Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1907-07-12


! Limninfs Of a Magic Hand? If So. lie,
Us Make the Present Worthy Themes for
FIXTURE Retrospection.
There are no days like the good
old days. writes Eugene Field in one
of his melancholy moods, and he goes
on through other Stanzas to tell us
that there are no girls like the old
girls. no boys like the old boys and
no love like the old love Every man
thinks this way after he reaches fifty
and the conviction grows stronger as
the years increase. Much of the
poetry of the world owes its popular
ity to the expression of this senti-
mcnt: such poems. for instance, as
The Old Oakcn Bucket. Back
ward, turn backward. O Time in your
flight, and hundreds of others in SIM
liar vein. All of the old songs sc
much loved by people in middle life,
such as My Old kentucky Home,
THE Suwanee River and "Twen-
ty Years Ago are in the same cat
egory Their appeal is to the mem
DRY and large part of our pleasures
are solely of recollectiOns. 1t will bt
difficult to convince any aged farmer
! that the pioneer days are not TO b,
preferred to these ebullient times Oi
progress. Notwithstanding the rush
ing trolley car. the noisy telephone
the busy rural carrier and other con.
veniences of this age, your oldtimel
sighS with regret for the days when
the only conveyance was the road
cart. when harvest lasted for weeks,
when wheat was cut with Il sickle
and threShed with Il fail. Girls were
much more modest in those days, he
will tell you, more industrious and
Obedicnt and made finer courtin
and better wives. There were nc
divorces. no abandoned husbands. and
farmers never locked their doors
when they went visiting. Nobody
feared thieves, no one charged for en-
tertainment and the latch-String was
always hanging out
Alas! The good old times" are
always in the past. the bag of gold
is always at the end of the rainbow
and the land of promise is ever on the
other side of the mountain. 1t is
men and women, of course, who
make the good times or bad times,
and men and women remain Substan-
TALLY the same at all times and in all
ages. The environment changes;
physical features alter; things made
with hands multiply. but the boys,
the girls, the love, of which the poets
sing SO plaintively, are not different
in the new days from what they were
in the old. Interview the boys of our
times and you will learn from them
that the girls of the day are quite
satisfactory. 1t will be difficult to
convince a modern lOve-smitten swain
that they loved any harder in back
woods times than in the age of steam
cars and traction, self-blinderS and
electric fans. In time these boys,
too, will grow old and he saying that
the year 1870 is not to be compared
to the blessed hours they spent away
back in 1907. Despite all other
changes, the memory operates simi-
larly in every individual and it is that
alone which cOnjures up the delights
of the good old days. The aged
live in the past; youth looks forward
to the future. A kindly fate sOftens
the outlines of happenings in the long
ago and throws halo around things
pleasant while obliterating the disa-
geeable. Love is always young and
the recOllectiOns of it partake of the
same deathless quantity. The mother
of the older time did not love her Off
spring more tenderly than the mother
OF the progressive present. but mel
lowing memory makes it seem as il
she did. We do not appreciate it at
the time, but when it is gone forever
we recall it with the saddening hush
that brings the weeping mood. There
are "Old Kentucky Homes" just as
attractive now as the one that stirred
the emotions of simple-hearted Steven
Foster. The banks of the Suwanee
river still contain hamlets in which
the ".Old Folks at Home" await the
return of wanderers with longing
as intense as that which inspired the
sentiment of the immortal plantation
ditty.
1t is useless to preach to the living
generation that tho present is the
best time. 1t has all the joys of the
past, with many more not possible
before the age of comforts and con.
veniences brought by invention and
improvements. But we cannot real
ize or appreciate them and sigh foi
what is gone before. The time tC
be happy is now; the place to be
happy is here, assert the philOsO
pliers, but Notwithstanding its con
slant iteration, men and women fai
to extract honey from the flowers
while still blooming and resort tt
memories of the dead past that can
not be recalled but which affords {
melancholy pleasure in reminiscence
And it is a very real pleasure, too
though based upon defective logic
and false perspective. The pioneer
child got as much JOY out of its saw
dust doll as the offspring of the ricf
now find in Teddy bears or the auto
matte wonders worth hundred dol
lars. And who doubts that the girl:
in homespun were as lovely in thu
ewes of the awkward swains whit
sheepishly courted them as the fines'
lady of our age in her silks and satins
bedecked with rare jewels. 1t is al
q matter of custom, the difference
between calico and fOulard, between
the modern farm mansion and thu
rude log cabin. The people inside
are just the same so far as the affec
tiOns are concerned; just as capable
of love and friendship, devotion ant
self-sacrifice. But we would not hav'
the poets to cease to sing or tn
story-writers to tell OF the good oil
days" Almost unconsciOusly and de
spite of all evidence to the contrary
we find ourselves agreeing with them