Butler citizen. [volume] (Butler, Pa.) 1877-1922, 1905-01-26
CHAPTER IX.

| ~ NE of the chief puerilitieS or
our time Is the love of adver-
tisement To emerge from
~ obscurity, to be In the public
eve, to make oneself talked of-some
people are so consumed with this desire
that we are justified in declaring them
attacked with an itch for publicity. In
their eyes obscurity is the height Of ig-
nomny, so they do their best to keep
their names in every mouth. In their
obscure position they look upon them
selves as lost, like shipwrecked sailors
whom a night of tempest has east on
some, lonely rock and who have re-
course to cries, volleys, fire, all the sig
nails Imaginable, to let 1t be known that
they are there. Not content with set
ting off crackers and innocent rockets,
many, to make themselves heard at
any cost, have gone to the length Of
perhdy and even crime. The incendl-
airy Erostratus has made numerous dis
ciples How many men of today have
become notorious for having destroyed
something of mark, pulled down-or
tried to pull down-some mans high
reputation; signaled their passage, in
short, by scandal, a meanness or an
atrocityi
This rage for notoriety does not surge
! through cracked brains alone or only
In the world of adventurers. charla-
tans and pretenders generally. 1t has
spread abroad In all the domains of
life, spiritual and material. Politics,
literature, even science, and, most odi-
Gus Of all. philanthropy and religion
are infected. Trumpets announce q
good deed done, and souls must be
saved with din and elamor. Pursuing
| Its way of destruction, the rage for
noise has entered places ordinarily ST.
lent, troubled spirits naturally serene
and vitiated in large measure all activ
| ity for good. The abuse of showing
everything, or, rather, putting every
thing on exhibition, the growing inca
| pacity to appreciate that which chooses
| to remain hidden and the habit of esti-
i mating the value Of things by the rack
| ct they make have come to corrupt the
| Judgment of the most earnest men, and
one sometimes wonders if society will
not end by transforming itself into a
great fair, with each one beating his
drum in front of his tent.
Gladly do we quit the dust and din
Of like exhibitions to go and breathe
peacefully IN some faroff nook Of the
woods, all surprise that the brook Is so
linpid, the forest so still, the solitude
so enchanting. Thank God there are
yet these uninvaded corners, How
lnh 41,n hnu
deafening the babel of merry andrews,
1t cannot carry beyond a certain limit.
1t grows faint and dies away The
realm of silence is yaster than the
realm OF noise. Herein Is our copsola
lion,
Rest moment on the threshold of
this Infinite world of inglorious good
of quiet activities. Instantly we are
under the charm we feel in stretches
Of untrodden snow, in hiding wood
flowers, in disappearing pathways that
haem to lead 10 bqrizohs without bourn.
The world Is so made that the engines
of labor, the most active agencies, are
everywhere concealed. Nature affects
a sort of coquetry in masking her op-
eratlons. 1t costs you pains to spy her
out, ingenuity to surprise her, If you
would see anything but results and
penetrate the secrets of her laborato-
ries. Likewise In human society the
forces which move for good remain In
visible, and even In our Individual
lives; what is best in us is incom-
municable, buried IN the depths Of us.
And the more vital are these sensibil-
tiles and intuitions, confounding them
selves with the very source of our be-
ing the less ostentatious they are.
They think themselves profaned by ex-
posure to the light OF day
There is a secret and inexpressible
Joy in possessing at the heart OF ones
being. an interior world known only
to God, whence, nevertheless, come i'm
pulses, enthusiasms, the daily renewal |
Of courage and the most powerful mo |
uves for activity among our fellow |
men. When this intimate life loses in |
intensity, when man neglects it for |
what is superficial, he forfeits in worth |
all that he gains in appearance. BY q
sad fatality it happens that in this !
way we often become less admirs''
In proportion as we are mer@ .,ie
And we remain G9Dvi"~ admired.
best in the W. ed that what Is
for 9nIv - I'D is unknown there,
s" .hose know it who possess 1t,
ii IL they speak of 1t in so doing they
destroy It's charm.
There are passionate lovers of nature
whom she fascinates most in byplaces,
In
canyons, everywhere that the careless
lover is not admitted to her contempla-
ton. Forgetting time and the life OF
the world they pass days in these IN
Violate stillnesses, watching bird
build its nest or brood over its young
or some little grounding at Its gra-
cious play. So to seek the good within
himself one must go where he no lon
lgcr finds constraint or pose or gallery
lof any sort, but the simple fact of
J hife made up of wishing to be what IL
lis good for it to be, without troubling
= about anything else.
May we be permitted to record here
ONE observations made from lifeE AS
0 names are given they cannot be
ensidered indiscreet.
IN my country of Alsace, on the soil
osy route whose interminable ribbon
etches on and on under the forests
1.-THE Vosges, there is stonebreaker
s-om [ have seen at his work Tor
t,sty years. The first time l came
: tia,j him | was young student set
out with swelling heart for the
city. The sight of this man did
= soaS,od, for he was humming song
a,Uo,,roke his stones. We exchanged
~, FIwords, and he said at the end:
yoodby, my boy! Good courage
passed / luckr Since then | have
ront. ,rd repassed along that same
aiuo,.,, Ter circumstances the most
den+ ho.. nnful and joyful. The stu
"a shed his course, the break
no. -, 'emains what he was. lie
,,o,.. -, Few more precautions
; -. .e se"ons' storms, rush
] H" protects his.,ock and his feIt hot
is drawn farths. doyvp to shield his
face But the -orost 10 oIvavs send-
! | ing back the eci, Of bis valiant ham
mer' HOW many sudden tempests have
Droken over MS ihnt back, how much
adverse iate mas fallen on his head,
. on MS mousse on hh''country. He con
| tinues TO break his sopas ond coroine,