The Waxahachie daily light. [volume] (Waxahachie, Tex.) 1894-current, 1908-05-23
A CHARACTER STUDY.
Paper Read by Mrs. S. Fl. Watson
Before Shak eSpeare Club,

The opening lines of Act II, i'm
press one with the feeling that
Shakespeare depicted finer charac-
ter than is discovered here from the
sentiments of Duke Senior From
them we graphically sketch the man
who uttered them. We see one of
fine physique arrayed in green,
which was the color worn by out
| laws of those times, probably be-
cause that color blended readily with
the forest shades and eluded pursuit.
! His mouth is firm. but his eyes are
1tender and his whole face tells of
benevolence sand content. We say,
Here is man full of adapta bility
and resignation deprived of the mag
| niflcent court-life which was his in
| heritance, banished and outlawed he
frets not, but turns to nature and
| studies her sweet teachings" He
| lies along under the oak, whose an
tique root peeps out" and enjoys
| the friendly shade, while every rus
tie of the leaves above is a whisper
OF love and protection
Nearby lis the brook that brawls
along this wood" he looks upon it.,
now. noisily jumping over rocky i'm
pedlments, and, now, ripping and
elistening in the noon-day sun, and
he reads, as from book, of its on
ward journey to the mighty store
house OF the waters of the earth, and
OF the giant commerce binding ma
tons together, as it crosses and re-
crosses the upheaving, restless bos-
ON OF this vast expanse of waters
Thus he finds every page of this
woodland stream teeming with inter
est and in his enjoyment he forgets
his volumes of book-lore, now being
idle and covered with dust, in his
usurped palatial home.
Emerson says: For every thing
you have missed, you have gained
something else The Duke Senior
recognizes this law of compensation.
He looks for it, even in stones that
lie half imhedded in the soil, whose
moss-covered edges tell of ages of
undisturbed repose. His mind turns
back to the time when the earth was
void and without form, when it had
no backbone, so to speak; he enters
natures grand workshop and fol-
lows the chemical process by which
the mineral and silicious deposits
from water were gradually convert
it piled stone upon stone. forming
the mountains of God, whose snow
capped domes penetrate the clouds
and present a scene of unriyaled
grandeur. From the fullness of his
heart he asks of the stone, from
whence have you come, and where
lis your home? Are you the .last
rocks" whose origin is unknown, and
In VA lot, y; r.. ~.
boulders? Have any of your relatives
ever been called Rocking Stones"
because some unseen force has
poised them so nicely on the sum-
NIT of cliff, that child could give
them tilt?
Where were you lying during the
Stone Age and was it from stones
like you that the rude and mighty
giants of that age fashioned their
battle axes and arrow heads? Tell
me about those people? Whence did
they come, and were they ever STIR
red within them with a thought of
a Supreme Being? All, your stony
silence cannot sweep away the veil
that cling around that mysterious
age. But you can tell me that
nothing else in nature has been
chosen to bear so important part
in the history OF the faith of ages.
You know that Gods first affairs
upon which was laid the typical
lamb, were constructed OF stones
like yourself. You know that ia
cob chose thee at sBethel,l to mark
the spot where God talked with him
and renewed His covenant, and that
the moral law was written by the
nnger of God upon tables OF stone.
You know thats~sthe Youthful Dav-