ing back the echo of his valiant ham
nIer. How many sudden tempests have
bI oxen over his bent back, how much
adverse fate has fallen on his head, on
his house, on his country. He con-
iHlutS 10 DTEdk Ills SlOIltS. dIlO. EuIUlllH
and going I find him by the roadside,
smiling in spite of his age and his
wrinkles. benevolent. speaking bove
ali in dark days-tnose simple words of
b: ave men, which have so much effect
when they are scanned to the breaking
Of stones.
1t 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 il. I know Of nothing
more reassuring and at the-same time
more searching for the vanity which
ferments in our hearts. than this com
ing face TO face with an obscure work
eT who does his task as the oak grows /
and as the good God makes his sun to
rise. without asking who is looking on.
l have known. too, a number of
old teachers, men and women, who
have passed their whole life at the
same occupation-making the rudi-
nrents of human knowledge and a few
principles Of conduct penetrate heads
sometimes harder than rocks. They
have done It with their whole soul.
throughout the length of a hard life in
which the attention of men had little
place. When they lie in their unknown
graves, no one remembers them but
few humble people like themselves.
But their recompense is in their love-
No one is greater than these unknown.
How many hidden virtues may one
not discOver.-if he knew how TO search
among people of a class he often ridi-
CUES without perceiving that in so do
ing he is guilty of cruelty, ingratitude
and stupidity: | mean old maids Peo-
pie amuse themselves with remarking
the surprising dress anu 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 sterner sex. But what
we oftenest forget is the amount OF
self-sacrifice hidden modestly away in
50 many of these truly admirable lives.
Is il nothing 10 be without home and its
love, without future. without personal
ambition? TO take upon ones self that
cross of solitary life, so hard to bear.
especially when there is added the soil
tpde OF the heart? to forget ones self
and have no other interests than the
care Of the old, of orphans. the poor.
the infirm-those whom the brutal
mechanism of life casts out among its
waste? Seen from without these an
parently tame and lusterless lives rouse
pity rather than envy. Those who ap-
preach gently sometimes divine sad sec
rets. great trials undergone, heavy
burdens beneath which 700 fragile
shoulders bend; but this is only the side
of shadow. We should learn to know
and value this richness of heart. this
pure goodness this power 90 love- to
console. to hope. this joyful giving up
Of self this persistence in sweetness
and forgiveness even toward the I'M
worthy. Poor old maids how many
wrecked lives have you rescued, how
many wounded have you healed. how
~ hox-a xro,r .xortl,v ID