The Fairmont West Virginian. (Fairmont, W. Va.) 1904-1914, 1909-06-16

lIIstened IN every spray,
While the whole camp with little Nell,
on English meadows,
Wandered and lost their way.
Lost Is that camp aud wasted all Its
fire.,
And he who wrote that spell:
All, towering pine and stately Kentlsh
spire,
Ye have one tale to tell"
I wish 70 could see a picture that,
to me, Is vivid and real. One night,
rolled in my blankets, | lay alone on
the desert sand under tho open sky.
A hundred CARDS away there camped a
band Of Plhutes, for it was on west
ern Indian reservation, and a desert
spring makes comrades Of us all. Ny
ponies pulled restlessly on their stake
ropes as they hunted huRgrily for the
scattered tufts Of bunch grass, but the
night was still, save FOR a weird cry
which came through the darkness at
measured intervals. High up in the
scale 1t commenced, then slurred down
to the quaver!ng moan Of despair. and
cadensed in its mournful course
through all the mingling moods of ter.
ror, anguish and dismay /: was an
Indian mother mourning for aer dead
chill. From across the desert came
the long howl and shril staccato bark
OF the prairie wolf-that lonely voice
of the west: that gaunt specter of the
hungry wilderness. At midnight, over
the mountains far away 10 the east,
the moon came up. The voice was
silent and the stiffness Of ire wide
desert came in. shall not frcgct that
lonely, pleading cry, 1t expressed to
ME the call of the west 1t said come
out into the big country whore the
need is great, and The pay is poor,
and the work is hard, and the comfort
small, but where, in the Consciousness
Of a duty done, a man md his soul
can meet their maker face to face and
unatraid.
Probably not one Of you VIII ever
seek field of labor n the wet. why,
then, you ask, need | recount to you
It's opportunities, privileges and needs?
Young men and wam.n, the west
merely symbolizes the call to life's
duties. There will be no Indian wo-
men, crying In blinGRess for their
dead, where you are called to work,
but there will be ignorance, superstl.
ton and sorrow There will Ue no
cowboys, hungry for some glimpse into
the inner fields of thought, but there
will be those who neel your help to
make their dreams AMI visions living
realities. There will 10 no children in
your school longing for the sight of al
tree or bough OF mssy willow but
thera will be children who netd your
help to see and appreciate the birds
and flowers and tre,s in their very
dooryards
The frontier lies everywhere about
you. once hal the privilege Of
standing on a mountain crest and
looking over into valley of the high
INTO which, SO Ear as records
show, the foot OF man hard never trod.
have also, in small way, discovered
new facts in scien.4. The thrill OF
has 1ee1 alike in both In.
stances. This crawling up to the edge
If things and looking over, whether
geographically or scientifically, brings
It's reward and satisfaction My ap-
peal to you here and now IS, break
away from the beaten paths, work in.
iependently, make soms sacrifice and
accomplish something for the benefit
of mankind. The faal in wnIru you
labor Is secondary. When you rise
above the petty Thing, Of life you will
find the hopes AMI aspirations of men
much the same The world over. You
need not travel tine western frontier
to gain inspiration from the scng Of
birds the rush of the waterfall, the
drifting Of the snow the white crys
tails Of the frost, th4 chatter of the
squirrel or the sunshine of the open
field. Jungle and town and opan sea,
1 loved Gods earth aid His earth
loved me-, It matters not whether
ycui work iies IN the town in which |.
you were born 9r Tie State Of youFI
choice There Is Eotlope for you, tcl
qlote President Iction. stunls thisl.