The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1905-07-07
Afterwhies.
Read by Mrs. o. s. Gould of Corwin, at the
county federation of women's clubs

Read by Mrs. O. S. Gould of Corwn at the
county federation of women's clubs
I'll knew what poets knew,
would find a theme,
Sweeter than the placid flow
OF the farest dream.
would sing of love that lives
On the errors ii forgives
And the world would better grow,
If knew what poets know.
If knew what poets know, l would
have you walk with me through the
dim vistas traversed by all in those
hours spent in perfecting aircastles,
partaking of anticipated joys, times
we may designate as the afterwhiles;
in the childhood of our youth, in
youth of sweet and tender woman
hood, in womanhood of the ripeness
of middle life, in middle life of the
sweet sunset of lives we'll spent and
in the declining years of the cherished
hopes of eternal happiness.
Our first childish afterwhiles are
trought with affection for home. kind
red and playmates and the Joy of
fathoming the mysteries of the great
world just unfolding to our eyes.
These rosy dreams of anticipated
joys and privileges which go to make
up so much of the daily story of hap
piness for the average child only too
soon ripen into the high ideas of
youth, which as time speeds by, be-
come a period Of self-realization and
attainment. Time flies so rapidly
that the fact is forced upon us that
we are
Children Of yesterday
Heirs of tomorrow
Life in the loom,
Room for it-room
The empire which is peculiarly ours
as women is home. There is music
in that word home, and in the after
while dreams of life no word occurs
more often. To the children it is a
reminder of all that is near and dear
to them, to the young people it is the
best place on earth and later center
for new home ties TO be formed and
forged. To the elder ones, "Home,
sweet home, Be it ever so humble, "
brings most bewitching strains of
melody from the harps of memory.
That these same homes may be made
brighter and brought more closely in
touch with the world, woman must
join with woman in the exchange of
new thoughts, new methods of doing
and new ways of living. We find the
benefit of this cooperation among
clubs of women exemplified in the
beauty and culture brought into these
many homes by the increasing eager
ness with which women at home and
abroad are taking up club work in its
varied phases, which has resulted in
a regular series of meetings with
courses of beneficial study given
yearly in cities, in towns, and in rural
ommunities eliminating each year in
federation meetings in county and
state, each meeting bringing its quota
of happiness into the lives of those
who come within its reach.
Thus year after year we walk hand
in hand through the sunshiny days of
middle life on through the declining
years to the Great Reward Beyond, ="
each club meeting giving us a new
link in the pleasant chain of life and
dreams of pleasant meetings with old
time friends mingle with dreams of
future pleasant meetings and of other
joys, dreams of the past which are in
reality the afterwhiles of eternal
youth, the afterwhiles of our child
ren's lives as we hope they may live
them.
With Riley we may say
All, the endless afterwhiles,-
Leagues on leagues and miles on miles
In the distance far Withdrawn,
Stretching and on and on
Till the fancy is footsore
And faints in the dust before
The last milestones granite face
Hacked with here begineth space,
o, far gimmering worlds and wings,
Mystic smiles and beckonings,
Lead me through the shadowy aisles
Out into the afterwhles.
Ely's Liquid Cream balm is an old
friend in new form. 1t is prepared for
ho 80 o,,Ha