Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-08-05
How 1t All Began.

least six months" My mothers tone made
the six months stretch encouragingly into
six long years.
| l see her now, wildly II 1t We're only
yesterday. We were at our scant break
fast, l blue ever even twenty
| five. she brave and confident. And hers was
| no mere pretense to reassure me, no cheer
| less optimism of ignorance, but the
| through randi through courage and strength
| OF those who finch for no DOGGY that life
| or death can conjure Her tone lifted me:
1 glanced at her. and what shone from her
| eyes set me my feet, face to the zoe
| The tablecloth was darned in many places,
| but so skillfully that you could have looked
| closely without detecting 1t. Not lump OF
| sugar, not a slice of bread. went TO waste
| in that house; yet even l had to think
| twice to realize that we were poor, desper-
! ately poor. She did not hide our poverty
| she beautified it, she dignified it into Spar
! tan simplicity. 1 know 1t is not the
| glamour over the past that makes me be-
| lieve there are no women now Ike those OF
| the race to which she belonged. The world
| today, yields comfort too easily to the
! capable; hardship is the only mold for such
| character, and in those days. in this middle
western country, even the capable were not
| strangers to hardship.
| when young" she went on, land
| things looked black. as they have a habit of
| looking to the young and inexperienced"
! that put in with a teasing smile for met
used to say to myself, Well, anyhow they
! can't kill me- And the thought used to
| cheer me up wonderfully. In fact. it still
| does"
l no longer felt hopeless. l began to
gnaw my troubles again-despair Is still.
| Judge CRANKY is a dog said l; yes, a
dog
why 'dog?'" objected my mother. ''wh!-
,ot CT RDnx
a dog that could equal man who set out
| to be 'ornery.''
when 1 think of all the work I've done
| for him in these three years"
| For yourself" she interrupted. Work
| you do for others doesn't amount to much
unless it's been first and best for yourself. -"
| But he was benefited by it, too, urged.
| land has taken life easy. and has had more
clients and bigger fees than he ever had be-
| fore. I'd like to give him a jolt. I'd stop
| nagging him to put my name In miser-
able corner of the glass in his door. I'd
hang out big sign of my own over my
| own office door,
| My mother burst into a radiant smile.
I've been waiting a year to hear that,
| she said
Thereupon had a shock of fright-inside.
| for I'd never have dared to show fear be-
| fore my mother. There's nothing else that
| makes you so brave as living with some one
| before whom you haven't the courage to let
your cowardice show its feather. If we
| didn't keep each other up to the mark
| what a spectacle of fright and flight this
| world drama would be! Vanity. the great
| est of vices, Is also the greatest of virtues,
| or the source of the greatest vlrtues-wmch
| comes to the same thing.
| when will you do t?' she went on, and
| then knew I in for 1t, and how we'll
| founded was the suspicion that had been
keeping my lips tight-shut upon my dream
| of independence.
| "TIl-FI think about It." was my an
swer. in a tone which I hoped she would
| see was not hesitating, but reflective; Il
| mustn't go too far-or too fast.
| Better go too far and too fast than NOT
| go at ALL retorted my wise mother. Once
| a tortoise beat hare-once. 1t never hap
| pened again. yet the whole timid world has
been talking about it ever since. And she
| fell into a study from which she reused
| herself to say you'd better let me bargain
for the office and the furniture-and the Dig
| sign" She knew-but could not or would
| not teach mellow to get a dollars worth
| for a dollar; would not, 1 suspect, for she
despised parsimony, declaring 1t to be an
| other virtue which is becoming only In a
| woman.
| "Of course-when-" I began.
| "We'ye got to do something in the next
| six MONTHS She warned And now she
| made the six months seem six minutes.
| had at nv tongues end something about
| the danger of dragging her down into mis-
! fortune but before speaking l looked al
| her, and looking, refrained. To say 1t 10
| her would have been toe absurd-to her VINO
! had been left a woo" Will lulHHS a. al
| who had educated me for college, and VINO
| had helped me through my first year there
| helped me with money, L mean But 1ol
| what she gave besides more, immeaSuraDly
| n,ore-but for her courage IN me ana founo
me and under me-Fd never have got my
degree or anything else, I fear To call tha'
| courage help would be like saying the mann.
spring helps the watch to go. looked az
| her "They can't kill me. can they? salo
| 7 with a laugh which sounded so brave
that It straightway made me brave.
So 1t was settled. ,
| But that was the first step in nsht una
| I can't remember even now without SINK
| ing at the heart The farmers of Jackson
| county of which Pulaski was the county
| seat found in litigation their CHIEF dlstrac'
| ton from the stupefying dullness OF farH
life In those days of pause, after the !hdiai
| and nature had been conquered and before
| the big worlds arteries of thought ana ac
| ton had penetrated. The farmers tooF
eagerly to litigation, to save theinseIve eve
| from stagnation. Still, a new lawyer. espe
| cially If he was young, had an agonlzihs
time of it convincing their slow. stif, sus
| picious natures that he could be trusted II
| such a crisis as "going to law.
| To make matters worse fell IN loVe'
| Once-it was years afterward, though MOI
| many years ago-Burbank, at the TIME gov,
| ernor was with me, and we were solilt
| over the main points for MS annual mes
| gage One of nv suggestions-my orders tC
| Ali NV agents, high and low, have Away!
been sugar-coated as suggestions -sIarl
| ed a new train of thought IN nlIn anu ny
took pen and paper to fix 1t before II nae
| a chance to escape. AS he wrote, my
glance wandered along the shelves o.
| the bookcase 1t paused on the
| Earth .st and lowest shelf. rost
and went there, and found my old schoo
| books, those I used when l was In PuoNt
School Number Three, too near thirty years
ago!
In the shelf one book stood higher thar
the others-taIl and thin and ragged, its
covers torn, its pages scrubbed. stained ane
dog-eared Looking through that old physi
cal geography was like first talk with
long-lost friend. 1t had. indeed. been my
old friend. Behind its broad back hac
| eaten forbidden apples. had aimed ane
discharged the blow-gun. had reveled II
hiood-and-thunder tales that made the
drowsy school room fade before the vas
! wilderness the scene of GREATNESS strug
| giles between Indian and settler, or oper
| into the high seas where pirate or worse
than pirate Britisher struck flag to Ameri
| can priyateer or man-o'war.
on an impulse shot up from the dusties
depths of memory, l turned the Old geog