Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1909-06-15
THE TEDDY BEAR
 AND ITS ORIGIN
Delightful Essay Read By Miss Mar
 tha Angcll at Annual Commence
 ment Exercises of the Pine Blutl [ High School.

The following essay on Freddy Bears" was read by Miss Martha An- re]l. one of the graduates of 1909, at the anual commencement exercises of the Pine Bluff High SCnool. in this city recently:
 Teddy Bears.
 An, Something new at last. we all with one accord did cry, when the Teddy Bear came into this big old world. But as, q matter of fact, there is nothing new under the sun. Sol omon had his Teddy Bears, masnifi- cent and insignificant ones, and like the most of us, he tired of them.
 Of course. the little wOOly, squeaky Teddy Bears, the middle sized quiet ones, and the soft, large, Sruff ones, have been in existence only lew years. just since one day an lngenl- ous woman wished to have something different and new at dinner party in honor of the different and new Roosevelt.
 But the great influence of the Teddy Bear, the too often malignant lnfiu- ence, can be traced away back even beyond the days of Solomon.
 The material Teddy Bear, though likely to remain indefinitely for little children, is surely in his decline. Men and women have come to realize that cloth toys, like china dolls, were never intended for them, nor they for the toys. and so. we no longer see a gay young woman in runabout accompanied by a huge Teddy Bear. Now every one resigns his seat Ill Beardom to the very little ones, for whom. indeed, the Teddy Bear is the thing
 Several thousand years ago there lived man so enthused over Teddy Bear that he forgot his God and him. self in his love for it. AS is gener-
  ing trip, he asked his brother for the bear and gave him his birthright in return. Alas he found too late that temporal things cannot satisfy the longings of the soul.
 Then came a man with host of Teddy Bears. with large ones, small ones, loud ones. quiet ones; he loved them, gave himself up to them, only in the end to forsake them and cry Vanity, vanity. all is, vain,' and he was Preacher.
 Now the Teddy Bear is somewhat like any other bear: his footstep is stealthy his embrace is strong, and he loves, the honey in our lives. Who of us has not witnessed the heart rending sight of a mere cub, ap- proaching quietly. friendishly, an in nocent little girl. tearing from her half woman heart the doll-child of her desire, usurping it's place, delightins the child yet deceiving her and un- known to her. crushing out the very maternal instinct in her little being which d short while ago prompted the devotion to the playlike baby?
 Later she is grown. in heart and mind, and the little Teddy Bear has long been on the shelf, but we still see some form of Teddy Bear in hel life.
 It is a marvel that we can see il the lives of others. in the lives of oul children and bear it in our own But We dc. for we all cherish some form of Teddy Bear in our lives Look at the great Rockefeller; his is rather soiled and oily, but he loves it, nevertheless. He is the grea cause of the poverty of many man; he is in danger of selling his soul fol it at the last. All for Teddy Bear
 From the same thing England x growing one-sided and contemptible in her cruel treatment of the natives of India. 0Her pet will one day grow at her, choke her in an embrace tot great for even her strength if sht does not turn and cleanse herself O this belittling love.
 If We observe the thronging multi tudes in our streets, wildly pacin! to and fro, faces heated and fushei with hurry. eyes sharp for chances shoulders stopped from constan work. We may see in the embrace 0 almost every one. old and young, large Teddy Bear. the great bug -heal the almighty dollar. Here. so en thralled by this hard love, man i squeezing one and in turn is hav!n; the very life squeezed out of him When one is seen with selfish, in tent look upon his face. he not only ha a Teddy Bear of some kind in hi