The Hood River glacier. (Hood River, Or.) 1889-1933, 1905-03-16
CHAPTER TX.

~ NE Of the chief puerilltles Of
our time Is the love of adver-
tisement. To emerge from
~ obscurity, to be in the public
eye, 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 obscurlty Is the height of lg-
nomlny, 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 night Of tempest has cast on
some lonely rock and who have re-
course to cries, yOlleys fire, all the sig
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
perfdy and even crime. The ncendl-
ary Erostratus has made numerous dis
clples. 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; sgnaled their passage, In
short by scandal, n meanness or an
atrocltyl
I This rage for notorlety does not surge
through cracked brains alone or only
in the world Of adventures, Charla-
tans and pretenders generally. 1t has
spread abroad in all the domains of
life, spiritual and material. Politics,
literature even science, and, most obi.
Gus Of all, philanthropy and religion
nre Infected. Trumpets announce
good deed done, and souls must be
saved with din and clamor. Pursuing
Its way of destruction, the rage for
noise has entered places ordinarily ST.
lent, troubled spirits naturally serene
and vltlated in large measure all actlv-
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 estl,
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
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 90 and breathe
peacefully in some faroff nook of the
woods, all surprise that the brook is so
limpid, the forest so still the solitude
so enchanting. Thank God there are
yet these unlnvadcd corners How,
ever formidable the uproar, however
dcafening the babel Of merry andrews,
it cannot carry beyond a certain limit.
1t grows faint and dies away. The
realm Of silence is vastcr than the
realm of noise. Herein Is our Consola,
tiOn.
Rest a moment on the threshold of
this infinite world of lngloriOus 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
seem to lead to horizons 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-
erations. 1t costs you pains to spy her
out ingenuity to surprise her. II 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-
buried In the depths Of us.
And the more vital are these sensibll-
tiles and intuitions cOnfounding them.
selves with the very source Of our be-
ng. the less ostentatlous they are.