The St. Mary banner. (Franklin, Parish of St. Mary, La.) 1889-1931, 1910-12-10
ON LIES JOURNEY
Masterpiece is THIS ESSAY BY
ROBERT G. INGERSOLL.
Crest Aunostic Moved to Heights OF
Real Eloouence on the Occasion
of the Birth Of First
Grdncchiid.

Rorn of love and hope, of ecstacy
and pain, OF agony and fear. of tears
md Joy, lowered with the wealth of
Two united hearts--held in happy
arms. with lips upon LIES drifte
font, blu ,-veined and fair, where perI
feet peace finds perfect form-rocked
by willing feet and wooed to shadowyi
shores of sleep by siren mother, sing
ing soft and low-looking with won
der'g wide and startled eyes at conn.,
mon things of life and day-taught by
want and wish and contact with tho
things that touch the dimpled flesh
Of babes-lured by light and fame,
and charmed by color's wondrous
robes-learning the use Of hands and
feet, and by the love OF mimicry be-
guiled to utter speech-releasing pris-
oned thoughts from Grabbed and curl;
pus marks on soiled and tattered
Ieaves--puzzling the brain with
crooked numbers and their changing,
tangled worth-and SO through years
Of alternating day and night, until the
captive grows familiar with the chains
and walls and limitations Of life.
And time runs on In sun and shade
until the one of all the world is wooed
and won, and all the lore of love ID
taught and learned again Again
home is built, with the fair chambet
wherein faint dreams, like cool AMI
shadowy wales, divide the beloved
hours of love- Again the miracle OF
birth-the pain and joy, the kiss OF
welcome and the cradle song drowning
the drowsy prattle of babe
And then the sense of obligation
and of wrong-pity for those who toll
and weep-tears for the imprisoned
and despised-love for the generous
high resolve
And then ambition with It's lust Of
pelf and place and power, longing to
put upon its breast distinctions worth,
less badge. Then keener thoughts of
men, and eyes that see behind the
smiling mask Of craft-fattered no
more by the obsequious cringe OF gain
and greed-knowing the uselessness
Of boarded gold. or honor bought from
those who charge the usury of self
respect, of power that only bends
coward's knees and forces from the
lips Of fear the lies Of praise. Know
ng at last the unstudied gesture OF es-
.eem, the reverent eyes made rich
With honest thought. and holding high
lbove all other things-high as hopes
,reat throbbing star above the dark
less of the dead-the love of wife and
hid and friend.
Then locks of gray. and growing
owe of other days and half remem-
,ered things-holding the withered
lands of those who first held his,
While over dim and loving eyes death
oftly presses down the lids Of rest.
And SO, locking In marriage vows
IFS children's hands and crossing 9th
,rs on the breasts Of peace, with
daughters babes upon his knees, the
white hair mingling with the gold, he
journeys on from day to day to that
horizon where the dusk is waiting for
he night. At last, sitting by the holy
hearth Of home as evenings embers
change from red to gray, he falls
asleep within the arms of her he wor
shiped and adored, feeling upon his
pallid lips loves last and hottest kiss.
G. Ingersoll's Essay on Life
written after the birth of his grand
child.